Dublin quartet Blew are surely poised for stardom. Young, talented and brimful of pop songs, Shane, Mark, Tiernan and Rob have already notched up a fair amount of acclaim, and even though they may look too young to legally purchase alcohol, they have been together for two years. Formerly known as The Blew, the band have recently dropped the definite article from their moniker in favour of the more slimmed-down version.
We started playing together in around 1997, recalls bassist, Shane. We re all from around the Cabinteeley area and we met each other through school. Mark and Rob were always writing songs, even before the band got together, so when myself and Tiernan came along, we decided to form a group.
Frontman Mark recalls their first gig: We did a talent competition in Sion Hill when I was about 15, and we d been playing together for two weeks. We were wearing these dodgy three-piece suits, but we won a hundred quid.
Their first, albeit tentative, steps now taken on the road to success, Blew finally realised that music was more than just a hobby during their final year in school.
We were supposed to be studying, smiles Mark, and instead we organised loads of gigs and got a great response from the audience. So we stopped looking at our books and started playing guitar more.
Their debut EP, released earlier this year, garnered a lot of acclaim for the band, enjoying good rotation on the airwaves and earning them a Single of the Week from George Byrne in the Irish Independent, which Mark describes as really flattering .
In the meantime, they entered and won the Bacardi/Hot Press Unplugged Band of the Year title for 1999, beating off stiff competition from a host of top calibre acts to lift the coveted gong.
The Bacardi/Hot Press Unplugged series was great but it was quite bizarre really, opines Shane. We honestly didn t expect to get anywhere. The first round was in Whelan s and we d played there a couple of times but we thought it d be great to play acoustic. We got a good crowd but we were shocked when we won, cos there was some really tough competition that night. Then we got to play HQ for the final and we won. We re still in shock over that one.
pop whimsy
Part of their prize was studio time, which they used to record their brand new EP, Time To Pass The Time, three songs of rather wonderful Beach Boys-esque pop whimsy, which should gain them new legions of admirers. The EP was recoded in Homestead Studios in Antrim with legendary producer, Pete Holidai.
On the live front, Blew have been notching up an impressive array of gigs, including support slots with such illustrious names as Joe Strummer. We hired hitmen to eliminate all the competition, laughs Mark.
The former Clash man is not the only household name they ve shared a stage with, having recently trod the boards with Placebo, The Charlatans and Beth Orton. They also have a gig lined up with Idlewild in Cork s Nancy Spains on September 18th.
We went to see Placebo the last time they played at the SFX, which was with Idlewild, recalls Shane, and that was a really good gig. And Idlewild are one of my favourite bands at the moment, so it ll be a real honour to play with them.
Support slots aside, Blew have lined up their first headline gig in Whelan s on Thursday, September 23rd, which they are really looking forward to, and they re also in the process of organising more live dates outside the capital.
We re going to put together some of our own gigs around the country to coincide with the single s launch, says Shane. We played a few times outside Dublin, in Clare and Meath, and we re trying to organise more outside the county over the coming weeks.
You ll be hearing more from these chaps. Bank on it. n
Blew s new EP Time To Pass The Time is released on September 10th, and Blew play Whelan s on September 23rd.