Whipping Boy

It happens about as regularly as a sighting of Halley's Comet - a band of luminous distinction streaks away from the mediocre herd and, fuelled by a combination of 10-ton talent and ferocious self-belief, triumphs over impossible odds and heads straight for the stars. Dublin four-piece Whipping Boy is just such a band. They released three albums 1992's "Submarine" on the Dublin independent Liquid label; 1995's "Heartworm" on the Columbia label and their final self-titled album on Low Rent Records in 2001. Their debut album for Columbia, "Heartworm" (certified gold in Ireland), recorded at the end of 1994 with producer Warne Livesey featured first single "Twinkle" (voted Single of the Week in Melody Maker, Hot Press, Music Week and on BBC Radio 1) and a second single, "We Don't Need Nobody Else". The album is a blend of heart-heaving emotionalism, visceral savagery and brutal sensuality that distils the single sublime moments of Joy Division, Sonic Youth, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Bowie and a whole host of classical composers into violently personal mini-dramas. It's a brave big-hearted sound. Frontman Ferghal McKee described "Heartworm" as "full of tenderness, brute force, hate, triumph and humility. That's basically what most people find throughout their day," he reasons, "throughout their week, throughout their lives. There's a time to be everything and a time to be nothing." Ferghal is the vocal and spiritual link between Ian Curtis and Van Morrison, and it's his charismatic performances that quickly grabbed the attention of the press when the band first appeared. Ferghal has cut himself on stage before with broken bottles, appeared with his face swathed in clingfilm, sung from atop a ladder and stripped bollock-naked mid-song, but this isn't cynically calculated, cheap-thrills theatre, it's Ferghal's way of saying he has nothing to hide. He'd do the same in front of five people or five thousand people, because Whipping Boy's songs take him over, pushing him to a darkly exhilarating special place. As anybody who witnessed the band's seminal performances on Later With Jools Holland and The Late Late Show will know, these same Whipping Boy songs are very much a combined effort with guitarist Paul Page, bassist Myles McDonnell and drummer Colm Hassett supplying the sonic maelstrom that powers their songs. This is a band for which anything and everything could have happened (and still might)??!!. "Heartworm" was hailed as one of the albums of 1995 in publications like Vox, Melody Maker, Q, Select, Hot Press and Music Week. Various singles nudged the UK Top 50 and several European countries (notably France) succumbed to the group's sound. Whipping Boy completed a European Tour with Lou Reed as well as headlining tours of their own in the UK, the last of which culminated in a sold-out show at London's Astoria venue. Despite huge critical acclaim, sales of Heartworm did not meet expectations and the band parted company with Sony in 1996. With the band beginning to disintegrate, they recorded their final album in 2000, literally splitting up on the final day of recording. The album was given a limited release in April 2001, but with little promotion, their final offering disappeared without trace. After a 6 year absence the band reformed in Nov 2005 to play a series of dates in Ireland. Whipping Boy ! official