August 31st event in Kinnitty.
THE MUSIC LIVES FOREVER: OASIS FOUNDING MEMBER HONOURED IN OFFALY
OASIS fans worldwide are in for a memorable month of August as Friday the 30th sees the long-awaited release of DEFINITELY MAYBE’s 30th anniversary edition.
But Oasis fans in the midlands and beyond- and indeed, music enthusiasts in general – can look forward to a truly unique occasion with one of the famous Manchester band’s founding members, drummer TONY McCARROLL, set to be honoured in Kinnitty, Offaly. Saturday, August 31st will see the unveiling of a special commemorative plaque for Tony at Kinnitty Parish Hall.
Tony will be honoured at that particular location because that’s where he had his first ever pre-Oasis public performance in the early 1980’s. Tony went on to play drums on their now iconic debut album Definitely Maybe, selling over eight million albums worldwide. He also performed on the single Whatever, and on the band’s first number-one song, the legendary Some Might Say.
Tony’s mother Bridie McCarroll (nee O’ Donnell) is from Kinnitty, where Tony lived with his parents for two years in the 1980s, during which time he attended Kinnitty National School.
When Tony was approached about the commemorative plaque by co-organiser John McFadden, he said,“It’s a huge privilege for me, my family ,and Oasis to be honoured in this way. I’m really looking forward to the event”
McFadden, a lifelong friend of Tony’s and a well-known and respected figure on the music scene in Ireland, first approached Tony about the idea in 2019.
“Tony certainly influenced me to get involved in the music industry”, McFadden recalled,“from seeing his first performance in Kinnitty Parish Hall with Seamus Bradley, to being on Top of the Pops.”
John added, “I’m not exactly sure how the idea came about, I think John (Clendennen) and myself were talking about honouring notable people from Kinnitty, and Tony was definitely first to my mind”.
Ahead of the celebrations later this month, OTRT had the pleasure of catching up with Tony again over the last few days.
Millions of people around the world know his name because he was the man behind the drum-kit on what many will consider to be one of, if not, in fact, the very best rock ‘n’ roll albums of all time. Somewhat fewer, however, might be aware of Tony’s links to Kinnitty, a little village in the heart of the Irish midlands, and of its significance in his career. So that’s where we began…
“Well my family, on my mother’s side, come from the village of Kinnitty in Offaly. I was travelling over to Kinnitty from when I was a young baby really, every summer from when I was born. We ended up living there for a couple of years and I attended Kinnitty National School. My headmaster, a Mr. Michael Dooley at the time, realised that I played drums. There was a nativity play that the school put on, with me and a lad called Seamus Bradley – probably the youngest musicians in the school – me on drums and Seamus on tin-whistle, and that took place in the church hall.”
And that was essentially the first time that Tony ever played drums in public, at a pre-planned event?
“It was, it was the first time I’d ever done a public show. I mean, I played at weddings, family weddings, this, that and the other, but as a planned, rehearsed kind of a gig, that was most definitely my first ever public outing of me playing drums, yeah!”
The band Tony would go on to play with was, of course, Oasis. And what is without question one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll albums ever, is Definitely Maybe. With that record celebrating the 30th anniversary of its release at the end of this month, it’s also the perfect time to celebrate Tony’s Offaly roots, a fact recognised by Tony’s childhood friend and a well-known face on the Irish music scene, John McFadden.
When John first suggested the idea of doing something to acknowledge Tony’s Kinnitty roots, what went through Tony’s mind?
“I was overwhelmed. What an honour to be recognised in the village. I grew up in that village, and for me, there’s many’s a man there who should be honoured as well. But in my time in that village, in the time that I was there, the legends were the 1981 Offaly All-Ireland winners. For me, there’s so many others who should be honoured, and they hopefully will be one day. They’re my heroes from the village. Pat Delaney, Ger Coughlan, Johnny Flatherty, Mark and Paddy Corrigan. And my uncle, Billy O’ Donnell, he was an All-Ireland winner, I think he played for the under-18s. So that was a massively exciting time to be around the village, and to be a part of that. I’ll never forget when the McCarthy Cup came to Kinnitty school. So it’s a great, huge honour for me to be respected in this way, but I don’t want to forget all the people that I consider heroes from there.”
Even knowing about his Irish background, those are still some intrinsically ‘Irish’ memories for Tony to have, and probably ones that few would suspect he not only has, but holds so dear…
“Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was a complete change of lifestyle really, from what a Mancunian would know, we lived in the city, like. But over in Ireland, I got involved in farming life, hunting, fishing, picking spuds! You name it. It was all part of it. Getting the cows in, too. That was all part of my make-up growing up.”
Would Tony think that when everything did explode with Oasis, in terms of the bands success and fame, the fact that he did have such a grounded upbringing, both in Manchester and in Ireland, was very helpful in adapting to those changes?
“Yeah. But I think I was quite mature, if ya like. Sometimes you just didn’t have time to think about exactly what was happening around ya, and around the world. Like, early doors you wouldn’t have seen any of the signs of the bands success until you actually landed in a country, ya know. It would just be, ‘You’re #1 here, and you’re #2 there, and it’s sold this many here’, and blah-de-blah. But I think all of us were quite grounded, and maybe unaware of exactly what was happening. But obviously the band were massively successful, and went on to be even bigger even after my time, and respect to them for that.”
Looking back at Definitely Maybe now, thirty years on from its creation and release into the world, what does that collection of songs – a body of work that he was so central to – mean to Tony?
“I think it’s absolutely nuts that thirty years later there’s still such a hullabulloo around the band. I know they’re not together, and they’ve been split up, like what is it, fifteen years? But they made a massive mark on the world, in musical terms, that is. So kudos to the band. But I don’t even know if we expected it to be that successful. But when I look back, we did work hard! There was a belief in us that something had to happen. Yeah, we wanted to be successful, but the way it exploded, and the massive impact the album had, I can’t tell you that we expected that. But yeah, we did work hard. And there were times, early doors, when we were quite jaded, being promised deals from different record companies and then it would all fall apart. But, ya know…crack on! Rehearse more, and rehearse more, keep going. Lo and behold, I think it was six or eight public gigs later that Alan McGee of Creation Records saw what we were about, recognised it, and fair play to him, he gave us the opportunity.”
Did Tony have a favourite song on Definitely Maybe? And if so, has it remained the same, or has it changed over the years?
“Yeah, I have different favourites for different reasons, I’d say. You can look at your beautiful songs, your love songs, like ‘Live Forever’, ‘Slide Away’, great and beautiful records to listen to. But then when it comes to playing live, the punk-rock of ‘Bring It On Down’ and certain b-sides in that ‘Definitely Maybe’ period, like ‘Headshrinker’. But for me, the hard drumming, the upbeat, right in your face songs, were my favourites. Like I say, I have different favourites for different reasons, but if you were to really press me for just one, I suppose I’d have to say ‘Live Forever.’”
At what stage of the album’s actual life, once it was out there in the world, did Tony begin to feel a sense of how big things were going to get because of it?
“Well, let’s put it this way. On one of our first tours – and I think I’m right in saying it was my birthday – we were in Leeds, at one of the usual venues, I think it was The Dutchess of York, a small venue that was part of the scene. We’re doin’ a small tour at the time, and there was only maybe three people there! But then as the album was promoted throughout the year, almost exactly a year later to the day, we played the same venue again but with the difference being that there was two-hundred people locked out of the place. It was a fast escalation to rock-stardom, if ya like. But we took it in our stride. Touring, touring, touring, you may well have been quite tired, I suppose, just stepping in and out of towns without really appreciating exactly what was going on. A lot was happening behind the scenes, and you wouldn’t always see what was happening in America, or parts of Europe, or even Japan. When we landed in Japan, that was the closest thing that I’ve ever experienced to Beatlemania! Screaming girls, surrounded by hundreds of people, all wanting to just touch you. It was like, wow! We knew we were good, but THAT was like…WOW! What’s goin’ on here?! But being quite grounded, we took it in our stride. It was good to gain that success after all the hard work we’d put into the previous years.”
Tony had left Oasis by the time their second album, What’s The Story (Morning Glory) was released. But, as we all know, people leave bands all the time, and for all kinds of reasons. Far from that being in any way unusual, it’s actually just part of what rock ‘n’ roll is. Something we also know is that time is one of the greatest gifts for offering us a clearer perspective on life. So, thirty years on from Definitely Maybe, how does Tony look back on the Oasis era of his life these days?
“I’m absolutely so proud that I was a part of it. It took a while, I think, for my input to be appreciated, and maybe I was quite sore that I did leave the band. But then as the years have rolled on, and it’s not me that says this but others now, I was an integral part of that album, especially the punk-rock feel to it all. Live, and I don’t like to blow my own trumpet in a way, but live we were so tight, it was astounding. And all I ever wanted to do was step out into the crowd and feel what all these people were feeling by listening to us play. And many years later I did get to do that. In fact, and believe it or not, because you might not know this, but I was at the band’s last gig at the V Festival. I watched them play and then they split up the next day. So I was there in the beginning, and I was there on the night of their last gig, which is a weird little thing to be able to say.”
Did people know that it was going to be the last Oasis gig at the time, I wondered?
“No, no, it was a typical argument that exploded with the brothers. It was just ironic that I happened to be there, in the crowd that night, finally able to experience what the fans were seeing. So I was there for the first gig, and I was there for the last gig, too.”
Going back to the special event coming up at the end of the month, would Tony be an emotional man? How does he think he’ll feel when the moment comes that the plaque is unveiled?
“I’m gonna have a smile from ear to ear! Because what an honour, and what a privilege. Apart from the honour of it being in the village of Kinnitty itself, I’m pretty sure that I’m also the first member of Oasis to have a blue plaque in Ireland. It’s something that, when John McFadden proposed it and then when John Clendennon came on board too, I thought I’d be a fool to turn it down. So for me, my family, and the band, it’s a huge honour. An absolutely huge honour.”
What’s the biggest or best lesson that Tony has learned from his life in the music business?
“Crikey! That’s a great question. What did I learn? Well, I expected it never to end, to last forever. But in hindsight, and as you said before, members are in and out of bands all the time, for different reasons, people move on, whatever it might be. So yes, I might have been wounded at the time, a bit disappointed to lose my position in the band. But, in hindsight, I know that bands change, and things have to change for different reasons. Nothing ever lasts forever. None of it ever does. Except the music! The music will live on, and live on, past all of us. Same as with the Beatles. And that’s not comparing us with the Beatles, but it’s what? Sixty years later with them, and their tunes are still sounding as fresh as the day they were recorded.”
If Tony was sitting down in a room today with a young rock ‘n’ roll band, and he could give them one piece of advice that they should take to heart… what would he say?
“The music industry is fickle. That’s what I will say. So remember that. So stick together. It’s about you as a band. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, be as tight as you can. Just give it your best shot, and do not forget your dream. It’s all about the music. And if you dream the dream, then you never know… it might come true!”
Event co-organiser, Cllr John Clendennen said, “Kinnitty is a unique village enjoying a number of successful local residents and diaspora that have achieved notoriety at a national and international level over the years. It is great to see the community come together to recognize Tony’s contribution to the music industry, and in particular his success with Oasis and the ‘Definitely Maybe’ album thirty years ago. This event is very much a celebration, and with so many family members living locally, nobody can dispute Tony’s roots and connection to Kinnitty. It has been a pleasure to be involved in organising the event with John McFadden, and I want to acknowledge the support of Offaly County Council with this Blue Plaque initiative and I hope we can continue with the concept in future years.”
~ The official unveiling of Tony McCarroll’s commemorative plaque takes place at Kinnitty Parish Hall, on Saturday August 31st, at 6pm. The plaque unveiling coincides with Definitely Maybe’s 30th anniversary, with a 30th anniversary edition of the album being re-released on Friday, August 30th.
~ Tony McCarroll will also join John McFadden on stage in Kinnitty Community Centre at 7pm on August 31st for an In Conversation event that will be followed by a Q & A section from the audience. Tony will then hold a Meet ‘n’ Greet with the opportunity for Oasis fans to have their picture taken at Kinnitty Community Centre. The celebrations will end with a night of Oasis music in Giltraps of Kinnitty.
~ Tickets for the In Conversation event will be available from willwego.com from Wednesday, August 7th, at €20.
~ For further information, contact: johnmcfaddenevents@gmail.com
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