The Leader, Deireadh Fómhair 1988

THE LEO BRENNAN INTERVIEW 4 PAF 2 Clannad - did you groom them ? No. The year I opened the pub here, when theywere all at secondaryschool and some ofthem even at national school, they'd be helping me out here in the pub. The first thing Pol didwas the year after,he did a mime act, mimed to piece of music of Peter, Paul and Mary. What age was he at the time ? He'd probably be 12 or 13. He had a record set up behind the curtain and he was all excited about this. He did it publicly on the stage. Maire went to college in the convent in Sligo. They'd all been taught the piano since they were toddlers. I used to bring them to the nuns in Falcarragh to teach them. I always felt that music should be in the education. I feel very strongly that the national schools should teach music to children. The ones that would be inclined to go into it, that's the time that is would develop. If you haven't done is at a very tender age, it's near next to impossible then to try and learn it later in life. When they came home from school in 1969, Maire was able to play the harp. The boys, of course, had been playing guitars prior to that. I used to do odd dinner dances, and they had a feel for it. They'd practice away after coming home from school. The instruments being about the house, there were guitars lying about the house. The double bass was lying in an outhouse with the neck broken off it, and Ciaran came home from school one day and he says "Doyou mind if I fix up the Bass, Daddy?". That was the bass he learned on, the double bass. The boyswere in pantomines in Gweedore (san Amharclann) at that time, they used to do wee spots like the Beatles or the Roll– ing Stones in Gaelic at these things. They had all this under their belt when they came from their school holidays in the summer of 1968. The formed this wee group and in the middle of a sing– song, I'd introduce them and they would play for half an hour, and take down the house. What kind of music did they play? It was a bit like popular music in Irish. They got songs translated with their grandfather, who did a lot of the translations for the pantomines. The Doogans were in the band at the time as well. Then then started rooting out the gaelic songs like "Thios Cois na Tra Domh", and all these things, and Pol wrote a song called "Liza". Thatwas in Slo– gadh in 1970, and they won the Letterkenny Folk Festival as well. They'd go back to their schools and in the summertime, do the shows here. In the wintertime, there was the odd television show, gaelic T.V. show. I'd get a telephone call, take them out of school, and drive them to Dublin. They'd do the show, then I'd take them back into school again. When did they finish school ? Around '72. Maire was then a music teacher, teaching in Falcarragh. In 1975, they de– cided to go professional. Theywere doing it steady then. There was a German promoter here - he took them to Germany, each year, from then in '75 till into the eighties. They nearly always did a tour of Germany, Austria, the Alps, Holland, Belgium, Italy, places like that. They were so well-known that the Germans did a documentary down in the theatre, and around the parish. It's a great do– cumentary. When theywon the Letterkenny Folk Festi– val, they got a recording contract. Ciaran, being more or less the musical director, said no, we're not ready for recordingyet. So the following year, theywanted to record -John Woods wasn't' inter– ested then. They could record, but it would cost us a thousand pounds, sowe shelved that then. Then they were asked to sing in the national song con– test. They didn't like the idea at all, but I said "It'll bring you to notice". I more or less encouraged them into it. That was the year after Dana had won the Eurovision with "All Kinds of Everything". They sand a song called "An Phairc", which was written by Micky Hanley. That brought them to light then. Theydid their first record and then two years after, they got a chance to record with Gael Linn. Because they sang in the national song con– test, John Woods was interested in them again - and although six months prior he wanted us to spend a thousand pounds making the record, we got it for free then, because they were in the na– tional song contest. A year of thereabouts after, Wavin Pipes wanted to give a gift of a record to their customers,worldwide. So theydecided to use a group and Gael Linn suggested Clannad. Clan– nad recorded an album for Wavin Pipes and they got a thousand pounds for that. I think they re– corded 3or4 albums, thenwith Gael Linn, they re– corded Clannad in Concert live, then this was a more commercial recording for them. What about touring ? They toured throughout Europe. They did a fewyears around all the secondaryschools in Ire– land, because of their Irish, it was a great novelty, a great promotion for Irish. For a few years, they were around all the schools and universities in the country. Harry's Game? They were actually touring Germany when Harry's Game came on the television. They went right into the charts, they had to fly from Berlin to do "Top of the Pops" that time. How did you react to it ? Well, all of a sudden, my telephone was red hot. I had telephone calls from BBC Northern Ire– land, Downtown Radio, RTE, Yorkshire TV, all the papers ringing the housewanting to knowwhat was going on. They were phoning us from Ger– many, it was a great thrill for the family and for the group. I think we all thought we were going to be millionaires there and then,which a couple ofyears later we realised wasn't on the cards because it takes more than a hit in the Top Twenty to make you a millionaire. It was a hard struggle through the years, and I suppose only because Hughie Doogan, my father in law, and myself supported the familywhen they had the bad times, theywould never have survived it. Weren't they thinking of splitting up around the time of their success with Harry's Game? Theywere thinking of, not so much splitting up as taking a couple ofyears out of it. In the early stages, theynever intended to go into it in a bigway, then when they got the opportunity and they did do it, they were enjoying it. It was hard enough at times, so they were thinking of doing a couple of years, and then throwing in the towel and going back to ordinary jobs. Then Harry's Game came and it opened so many newdoors, and a whole new way of life to them. Are they doing well at the moment ? They're still progressing very very favour– ably. They're in the recording studio now after finishing music for a BBC series which is coming out in January. They'll be bringing out a new album. R C.A was going to bring out the best of Clannad a couple of new songs and the theme music from the BBC series. They went into the studios and theyproduced five songs and RCAsaid then "let's have a new album altogether". So they're working on that. They're doing the theme for a cinema film. Do you like the kind of music that they do nowadays ? Well, let's say I'd rather their earlier music, but then theywere a band that wanted to progress.