IT’S been 35 years since Irish rock band The Saw Doctors were formed.
Whatever your age, background, or county allegiances, if you’re Irish or you know someone who is, you will most certainly know of them.
They are the band which has produced the Irish anthems that fill dancefloors around the world.
Whatever the occasion, or venue, if there is an Irish person in the mix you can be assured that a Saw Doctors track - or three – will find their way onto the playlist.
However, many of their best loved hits – the ones that we blare the loudest – were written and recorded all the way back at the start of their journey.
Favourites ‘I Useta Lover’, N17, Joyce Country Ceili Band and the Green and Red of Mayo were all released in the early 90s, but they remain as popular today as they ever were.
So, it’s no surprise to find the band, which features founding members Davy Carton and Leo Moran, is still going strong as it marks 35 years in the industry.
And this winter they will celebrate their milestone with a tour.
Davy Carton of The Saw DoctorsOver the coming months The Saw Doctors will be gigging across Britain, doing what they love, and pleasing their many, many fans along the way.
And Carton, who is now in his 60s, admits that while he never dreamed they’d still be touring now, he is more than happy to be out on the road.
“We’ve been going 35 years now, and I am still enjoying it,” he told The Irish Post.
“It’s great fun, I’m really enjoying myself.”
Carton and Moran were friends before they became bandmates.
The pair, from Tuam in Co. Galway, were both on the local music circuit before they came together to form The Saw Doctors in the late 1980s.
By 1990 their band had toured with The Waterboys and were starting to amass a global fanbase of their own. The rest, as they say, is history
“When we formed The Saw Doctors, we were not looking to get found,” Carton admits.
“I had been in a band around 1980 which had relative local success and that was great. “But when we started to go our separate ways, I just thought, ok, at least I enjoyed it or had a go at it, or whatever.
“Then my best friend Leo, who wasn’t in that band, came along and said to me, ‘there are a lot of songs there hanging around, would you think about coming out again?’.
“I thought to myself, a sure I might as well, there is nothing else to do.
“I was working nine to five as a weaver, but we just started writing songs together and doing gigs and it just built up and built up.
“Then one night the band The Waterboys came to see us.
“They were recording in Spiddal, which is not far from Galway, where we had a residency.
“So, they came to see us, and they asked us to go on their UK tour with them.
“And we were like ‘of course’.
“So, I packed in the job and took the risk, and everything then was just like a rollercoaster.
“We had a number one hit in Ireland, and it was like ‘oh my god, what’s happening’.”
The Saw Doctors co-founder Leo Moran in actionThe band was transforming from a local outfit into a global phenomenon.
And fans who first found them back then, remain loyal to them today – as so do their friends and relatives too.
“We never really thought when we formed that we would still be going all these years later,” Carton admits.
“You know there are a lot of bands where their career can be very short, but we just kept enjoying it, kept writing songs.
“And we have this loyal fanbase - they are fantastic, they are so loyal – and they kept following us.
“They kept coming back to see us and now what’s happening is their kids are coming out to see us – so I could be still going when I am 90,” Carton laughed.
“I am sure they would follow us for another 35 years.”
The band is as well-known across the UK and further afield as it is back home in Ireland, and it’s not only Irish people who enjoy their music.
“When we came to the UK first it was kind of obvious that it was all the Irish emigrants that were coming to see us,” Carton explains.
“But they would bring friends and then they would bring friends, and they would start to spread out.
“The majority of our UK audience now are English people and Scottish people and Welsh people too.
“It’s amazing and I think that kind of contributed to our longevity.
“We were not just an Irish band,” he says.
Galway band The Saw Doctors will tour the UK over the coming months“You can get caught out and be put in a box that you are Irish and then nobody comes to see you apart from the Irish, but the word spread for us and that is just amazing.”
So, what does Carton think appeals most about the band to its followers?
“It just seems that every time we go out everyone enjoys themselves and there is always great feedback from the fans and it’s just great,” he says.
The Saw Doctors music is particularly popular among the Irish diaspora, with the band receiving requests for gigs from across the world – as far away as Africa and South America.
“We do get requests from around the world – there is an Irish bar in every town so we get requests from everywhere, from Africa, south America, you name it, but you can only be in so many places at once,” Carton says.
He too understands the spirit of the diaspora, having been born in London, raised in Ireland and later returning to the UK for a short-lived spell in search of work.
“The diaspora recognises a lot of things in our songs, as a lot of the songs are about everyday ordinary life.” Carton says.
“I was born in London actually; I was born in 1959 in Islington,” he explains.
“I was only there for about four years.
“My mum and dad were Irish and had been in London for about 20 years themselves and then they came home and brought me back to Dublin.”
He added: I decided in about 1978 that I would emigrate, as there wasn’t much work in Ireland, but it didn’t work out.
“I was a bit of a home boy really, so, I didn’t last very long at all.
“But in that time, believe it or not, I wrote a song about that experience, and it was called The Irish Post.
“Because when I went over of course I was reading The Irish Post, looking for information, meeting people, getting a job, or whatever, so I called that song The Irish Post and it’s there on our first album.
“It’s a little ditty about a young frustrated Irish man who emigrated to England and would soon be going home.
“The one lucky thing I had was that I didn’t have to stay long, I could come back home, where an awful lot of people could not go back.”
Carton believes his luck has stretched further still in terms of the band’s success.
“I have been very lucky in my life,” he says.
“And I think we, as a band, hit the right spot at the right time.
“I know people say that but it’s actually true with us.”
With 35 successful years of gigging now under their belt, why do The Saw Doctors continue?
“We keep doing it because we really enjoy it,” says Carton.
“Myself and Leo we really enjoy ourselves. And now, even more so, really.
“You know when you go out first you have to get it right, make a few quid, do whatever, but at this stage I’m just going out to enjoy it now,” he explains.
“We don’t have to push ourselves too far,” he adds.
“I don’t tour as much as I used to, I’m getting a bit older let’s say, but I am really enjoying it now and its fantastic.
“Leo and the rest of the band too, we’re all really enjoying it and we have great fellas in our band.
“It’s as good as it ever was, which is brilliant.”
So, what can we expect from the upcoming UK tour?
“First of all, I have a list of songs that I have to try and fit into the gigs,” Carton says.
“You know you meet people, and they request songs at the gigs and I am like, well I can only fit so much in – if I played all those songs I would be here for a week.”
With shows planned across Britain over the coming months, Carton will also be spending time at home with his young family in Tuam in between gigs.
“At the moment we have planned all weekend gigs, so I go home in between,” he says.
“I have two children at home, an 11-year-old and a five-year-old, a girl and a boy, so that keeps me busy too,” he adds.
Carton also has three grown up sons from a previous relationship.
“In the last 12 years I have become a dad twice again and a grandad nine times,” he says.
“Can you believe that?” he asks.
“So yes there is plenty to keep me busy at home too and that is great,” he adds.
The Saw Doctors’ tour kicks off next month with a gig at the Eventim Apollo in London. The band will also play Nottingham, Newcastle and Manchester. Find tickets and full listings here.
See More: Davy Carton, Leo Moran, The Saw Doctors, UK Tour
