GIVEAMANAKICK, the Limerick duo who have blazed a trail across Ireland with their ferocious hardcore/punk/heavy rock and incendiary live shows are calling it a day.
Keith Lawler (drums ) and Steve Ryan (guitar/vocals ) are undertaking a farewell tour this month which takes place at Gigantic in Kelly’s this Saturday at 8pm for a ‘Róisín Dubh presents...’ show.
It is fitting that their second last show takes place in Galway (their final show will be in their native Limerick ) as the city has become something of a ‘second home’ to the lads.
“I’d say we have played Galway more than anywhere else, including Limerick,” Steve tells me during our Thursday morning interview. “It’s always been really, really, good to us. I will never forget playing the Róisín Dubh on New Year’s Eve 2006. We had people up on stage singing Neil Young’s ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’. We also got to play with Dinosaur Jr in Galway which was amazing and when we won Róisín Dubh Album Of The Year I remember Gugai coming up on stage to give us a bottle of champagne.”
However Galway city and county have proven to be a formative influence on the band’s music and image - often in the most unexpected ways. Galway nearly prevented the band from recording their second album Welcome To The Cusp (2005 ) but would also influenced it’s feel and sound.
“We were on our way to Donegal to record the album but our van crashed in Kilcolgan and there was a three car pile up,” Steve recalls. “Luckily nobody was hurt and someone from Letterkenny came down to get us and bring us to the studio. We had sore necks but we thought a crash won’t stop us. We had eight days to make the album and in retrospect we were still in shock while we were recording it. That’s why it sounds the way it does and so hell for leather and louder than we ever did before. We just went for it.”
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen Giveamanakick live in Galway and never once did they put on anything but a thrilling show. Steve and Keith would expire buckets of sweat to deliver powerhouse drumming and kick ass riffs (all at thunderous volume ), sometimes while wearing airpilot breathing apparatus or face masks.
“It really started for us when I was walking up Shop Street one day and I saw the Joke Shop and went in,” says Steve. “They had all these masks and I bought some and wore them at the gig. People liked it and I kept doing it.”
Anyone who has seen a Giveamanakick show knows they are one of the best live bands in Ireland, and their three albums - Is It OK To Be Loud? Jesus!, We Are The Way Forward, and Welcome To The Cusp - are among the best Irish albums of the last few years. Why the hell are they calling it a day?
“We talked about it the last couple of months,” says Steve, “we talked about what we had wanted to achieve with the band, and we ticked off everything we had done and found we did it all and so we were happy to leave it at that instead of dragging it on and fading out.
“We couldn’t believe how far we had got with the music we were making as it’s not the most accessible. We wanted to make our mark with people who came to see us, regardless of whether they liked us or not, and we did make our mark. We achieved more then we imagined we ever would. We made three quality albums that we are very proud of and our last one sold better than the other two.”
After this tour Keith, who has designed the GAMAK posters, T-shirts, badges, bags, and golf balls, will be concentrating on developing his skills as a designer and graphic artist. Steve will be concentrating on what has up to now been a side project - Windings.
For the last number of years Steve has played as a solo artist under the name Windings. In contrast to his punk/metal riffing in GAMAK, Windings mixes Steve’s love of singer-songwriterisms and classic rock. It sounds like a strange hybrid until you remember Steve worships Neil Young.
Steve has now expanded the Windings line-up into a full band and is currently working on new material for the second Windings album. He will also provide the music for a new theatre piece entitled The Revenger’s Tragedy, a couple of pieces from it are on www.myspace.com/windings (including a cover of ABBA’s ‘The Winner Takes It All’! ).
“I will, for the first time in my life, be in just one band at one time and able to concentrate on doing one thing at a time,” laughs Steve, “which I’m told is good for you, evidently!”
Support is from Days Of Death Country. GAMAK will have copies of their hard to find debut Is It OK To Be Loud? Jesus! and a a new album of rarities, sessions, and unreleased tracks for sale on the night. Admission is €5.
