The Saw Doctors return to play the Royal Theatre Castlebar for their summer show on Friday July 31. A funny thing happened to The Saw Doctors last Autumn. After a gap of 17 years, the Tuam rockers topped the Irish Music Singles Chart with their punked up version of the Sugababes song ‘About You Now’, beating off international artists such as Pink and Kings of Leon.
Back in the early nineties, The Saw Doctors were number one in Ireland with ‘Hay Wrap’, ‘N17’, and ‘I Useta Lover’ which still holds the record for the biggest selling Irish single. The bands first album, If This Is Rock & Roll, I Want My Old Job Back was number one in Ireland for most of 1991.
The Saw Doctors were discovered in the back room of the Quays Pub in Galway in 1988 by Mike Scott of The Waterboys who was recording The Fisherman’s' Blues album in nearby Spiddal. Mike Scott asked The Saw Doctors to open for The Waterboys on the Fisherman's Blues tour of the UK and Ireland in the autumn of 1988 and produced their first single, N17.
After posting a second number one album All The Way From Tuam, The Saw Doctors set about touring the UK and in February 1996, the band's third album Same Oul' Town went to number six in the UK top 20, yielding two top 20 UK singles, ‘World of Good’ and ‘To Win Just Once’. The Saw Doctors appeared on BBC's Top of the Pops in January and July 1996 to promote the two singles.
In April/May 1997, the Saw Doctors undertook their first major coast to coast US tour and as a result landed a US record deal with Paradigm Records in New York. The compilation album, Sing A Powerful Song, was released in November 1997, prompting Geoffrey Himes to write in The Washington Post that “The Saw Doctors are one of the world’s most appealing roots-rock outfits”.
