The Mary Wallopers are renowned throughout Ireland and across the UK for their reinterpreted versions of traditional folk and trad music. We spoke to them in the dressing room of Glasgow’s famous Barrowlands ahead of their sold out set on what it means to play the iconic venue, the local origins of their song ‘Cod Liver Oil and the Orange Juice’ and their relationship with the Scottish city.
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00:00 Glasgow people would love to know about Cardiff.
00:01 I'd say it would go down well in Glasgow.
00:03 I think it would, yeah.
00:04 Go on, explain Cardiff.
00:05 Ferry Walpurgis.
00:12 Ferry Gats.
00:14 Here we come now.
00:15 Yeah, we played it once before and it was sold out and it's f***ing... are we allowed to curse on it?
00:34 It's a legendary place anyway, you know, hearing Christy Moore talk about it and then when you go in the backstage and see all the posters and all of like the cramps playing here and all that.
00:36 And the fact that it's pretty much unchanged as far as I know is pretty amazing.
00:38 You know, it's, it's, that's what makes an institution I suppose.
00:41 Yeah.
00:42 And it's in a great part of Glasgow as well. I mean, we love Glasgow. Much better than anywhere in England, don't you?
00:47 Were you said in Ladder Markets earlier?
00:49 Yes.
00:50 Yeah, yeah.
00:51 What do you think of them?
00:52 It's class.
00:53 Very cool.
00:54 You can find everything.
00:55 Yeah, some history in the place.
00:56 You were looking at the adult section, weren't you?
00:57 Beside the...
00:58 Got a few DVDs.
00:59 Yeah, just a few Christmas presents, yeah.
01:01 Yeah.
01:02 Right, so you've got your song, and it's one of your most popular songs, called Love and Oil in the Old Industry.
01:08 That was written by...
01:10 Ron Clark and Carl Ní Deal wrote it.
01:15 So they, I think one of them, actually last time we played here, one of them had just passed away about two weeks previous to that.
01:21 I don't know which one of them was now because I can't remember, but one of them wrote that.
01:25 And I believe there's some fella from Belfast put a few lines in it.
01:27 It was made popular by Hamish Inblack, and it's pretty much just about this area.
01:31 So we were singing it earlier in the markets, which was good.
01:34 I think with a lot of traditional songs this way, they've always sort of been, a lot of them are hundreds of years old.
01:39 And when you trace them back, you can sort of see a lot of them came from other songs and just changed over time.
01:44 They were never written down, they were sort of passed by word of mouth, they were just by performances.
01:48 And other musicians learned them from live performances.
01:51 So they kind of evolve over time anyway, so I think folk music is just how people can play the songs whatever way they're able to.
01:57 So there's always going to be an element of that, I suppose, brought on another stage with bass and drums and things like that.
02:03 And we ruined them by letting Ken play the drums on them.
02:06 Different style, I suppose, on our own folk twist.
02:09 I think it sounds...
02:11 Man, talk into the microphone!
02:13 I suppose it's a different style that we just stomped on, and the lads have stomped on their own style into the folk scene.
02:19 And the punk and Irish rock and roll.
02:22 You think it's a disgrace, don't you?
02:24 I think it's an absolute disgrace, because I'm a purist.
02:29 Do you, what is folk music like the purists would be behind it?
02:33 Well, the clue is in the name, it's just the people's music.
02:37 No less than hip-hop or punk is.
02:40 Or any music that we've ever liked, actually.
02:42 I don't know if I'm just speaking for meself there, but any music that I've ever been interested in is just honest stories about ordinary people.
02:50 Honest to Jays' music.
02:52 There's more character in that kind of music because there's more stories from it.
02:56 If there's someone playing a tune perfectly, it's kind of boring.
02:59 It's bland.
03:00 Where if you've seen a guy with one eye playing a tune with a fiddle, it's more interesting.
03:04 Yeah, I think we like music that's a bit more rough around the edges.
03:08 And then we can get away with whatever we want.
03:10 We don't actually have to be that good.
03:12 It's meant to be like that.
03:13 It's meant to be bad.
03:14 I think the subject of the song is always going to be people's experiences, life and death and love and hate and things like that, that anyone can relate to.
03:22 Not every genre of music would be to that style.
03:25 Some of them are a bit more superficial or airy-fairy, but I think there's very straightforward songs that people can always relate to.
03:31 Roisin, come over here.
03:33 Roisin.
03:35 Come over and sit in here. We're doing an interview.
03:38 We're on the telly.
03:39 This is Roisin. Roisin, you introduce yourself. Come over here.
03:42 Is she going to be in the... Is she in there?
03:46 Are we after ruining the whole thing now?
03:48 I think it's better.
03:50 What's your name?
03:51 My name's Roisin.
03:52 What do you do?
03:53 I'm a bass player and a fashion icon.
03:56 What's your favourite thing about Glasgow Mellon?
03:59 The characters.
04:00 Yeah, the people. It has a rawness to it that is not unlike the places that we've come from.
04:05 You know, we love it.
04:07 Feels like home.
04:08 They're square sausages.
04:10 I think they're rotten.
04:11 I think they're lovely.
04:12 I think they're pure hard all the time.
04:14 Some of them are nice and some of them are not that nice.
04:16 I had one for my breakfast. It was in the middle. Was that alright?
04:19 It's nice with the beans on it.
04:21 Haggis is lovely.
04:22 Does Haggis make Glasgow?
04:24 Eh...
04:25 Don't be asking Ken questions like that.
04:28 He was asked to introduce himself earlier. He goes, "I'm drums."
04:32 I'm Ken. I'm from Talla and I play drums.
04:35 You say more about yourself, Ken.
04:36 No, I'm alright.
04:37 Come on, tell us about Ken.
04:39 Tell us about Ken.
04:41 Well, I play drums and I like coddle.
04:43 Explain coddle.
04:45 Explain coddle.
04:46 No, nobody understands what coddle is.
04:47 No, explain it.
04:48 Glasgow people would love to know about coddle.
04:50 I'd say it would go down well in Glasgow.
04:51 I think it would, yeah.
04:52 Go on. Explain coddle.
04:53 You have your potatoes, you have your carrots, you have your sausages, rashers and a big soup.
04:58 No, explain how you prepare it.
05:00 Give them a quick coddle lesson.
05:03 I'm not giving a coddle lesson here.
05:04 Just a quick one.
05:05 Alright, we'll just f*** it all into a pot and let it boil for ages.
05:08 So you boil the sausages.
05:09 Boiled sausages.
05:10 Yum.
05:11 Little yum.
05:12 Boiled sausages.
05:13 And it's a really thin watery soup that is local to Dublin.
05:15 You can thicken it up if you want.
05:17 Yeah, but you don't.
05:18 You don't.
05:19 I was just taking it up.
05:21 We like Glasgow cuisine as well actually.
05:23 But I think coddle would be liked in Glasgow.
05:25 It's a real Dublin food.
05:26 Big shout out to the Carnation restaurant.
05:28 Yeah, that's a good spot.
05:29 Good spot, yeah.
05:30 And Blue Lagoon.
05:31 Oh yeah, Blue Lagoon.
05:32 Yeah.
05:33 The nicest curry on Suckey Hall Street.
05:34 Yeah, we love Blue Lagoon.
05:36 Every time we come here we get that curry that'll turn your skin yellow if you get it on you.
05:39 I was mad to go there last time I was in Glasgow, but Caitlin took us to a f***ing kebab shop instead.
05:43 I was so disappointed.
05:45 That was nice of her.
05:46 We do all the good food a lot.
05:47 Oh yeah.
05:48 Ken can swim really good.
05:50 Ken is an amazing swimmer.
05:52 And he's good at bowling.
05:54 Oh, he's a very good bowler, yeah.
05:55 Have you bowled in Glasgow yet?
05:56 No, not yet, no.
05:58 When was the last time you went bowling?
05:59 In America, what do you think?
06:01 And who won?
06:02 Me.
06:03 You can also swim three lengths of a swimming pool without going up for a breath.
06:08 It's like a fish.
06:09 You'd probably go four in a good day.
06:11 And he called me Moony the Mackerel, don't he?
06:12 The Mackerel Moony.
06:13 That's not what we call you.
06:14 Call him Mars Sniper.
06:16 Mars Sniper.
06:17 Mars Sniper.
06:18 [BLANK_AUDIO]