You’re now in Thin Lizzy, you’ve been in The Almighty, and a few other bands. Do you prefer the band environment to going solo at all?
They’re both different. They’re both extremely different. The solo thing is just stripped down, me and an acoustic guitar. It’s a different vibe altogether. So, I don’t think you can compare them. I love them both for different reasons. There’s a different mentality as well. With a band, your band-mates are up there, it’s a big sound, everybody’s feeding of each other.
That’s something you don’t get when you’re solo, it’s very much just you and that’s it. They’re two different things, and I’m very happy I get to do them both.
You’re last album was Belfast Confetti in 2009. How was the reaction to that?
It’s been fantastic, it’s been really good. It’s been the most successful solo album I’ve done to date. I’ve very happy with the way it’s gone.
I briefly mentioned The Almighty. Is there anything you can say about that at all?
Yeah. There’s nothing to report. There’s no plans to do anything, it’s as simple as that. There’s been no talk, nothing on the horizon as far as I can see. If something cropped up or we thought it was right then maybe. It’s the old cliché of never say never, but it’s been three years now since we did anything.
Everyone seems happy doing their own thing. I can’t see anything. Maybe something for our 25 year anniversary in two years time. We’ll see.
Do you have any plans for other side-projects?
Not at the moment, I’m very much focused on Thin Lizzy and the solo career would be right behind it. That’s it at the moment.
I was reading online that you’d helped out Glentorian F.C., how did that come about?
They’re my boyhood team, I’ve supported them since I was a kid. They got into a bit of financial difficulty, like a lot of clubs have been doing, and I did a CD to help raise money to pay off the taxman and get the club back on its feet.
I’m glad to say this week we paid off the tax bill, the club has been saved and the future’s looking very bright. They’ve given years of enjoyment to me when I was a kid, and loads of heartache as well, so I was only too happy to help.
Going back again to growing up, who were your other influences?
Well, Stiff Little Fingers. Obviously Phil and Lizzy, Motörhead, The Ramones. I like The Undertones, AC/DC as well. Johnny Cash was always played around our house. Loads of different stuff, y’know?
Has life on the road slowed down over the years?
Yeah, it does. You get older, I’m 45 in a few months. Unless you’re Lemmy or Keith Richards and you defy all laws of gravity logic and human biology, you have to look after yourself. I keep fit, watch what I eat a bit and I don’t party nearly as much as I used to.
I have the odd night now and again, I have the odd beer but really…I couldn’t do this and sing for an hour and a half feeling like shit, feeling hungover.
I wouldn’t be doing myself any justice, and I wouldn’t do the fans paying hard-earned cash any justice. Your age dictates your lifestyle, I think. A few people are indestructible and will carry on partying, but at some point it catches up with you.
There’s quite an old-fashioned, grassroots approach with singer-songwriters in general. Do you think that’s missing from contemporary music, with things like the X-Factor?
Yeah, it’s just bulls***. It’s the worse thing to ever happen to music. I can’t even have it on with the sound turned down, that’s how much I hate it.
I think the quality control has gone out. Anyone can slap an autotune on and anyone can f****** idiot can sound good without being able to sing. You get these kids who are so…they wanna be famous so badly, that’s taken over the fact that they can sing.
Those kids are going on that and they’re selling their name. Cowell owns X-Factor, if you win that he owns you. Kids end up owning about 10% of their name. What’s your name?
Alistair.
Right Alistair, you go on X-Factor and they’ll go, right you won. Sign here, here, here and here. We’re going to be your record company, your manager, we own you. This is what we get, and here’s your f****** 10%.
That’s what the kids are getting, they’re getting shafted. They’re going to get a career that’s one album, they’ll maybe make a bit of money out of it, but very few of them will have a 25, 30 year career because the public isn’t going to be interested in them
There’s no longevity in record companies anymore. The Almighty signed a record deal on the day. We didn’t start selling records until our third album, but our record company stuck with us. That’s what happened back then, it’s development, a band gets bigger. You don’t get that anymore, they want it now. You’ve got to be f****** big now.
X-Factor destroys garage bands, people rehearsing in their garages for years trying to get tight, trying to get good, trying to develop their band. It’s a gimmick, a gimmick that everybody’s bought into and…it’s Satan. It’s Satan at work in the music industry.
Along those lines, The Guardian put an article up recently saying that rock n’ roll is dead.
There’s going to be 2,700 people here tonight proving them wrong. It’ll never die, people will always want to go and see great live bands, good live music. Rock and roll has been dead for years, every three years they say that!
When radio stations in the early ‘50s started playing records, the industry freaked out. They thought that because radio stations were playing records, that no-one would buy them anymore. So, there you go. There was a big panic about it back then.
People thought, because of the internet, that people would download stuff and not records or come to shows anymore. They still are. They’re not buying CDs and albums the way they used to, because there’
s so much more diversity. People are still coming to live shows, and people still want to listen to live music. That will never go away.
As a singer-songwriter, is free downloading and online music an issue then?
Free downloads suck. If I wanted to give away a track for free, and say here’s a free track, that’s fine. For Radiohead to give away that album a few years ago, when they’re multimillionaires sitting in their fucking ivory towers.
Well, that’s an insult to every hard working musician out there that is trying to pay their bills and do this as a career. It’s a career…it’s an art form, but it’s a career.
You deserve to be paid for your art. You don’t get a plumber in your house to fix your pipes, and say you did a very nice job, it looks fantastic, but I’m not paying you. Why should music be free? It just shouldn’t be free. Music is a love for me, but it also feeds my kids, pays my bills.
I have my own stepson, my own kids saying “We just downloaded the new Apocolyptica track for free”. I’m like, it’s stealing! Look at what I do, son!
They’ve got that mentality, and we need to get it out of kids that they can’t go on the internet and steal music…it’s stealing. You’re robbing the artist. The same kids complain when a band splits up, or isn’t doing well. I’m like, it’s because you’re robbing them.
It seems people who download online are the same to complain about tickets and merch prices.
You have people who ask you to sign stuff for charities, and I always do it as much as I can, to help. Anyway, I put out a limited edition single, 1,000 copies online only. This guy came online and said “I’ll buy your single, as long as you give the money to charity”. I thought, why do I want to do that?
I’m selling this single which cost me XX money to record in the studio, so that I can continue to tour, pay my bills and do what I do. If I give that money to charity, who’s going to pay my bills? Yeah, I’ll do stuff for that, but at the end of the day, everybody needs to be fed. Everybody has a right to work. As you can tell, I’m pretty passionate about it.
Female First - Alistair McGeorge, picture by Ian Taylor
You’re now in Thin Lizzy, you’ve been in The Almighty, and a few other bands. Do you prefer the band environment to going solo at all?
They’re both different. They’re both extremely different. The solo thing is just stripped down, me and an acoustic guitar. It’s a different vibe altogether. So, I don’t think you can compare them. I love them both for different reasons. There’s a different mentality as well. With a band, your band-mates are up there, it’s a big sound, everybody’s feeding of each other.
That’s something you don’t get when you’re solo, it’s very much just you and that’s it. They’re two different things, and I’m very happy I get to do them both.
You’re last album was Belfast Confetti in 2009. How was the reaction to that?
It’s been fantastic, it’s been really good. It’s been the most successful solo album I’ve done to date. I’ve very happy with the way it’s gone.
I briefly mentioned The Almighty. Is there anything you can say about that at all?
Yeah. There’s nothing to report. There’s no plans to do anything, it’s as simple as that. There’s been no talk, nothing on the horizon as far as I can see. If something cropped up or we thought it was right then maybe. It’s the old cliché of never say never, but it’s been three years now since we did anything.
Everyone seems happy doing their own thing. I can’t see anything. Maybe something for our 25 year anniversary in two years time. We’ll see.
Do you have any plans for other side-projects?
Not at the moment, I’m very much focused on Thin Lizzy and the solo career would be right behind it. That’s it at the moment.
I was reading online that you’d helped out Glentorian F.C., how did that come about?
They’re my boyhood team, I’ve supported them since I was a kid. They got into a bit of financial difficulty, like a lot of clubs have been doing, and I did a CD to help raise money to pay off the taxman and get the club back on its feet.
I’m glad to say this week we paid off the tax bill, the club has been saved and the future’s looking very bright. They’ve given years of enjoyment to me when I was a kid, and loads of heartache as well, so I was only too happy to help.
Going back again to growing up, who were your other influences?
Well, Stiff Little Fingers. Obviously Phil and Lizzy, Motörhead, The Ramones. I like The Undertones, AC/DC as well. Johnny Cash was always played around our house. Loads of different stuff, y’know?
Has life on the road slowed down over the years?
Yeah, it does. You get older, I’m 45 in a few months. Unless you’re Lemmy or Keith Richards and you defy all laws of gravity logic and human biology, you have to look after yourself. I keep fit, watch what I eat a bit and I don’t party nearly as much as I used to.
I have the odd night now and again, I have the odd beer but really…I couldn’t do this and sing for an hour and a half feeling like shit, feeling hungover.
I wouldn’t be doing myself any justice, and I wouldn’t do the fans paying hard-earned cash any justice. Your age dictates your lifestyle, I think. A few people are indestructible and will carry on partying, but at some point it catches up with you.
There’s quite an old-fashioned, grassroots approach with singer-songwriters in general. Do you think that’s missing from contemporary music, with things like the X-Factor?
Tagged in Thin Lizzy