Northern Irish Blues-rockers The Answer are a proper band. Successful by virtue of their music rather than their image, they are not only welcome trend-buckers in today’s skinny-jeaned music scene but are also lovely blokes amongst whom laughter is a near-constant element. Sport.co.uk hot-footed it down to Marylebone Sports Bar and Grill for a good chinwag with Cormac Neeson (singer/Liverpool fan), Paul Mahon (guitarist/Manchester United fan) and Micky Waters (bassist/Celtic and Liverpool fan) on the eve of their UK and Ireland tour in support of second album Everyday Demons…
So, let’s talk about last night’s match [as it was at the time of the interview], seeing as everyone else is. What about that Thierry Henry, eh? (Tuts)
CN: I think he’s going straight to hell.
MW: He’s destroyed that flourishing career of his! That’s what he’s going to be remembered for now: being a cheat.
CN: I had a soft spot for Thierry Henry when he was at Arsenal. He was an ‘artiste’, you know? But he’s just severed all ties with any Irishman for the rest of his life. There’ll never be another Gillette razor bought in Ireland again!
Ok, let’s start with you, Cormac. Benitez: in or out?
CN: In. I think he’s had a bad run of injuries and I’m not just making excuses; some great players have been out or still are. But these are troubling times, like. Stability’s the key to success for any club so, if we get rid of him now, I think it would set us back a few seasons. We need to ride out the storm and trust that our fortunes are gonna change in the next couple of games. Because we can’t afford to lose any more game, or else we’ll be really up against it and Benitez will be up against it too. It doesn’t help that we’re playing Man f***ing City on Saturday: that’s gonna be a tough game.
Do you subscribe to the view that the persistent injuries to Gerrard and Torres are just sheer bad luck, or do you think that’s papering over the cracks? Torres in particular has always been susceptible to picking up injuries…
CN: When Torres is playing, Liverpool are a different team. The threat he offers up front is remarkable. Defenders are genuinely very, very worried when Torres is on the pitch, because he can create chances and goals out of nothing. That’s what Liverpool had been missing up until we signed him and it’s a massive blow whenever he’s sitting on the bench. If you’re gonna win the Premiership, you need to have a couple of strikers for strength of squad so that you’ve constantly got that threat going on up there.
Does the fact that Liverpool don’t have a quality backup striker reflect badly on Benitez?
CN: I reckon we’ll probably sign Van Nistelrooy sometime soon. Payback for the Michael Owen saga!
According to Van Nistelrooy himself, he “needs minutes”. Lots and lots of precious minutes. So, do you manage to get to many games?
CN: I haven’t been in a while. It’s pretty much impossible for us to plan anything in the future, let alone get over to Anfield for a game, because of the amount of travelling we do. Our timetables can change overnight so it’s been very difficult but we’re going on tour on Wednesday and it will be the first time we’ve been in England for a while, so we’ll have a look at the up and coming games and maybe sneak in through the chef’s entrance or something! We’ve done a few interviews for LFC magazine and people like that, so I think we could…
Do you think you’ll finish in the top four?
CN: I do. And we’ll win the Europa League!
Champions League would be more typical! Right, onto you, Paul. Is this the weakest Manchester United team in years?
PM: I don’t think so. Everything is post-Ronaldo now, and maybe the squad doesn’t look as strong on paper as it has done in the past, but people like Darren Fletcher have come on leaps and bounds, Rooney’s doing a good job and Michael Owen’s picking up. We should have won that Chelsea game; we were all over them but we lack a bit of spark up front. It would be nice if Van Nistelrooy came back for a honeymoon season and scored 20-30 goals. Other than that, I think it’s good.
But would any of your first choice midfield be a starter in, say, Chelsea’s midfield? Or even Liverpool’s last season, when Alonso was still there…
PM: Yeah, definitely in Liverpool’s midfield! I don’t think this team is about individuals, it’s more about the team as a unit. That’s where the success came from back in ’93; we were a great team as a unit even before Cantona and that stuff came along. Yeah, I think they all complement each other.
What do you make of Owen so far?
PM: I don’t think he’s had enough time yet. I think he’s still slotting in.
MW: He hasn’t got much time left, in fairness to him.
PM: (laughs) Nah, I think he’s got three or four good seasons left in him. He’s still a pretty young fella. Still hasn’t had a good run in the team yet.
Those three or four good seasons could be spread out over ten years, mind! But you think you need another striker, going by your Van Nistelrooy comment…
PM: Yeah, they need a good, big, strong man up front. I’ve always preferred a team that’s got that big target up there.
MW: You should have held onto yer man. Argentinian. What’s his name?
PM: Tevez.
MW: I really rate him as a player.
PM: I like Tevez but him and Rooney are similar players.
MW: Liverpool miss Crouchy.
PM: I’m still waiting for Berbatov to live up to the promise.
Is Berbatov as lazy as people say?
PM: I think he might be, you know.
CN: I think it’s karma that he’s not doing well at United. He shouldn’t have deserted Spurs in the first place.
Surely it must be hard for a player to resist when United come a-calling? It was all very last minute but they did the same to us with Rooney. Get the selling club over a barrel, and all that.
CN: I just find it hard to appreciate anything to do with United, you know!
Does Valencia strike you as a strange signing?PM: Yeah, I guess he kind of goes with your Andersons and your Nanis, that tradition. You sign ‘em and see. Most of those guys in recent years haven’t worked; you know, Djemba-Djemba didn’t work, nor did Kleberson, and I think Nani’s on his way out too.
Do you think you can win the league this year?
PM: I think it’ll be close, but Chelsea might pip us to it. Let’s wait and see how the big games go. It’s gonna come down to the ‘Big Four’ again, grudgingly letting Liverpool in there! I guess if we could beat Chelsea and Arsenal in those games, then we could win it. But I’d say Chelsea right now.
Who would you like to see as Ferguson’s eventual successor?
PM: I guess Mourinho or Martin O’Neill.
MW: Please Martin, don’t go to United!
PM: Yeah, definitely Martin O’Neill. I think he gets the best out of players, you know? There aren’t many big personalities in the United squad at the moment so I think he could get the best out of us as a unit.
CN: He’d be a great Republic of Ireland manager. Northern Ireland are a bit below Martin, I think.
You wouldn’t want Moyes at United? Not that I want to see him leave us.
PM: He’s kind of fallen on hard times now, like, but he’s been impressive. I bumped into him on a ferry, once.
CN: We saw Alan Pardew in a blues bar just behind Piccadilly Circus! He had his back to me at first so I didn’t know if it was him or not. I stood behind him going, “Alan!...Alan!...Alan!...” and he didn’t turn around, so I thought, nah, it’s not him. But I was walking past him on the way out of the bar and I said, “Are you Alan Pardew?” and he said (affecting a southern English accent), “Yeah mate, love your hair!” So Alan Pardew knows my hair.
Did you speak to Moyes, Paul?
PM: No. Scary looking boy, Moyes.
He somehow manages to be handsome, for me, despite strongly resembling a cross between Gollum and Moe the Bartender. Ooh…Moyes’ Tavern, anyone?
MW: Did you [Everton] enjoy your brief spell in the Big Four a few years ago?
Oh yes, that was fun. Singing “Champions League, we’re having a laugh!” Unfortunately, it turned out that we actually were, and we got knocked out in the qualifiers. Albeit unfortunately. Oh well.
CN: My mum supports Everton so I’ll still follow them from time to time.
You are of fine stock, sir! Ok, Micky, let’s discuss Celtic.
MW: I’ve been a bit out of touch this season but I know we’re top of the table, ahead of Rangers by two points and with a game in hand.
PM: It’s a terrible league, like.
Should Celtic and Rangers join the English Premier League, in your opinion?
PM: It would be a complete disaster for the Scottish league but there is only two teams in it. A few seasons ago Hearts got a massive cash injection and had big hopes but then it all went tits up again.
MW: Celtic and Rangers could compete in the Premiership, I think. They’ve got the players.
Do you reckon? Both Celtic and Rangers are a lot less star-studded now than they were 5-10 years ago, when you had the likes of Larsson, Cadete, Di Canio, Gazza, Laudrup…
CN: (sings) There’s only oooone Jorge Cadete! He puts the baaaalllll in the netty!
MW: There’s Nakamura now…and Aidan McGeady…
Good players, but no Di Canios! Do you have any views on Tony ‘Alan Partridge’s Geordie mate’ Mowbray?
MW: I don’t, no. Not this season. After this Christmas, it’s time to start watching more football. Hopefully we’ll get an opportunity to go to some games when we’re free. We should definitely capitalise on those Liverpool connections! I’m a Liverpool fan as well.
You should get one of those half-Celtic, half-Liverpool scarves.
PM: El-Hadji Diouf would just spit on it, like he did on those fans in the front row. Way to wreck a century-old relationship, there.
Let’s talk about the band for a bit. Some questions about The Answer, if you will. You’re about to tour your latest record Everyday Demons; what kind of places are you going to be playing?
CN: We’re doing some pretty big venues across the country. In London, for example, we’re doing The Forum in Kentish Town, which is two and a half thousand capacity. Generally those size venues, academies and theatres across the UK and Ireland. The tour actually ends at the Ulster Hall in Belfast. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Belfast but the Ulster Hall is kind of the dream; when you first pick up a guitar, you wanna play there, you know. It has a mystique about it, so it’s the perfect place to end a very successful year for The Answer. Apart from that, the tour starts in Manchester and then we head up to Scotland, then Newcastle as we work our way down the country; Sheffield, Wolverhampton, as far south as Portsmouth, Bristol…I think it’s 17 or 18 shows we’re doing, so it’ll be exciting and it’ll be the first time we’ll get to get the best out of Every Demons; we’ve been doing 50-minute support slots where you don’t get to play as many songs as you would like so we’ll actually be doing a couple of songs we’ve never played live before.
What songs?
CN: A song called ‘Evil Man’, which is brand new, and another song called ‘Cry Out’ which we’ve only played a handful of times. We’ll pretty much be playing the new album in its entirety with a few of the older songs as well to keep some of the diehards happy!
So, how did the band come together?
PM: Micky and I have known each other since we were about 11 or 12 and we’ve always played together in little bands and jammed and stuff. We put this band together around 2000 and someone suggested Cormac as lead singer for the material we were writing. We ended up in the same class in university and got talking on the first day; we started the band then with our drummer, James [Heatley], who we knew from back in the day. We got him on board so we had chemistry right from the start. We played all around Ireland and recorded a few demos, EPs and stuff. I suppose the big breakthrough was when we got a manager in London after about 2004; he got us over to do showcases all over London. Then we did the first album, Rise, toured for a couple of years, did Everyday Demons and ended up here!
Could you each name your favourite song and album of all time?
MW: ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ by The Who, and Led Zeppelin III.
PM: ‘Ten Years Gone’ by Zeppelin, and the first Van Halen album.
CN: ‘Fire and Water’ from the album Fire and Water by Free, and Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins.
Have you seen the episode of The Simpsons with Smashing Pumpkins? “Homer Simpson, smiling politely”…classic…
CN: I have, actually, yeah. You know you’ve made it when you’re on The Simpsons.
PM: We made it on Eastenders a couple of weeks ago.
They had your song in the Queen Vic?
PM: Our poster! (laughs)
The Answer, thank you.
The Answer’s second album Everyday Demons is out now on Albert Productions.