Links and Bio's
About Irish Music Forever
Recent Album: Riverdance
Go to Bill Whelan
CD NOW
Official Web Site
Dirty Linnen
Recent Album: Green Bus
CD-NOW
Link #1
Recent Album: Heart's A Wonder
Not to be confused with the pop singer of the 1950s, Tommy Sands was the prime songwriter with the Sands Family, a group with his five siblings that became one of Ireland's most influential folk groups of the 1960s and '70s. (From CD-NOW Biography)
CD NOW
Green Linnet Bio
All Music Guide Bio
Recent Album: Winds Are Singing Freedom & Lo
Go to Tommy Sands
CD NOW
Official Web Site
Recent Album: Songs From Sun Street
FORMED: 1987
The hook-laden sounds of 1960s rock bands like the Beatles and the Byrds and the working class imagery of Bruce Springsteen are combined with the musical traditions of Ireland and the intensity of punk rock by the Saw Doctors. The Saw Doctors were a little-known local bar band in
Tuam (pronounced "Chewam") in County Galway when they were invited by Mike Scott to be the opening act on the Waterboys' 1988 tour of Ireland and the United Kingdom. In the decade since, however, the Saw Doctors have emerged as the most
successful Irish rock band since U2. The Washington Post referred to the Saw Doctors as "one of the world's most appealing roots-rock outfits."
The Saw Doctors had their initial success with their second single, "I Useta Love Her," a turbo-charged tune about lusting for an old girl during Mass. Despite the opposition by the Church, the song became the biggest-selling single in Irish history and spent nine weeks at the
top of the Irish charts. Following its success, the Saw Doctors' first single, "N17," about an immigrant's homesickness, was reissued, and it too became a number one hit. The Saw Doctors' debut album, If This Is Rock and Roll, I Want My Old Job Back, released in 1991, also reached
the top slot on the Irish charts.
Although their second album, All the Way from Tuam, released in 1992, was well received in Ireland, the Saw Doctors didn't have their first hit in Great Britain until releasing a four-track EP, Small Bit of Love, which reached the number 24 position on the British charts. A
second EP, World of Good, released in January 1996, reached the number 15 position.
Same Oul' Town, the Saw Doctors' third album, was released in 1996 and fared even better, reaching number six on the British charts. In 1997, the Saw Doctors released an album, Sing a Powerful Song, featuring 17 tracks from its earlier three albums. The same year, the Saw Doctors
recorded "She Says" as the theme song for the BBC comedy series Give My Head Peace. A four-track EP featuring "She Says" and three new tunes -- "School of Beauty," "Days" and "Bushwackin'" -- was released in Ireland in May 1997.
The Saw Doctors had their commercial breakthrough in the United States when "Never Mind the Strangers," co-written with original drummer Padraig Stevens, was used by Guinness in a million-dollar radio ad campaign for Harp Lager. The release of the Saw Doctors' fourth album,
Heading For The Sunshine was postponed until September 1997 when their American record label, Paradigm, requested that they tour the United States prior to its release.
The prime songwriters of the Saw Doctors, Leo Moran (guitar) and Davy Carton (vocals), were veterans of Galway's punk rock scene when they launched the Saw Doctors. Carton had previously performed his song "I Useta Love Her" in a punk group, Blaze X. The current lineup of the Saw
Doctors also features Pearse Doherty (bass), John Donnelly (drums) and Derek Murray (keyboards). ~ Craig Harris, All-Music Guide (From CD-NOW Biography)
CD NOW
Official Web Site
Fan Site
I-music This site
© 2002
Name of Performer/Group Page 36
Riverdance Back to Artist List
Perry Rose Back to Artist List
Tommy Sands Back to Artist List
Sands Family
Sands Family Back to Artist List
Saw Doctors Back to Artist List
Dirty Linen Article
This site hosted by FASTQ
Arizona Irish Music Society
