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NICE AND HENDY Dundalk’s ‘cutest rappers’ Charles
and Andrew Hendy are traversing the land building a cult following with their hip-hop comedy outfit TPM and a folk offshoot, The Mary Wallopers. We find them in their natural habitat with their van, which has broken down. words Michael McDermott photos Malcolm McGettigan It’s half past seven on a Saturday evening in the car park outside St Patrick’s Parish church in Dundalk, and Charles and Andrew Hendy’s Ford Transit van isn’t budging. This is the one they bought ten days ago in Belfast and is meant to take them to Glastonbury. But more pressing, it’s the taxi they are meant to be using in 50 minutes to bring people to the BYOB gig they are putting on in their gaff with the Bleeding Heart Pigeons. A half hour and a can of Lynx later, to see if they can fire up the fuel pump and get some diesel into the engine, and it still isn’t working. Their brother comes to collect them. This is a slice of the life of the Hendy brothers whose following is snowballing across the land through their infectiously witty hip-hop swagger as TPM and their ravishingly beautiful folk incarnation as The Mary Wallopers. Having taken Trabolgan by storm at It Takes A Village in early May and whipping Body and Soul into a frenzy last month, the brothers are fleshing out and fulfilling the promise they first delivered back in 2015 when All the Boys on the Dole, their first track, went viral after being filmed on the streets of their hometown. Now after clocking up thousands of miles playing every joint in the land and armed with their charm and rich guttural accents, their organic DIY hardwork is gathering momentum and attention. TPM stands for ‘Tax Payers Money’. “It’s a kind of a shit name,” professes Andrew. “We made our first song and we weren’t a band or anything and two days later I was busking with my band and then me and Charles played All The Boys on the Dole. Some young lad recorded it on his mobile phone and suddenly it went viral (96,027 views on YouTube). Then we had all these newspapers asking after our name. It was easy to come up with.” They’re just as happy to be called Two Pints of Milk or Two Pretty Men. “All the Boys on the Dole was written in a slump of depression, sitting in a broken car with no money, nowhere to go and no end in sight. It is a response to the idea that if you are in our situation you are worthless. You are NOT worthless,” states their bandcamp page. The Dundalk Democrat has called them “the town’s answer to The Rubberbandits” but they are also akin to the O’Donovan ‘rowing’ brothers, wielding mics rather than oars. “I don’t think we’re as surreal as the Rubberbandits,”says Charles. “We’re a bit more gritty. You can tell The Rubberbandits were in art college if that makes sense. We’re like the working class version.” Tracks such as Eat that Curry, Cash in the Claw, Fuck RTE (who have just blocked them on Twitter) and Sexy Priest have seen them amass an arsenal of smart, witty, and acerbic tracks which form a bum-shaking set. Working with their mate Jack (DJ Snakey Bastard) who layers beats from when “hip-hop didn’t have any money” and with cameos from Robbie, their ‘Curry King’ mate, TPM stride the stage with customary swagger, alert to each other’s presence with sibling guile. They are, in their own words, “good entertainers.” Their distinctive presence is amplified today by a look – sandals and white socks offset by a cardigan, polo neck and tartan trousers (Charles) and velour jogging pants and shell suit tracksuit top (Andrew). These are the spoils of a Galway gig spent in TK Maxx. They have it. They know it. They flaunt it. “Growing up we were smoking joints in the shed together and making music,” says Charles. “There were seven in the family and our oldest 44