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TPM at ITAV, photo: Shane J Horan “Everyone was i
n good form after a while but just before we went on we were asked if we could leave this young fellow sing a song he wrote for your man. We were like, ‘alright get him on’. This wee angel goes up on stage and sings this song about yer man and about how he’s gone. The family starts crying. And then we come on stage and sing ‘eat curry fucking sauce’, it’s actually like the worst thing. We really shouldn’t be asked to do that sort of thing. She thought it would be a good idea, but it wasn’t.” They had fans travel from Letterkenny to Waterford,Longford to Cavan, to see them. They were playing in Leitrim once, and recount this couple in their 60s seeing them. “Before the end, the husband stormed out and could be heard saying, ‘two lads on the stage talking about their mickeys. How could you jive to that?’” They take it all in their stride. On the origins of one of their ‘hits’ Eat That Curry, Andrew states, “We used to work in a curry factory – Mr Curry. One night, Charles was working the night shift and the only one there. He spilt about 150 litres of oil and said ‘you need to come in here, there’s a situation’. We had to stay up until 5am in the morning mopping it up with cardboard. We wrote the song the following day and quit our jobs.” The music video saw them round up their mate Robbie who they met at a 21st. “Around the town people were like ‘you have to have Robbie in the video. He fucking loves curry.’ He was like. ‘I’ll do whatever you want me to do.’ “We were living in a tiny house in the middle of the town with flourescent lights everywhere. It was like porn so we shot it like a sexual fetish. It’s about how people in Dundalk love curry so much. The video is all these fetish videos we found on the internet. There’s one of this lad sucking up women’s knickers, people popping air out of Air Max. We were trying to find the scummiest ones.” It’s a quarter past eight when we arrive out to their place outside town. They are going to post on their socials about the gig running late. “It’s usually €6 a head to get in and out of our place (which their van was meant for) and we’re only charging €10 a head tonight cause there’s only one band, so we’ll be only making €4 on everyone who comes out. We just want to pay the lads.” A mate rocks up. His grandparents have just dropped him off. Their gaff is this old abandoned house down a driveway littered with rusting cars, an abandoned boat, a pub they’ve set up in their living room and a shed out in the middle of a 400-year-old fortification out the back which they’ve converted into a venue replete with discarded sofas, disco lights and religious iconography. They’re using it as a monthly hub to invite acts to play such as Junior Brother, Myles Manley, Jinx Lennon and the aforementioned Bleeding Heart Pigeons. The following day they are heading down to the Glenties to play The Glen Tavern – “a class spot” – as The Mary Wallopers. The van is going nowhere, and transport will have to be arranged, but that’s for tomorrow. “You guys think you can run on excitement,” exclaims their brother driving them out earlier on. And you know this is partly true. That van will get them to Glastonbury. Tonight, though, they’re having a sesh in their gaff. ● Two lads on the stage talking about their mickeys. How could you jive to that? The Mary Wallopers EP is out July 6. TPM’s mixtape is due for release around the end of July. They plan to have a video for Sexy Priest soon and their mate Graham is filming a documentary on them too. You can hear TPM in conversation, with the Rebel Matters podcast, recorded at It Takes A Village bit.ly/2Low284 TPM play Knockanstockan (July 19-21) and Trailer Park at Electric Picnic (August 30-September 1) Join The Curry Club and Fuck RTE at patreon.com/tpmlaws tpmlaws.bandcamp.com 48