Just a Wee Taste with Andy Nolan from The BibleCodeSundays

Image courtesy of Andy Nolan

As the Memorial Day weekend approaches, all the Gina’s and Johnny’s are finishing up their spray tans and heading to the beach. While some of the others are grabbing their SPF 45 and heading to upstate New York for the East Durham Irish Festival. Through the power of Facebook, Wild Rover had a chance to chat with Andy Nolan of The BibleCodeSundays about the upcoming tour, the London Irish scene, the perfect shirt, and even Shane MacGowans new choppers. Those who have yet to hear them need to read this interview and click here.

Memorial Day weekend in East Durham is an all out booze fest with some of the best performers of Celtic rock scheduled to perform. That said, is there anyone in particular that you are excited to see in between your shows?

Black 47 without a doubt! We were fortunate enough to support them a few years ago in NYC and you couldn’t meet a nicer bunch of fellas! Larry gave us the gig and has helped us with gigs in the US since then. We were always fans of their music so it’s always good to catch up with them when we can!

It sucks you guys are not swinging down for a wee tatse and a few tunes in the city. Whats up with that??

I am actually staying on an extra week and spending a few days in NYC and Boston! I just got married and my wife Jacqui and I are honeymooning there for a week! The rest of the boys have to get straight back to London to carry on with the band’s busy schedule though!

Whats your favorite song to play live and if there was one show in your career that stands out. What was it and why?

I love playing The Boys of Queens live, especially in NY! It was written as a tribute to the FDNY after 9/11. The response we’ve had to this song has been overwhelming and very emotional! Favourite show? This is tough! For me playing on the pitch at Celtic Park Football Club in Glasgow in front of 62 000 people was a dream come true! The whole band are huge Celtic fans! It was something I will never forget! I must add playing with The Dropkick Murphys on St.Patrick’s Night this year in Boston was the best St.Patrick’s Day I ever had! Their fans are unreal! The atmosphere was electric and they gave us a fantastic welcome!

The highly anticipated ” Code of Silence” is set to come out this year?? Are you guys making cameos or taking over the soundtrack? I saw the YouTube hype and it looks pretty serious.

At the moment we’re just doing the title track but a cameo appearence would be great! We’ll see if Mike O’Dea can squeeze us in – maybe as a few extra corpses! We’ve written a brand new song called The Lords of Winter Hill especially for the movie and Mike – the writer of Code of Silence – has given it a huge thumbs up along with Michael Z Gordon it’s producer!

You played with Shane MacGowan and the Popes prior to The BibleCodeSundays. What was it like working with Shane? Did you have a chance to check out his new teeth?

Working with Shane was another dream come true for me! I grew up a massive fan of The Pogues and thanks to Tommy MacManamin, who played banjo with Shane and The Popes, I joined them on a two week US Tour back in 1999 and played with them then for a year! RIP Tommy

Yeh Shane’s teeth look great! Long time coming!

How has the London Irish Scene influenced your music and how has the scene changed since you started.

The London Irish scene has had a huge influence on The BibleCodeSundays! It’s what the band represents – our pride in being London Irish! Irish immigration to London has been huge down through the years since the times of the Great Famine to the construction boom in the 1960s through to the late 1980s. The Irish are London’s largest ethnic group and as a whole have influenced many of the UK’s biggest bands. Johnny Lydon, The Beatles, The Smiths and Oasis are all of Irish decent. Of course The Pogues, also being from London, had a big influence on us.
Many Irish returned home to Ireland during the late 1990′s during the Celtic Tiger years but there is still a huge second and third generation Irish community here. There was a great Irish traditional music scene in London when I was growing up as a kid, especially in North London where many Irish immigrants settled. Sadly many of those musicians have passed away. The likes of Brendan Mulkere, John Bowe and Mick O’Connor are still going strong though.

Okay, so you are now the new creative director of Wild Rover. You get one shot to prove how great you can be. Whats the first shirt you feel people need to be rocking!!??

A BibleCodeSundays tshirt of course! Bottle Slammin London Irish Rock emblazened across the front with shamrocks, hand guns and rosary beads!
Finally-The O’Neills Summer Tour sponsored by Magners Irish Cider is sure to keep you guys busy. When the tour ends whats next for you guys?
We plan to head to Australia for two weeks and back to the US before the year ends! Our record company Cosmic Trigger are based in NYC so we plan to be in the US as much as possible in the next few years!