The Mary Janes were probably the most under-rated band in Ireland during the 90s. I discovered them when they were a 3 piece and they performed a short acoustic set on some RTE music and culture show around '93 or '94 and pretty soon 'Friends' became one of my favourite songs. Mic had quite a unique singing style which accompanied his amazing songwriting talents. I even got to see The Mary Janes live on a grey Summer afternoon on a bandstand in Merrion Square! Here's their biography I plagiarised from here!
In 1990 Mic Christopher formed the band, the Mary Janes with former Kila bass player and fellow busker, Karl Odlum, guitarist, Simon Goode and Steven Hogan on drums.
Over the next nine years The Mary Janes played together in three different guises. Firstly with Steven on drums and then after he left the band stayed together and recorded their first album (Bored Of Their Laughing) as a three piece without drums.
In 1994 the Mary Janes signed a publishing deal with Warner Chappell and in ’96 the band acquired the drumming talents of Mark Stanley from Australia and went on to record their second album Sham in ’98. Over the years The Mary Janes played everywhere from Feile and the Fleadh in Ireland, to Glastonbury festival in England, to the CMJ in New York. Ultimately finishing with a six week stint in Bosnia with the WarChild charity organization.
The Mary Janes finally split in 1999 and Mic embarked on a three month solo tour of Victoria, Australia. Sadly Mic's short life ended in the final weeks of 2001! Here's some live music to make sure we don't forget Mic or The Mary Janes.
The Mary Janes - Friends [Live from The Baggot Inn - Feb 5th 1993]
The Mary Janes - Nearly Dead [Live from The Baggot Inn - Feb 5th 1993]
Mic Christopher - That's What Good Friends Do [Cobblestone Dec 4th 2000]
Mic Christopher - Heyday [Live From Whelans March 13th 2001]
1 comments:
Post of the Year. :D
Do you have any more Mary Janes live stuff? Would love to hear it!
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