Truthful Saw Doctors head to Leamington

That’s the opinion of lead guitarist Leo Moran, who took some time out of a busy rehearsal schedule to chat to the Courier ahead of a month-long tour of non-stop shows - including a date at Leamington’s Assembly this month.

Having recently released their new ‘best of’ album, 2525, and played their biggest ever show in Galway City, a UK tour encompassing more than 750 gigs and almost 100 dates in the USA, the band will, during this forthcoming stint, be performing with new backing vocalist Lindsey Cleary for the first time.

Leo said: “We’re getting it together now and Lindsey is going to bring a lovely element to the band’s performance.

“She is a really strong singer who has a sense of what suits our songs. She blends very well with Davy Carton’s voice. It’s fantastic.”

The band, known for singing about their own experiences of what positives they have drawn from growing up in what Leo describes as “a repressed, Catholic, conservative, smalltown, agrarian, angst-ridden and showband-infested society”, remain relaxed about their busy tour, which started last Friday and runs until December 20.

Leo said: “The list of places we are going looks amazing and hectic, but when you are doing it every day, it’s fine. I love performing. The audiences are brilliant and we have great confidence in them.

“People may not have been through what we have been through, but once we are telling the truth, people understand what we’re singing about. People get a sense of authenticity in the lyrics and songs.”

What is unique about the Saw Doctors, says Leo, is that they are “rock ‘n’ roll with a Western Ireland element”.

He added: “We have had a lot of members changing over the years, but it’s very important to us that we are as good as we have always been. It would be a failure to us if people said ‘we saw them when they were good’.

“We are slightly different to what we were when we began, but we still love sounds and music and trying to be ourselves.”

With a friendly, catchy, folksy vibe to their sounds, the band’s name may appear a little incongruous. But, as Leo explained, it’s all characteristically rooted in history.

“Someone told me that at a party on night, there was a person working in the saw mills where they cut timber. As a way of motivating him, his boss gave him the title ‘saw doctor’. It’s a title of self-importance and for some reason, it came to be our band’s title.

“It seems to have a ring to it and it works well.”

The Saw Doctors are performing at the Assembly in Spencer Street, Leamington, on Tuesday December 18. For tickets, call 0844 854 1358 or go online.