Hi Scott, Thanks a lot for taking the time to do this interview with me. Your act is well known for having people laughing their heads off! I first saw you at my first time at Beautiful Days in 2014, and have seen you many times since. You always manage to make me cry with laughter, especially with Since You've Been Ron and The Zipper.

 

The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican are a very 'diverse' act. How would you describe your music to people who haven't seen you before?

 

I personally think of it as ‘The Greatest Show on Earth in tank-tops’, which sounds very grandiose and a tad showoff-y, but that’s what we do! I like to think that, whether we are playing a 30 minute slot on a festival stage, or our full 3-hour show, we strive to put on a performance that people remember. I’ve always strived for that. I hate watching bands and artists that just play their songs and don’t interact with an audience. That’s what ‘live’ music should be about. The late, great Val Doonican himself once said “When you entertain the public it’s no good just having good music or singing, you must also have entertainment value, so people will go home having a good time." I completely subscribe to that.

 

What was the first song you ever learned to play on your own and as a group?

 

I got my first guitar aged 14. It was a clapped-out Les Paul copy which I bought from a friend for a fiver. (I still have it, although it was set on fire on stage at a music festival in Bremen, Germany while I was naked – a long story which I won’t go into here!) The first song I ever learned on it was Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen. I’ve been in loads of bands over the years, but the first song The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican learned, back in 2006, was ‘Breaking The Law’ by Judas Priest.

 

What made you write the music you play and sing now?

 

When we started the band, there was myself and former-member, Danny Doonican. Our initial intention was to ‘butcher other people’s songs on folk-instruments’… everybody from Sparks to Motorhead to Vera Lynn on acoustic guitar, banjo and mandolin. We certainly have never taken things too seriously, even from the outset. By the time Danny left the band in 2010 we had started to change direction, and had begun changing the lyrics to classic pop and rock songs for comedy parodies. I was influenced by the folk-musician and comedian Mike Harding from a very early age, and he was certainly the main inspiration behind our direction.

 

How long as group have you all been performing live?

 

Our first show as The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican was at Thawley’s Pub in Darfield Barnsley on Friday 17th June 2006. The pub is now a corner-shop! We are celebrating our 10th Birthday this year on the same date at Barnsley Rock & Blues Venue, and will be bringing our good friends Hobo Jones & The Junkyard Dogs, The Sweetchunks Band and Pocketful O’ Nowt with us.

 

As a group, there must have been some challenging moments for you all. What is the biggest challenge you have faced?

 

I would imagine each band member, past and present will have their own ‘moments’ of challenge. There are two distinct ones for me…

The first came on 17th March 2011 when Danny called to say he was leaving the band. Having formed the band together, and sang with tight harmonies as, in effect, we were both front-men, it felt strange that he wasn’t going to be there after almost 4 years of working together. For a while, I was unsure if we could carry on without him, but myself and Alan #1 somehow managed to, and then Andy joined shortly afterwards.

The second, and much more significant challenge, came in September 2014 when my partner, Amanda, was diagnosed with breast cancer. People who know the band will have no-doubt heard me tell the true story behind our song ‘Frisky In The Jar’, where, because chemotherapy has a tendency to ruin fertility, Amanda was given the option of IVF Treatment, seeing as we hadn’t started a family. Even with the most horrific things happening to her, Amanda was the one who thought that the experience would make for a great comedy song.

I made the decision that The Bar-Steward Sons would have to take ‘time-out’ whilst Amanda got through the worst part of chemotherapy. It was during this four month period that we wrote a significant part of the songs for ‘The Tarn Machine’.

 

When we perform ‘Frisky’ live, I always try to make a point of telling our story, not because I feel our story is any different than the thousands of other people who get diagnosed each year, but because I believe that a wider social awareness is an important thing. I will often try to encourage people to check their bits & bobs once a week. Why not do it yourself now while you are reading this?

 

What do your family think of your music? Do they come and watch you when they can?

 

I suppose my mum and dad are secretly pleased with what I have achieved,, though rarely come to see us. My brother, who is a ‘serious’ musician, doesn’t get it at all. My other brother, who actually has got a sense of humour also doesn’t get it. My sister doesn’t like comedians full-stop, but doesn’t mind me as long as she doesn’t have to watch me perform. Why else would I have so many brothers from other mothers supporting me in my quest to entertain folk!!!

 

Do you have any other interests or talents you would like to share with us?

 

The band consumes a lot of my life nowadays, and I love doing it, but before it did, I was a full-time primary school teacher. I loved working with children, and occasionally still go into schools along with Amanda to teach (we met at the school we both worked at). I am looking forward to teaching again at Bearded School at Bearded Theory Festival this Summer (it was the first school of its kind to feature National Curriculum based lessons for children from 4-16years at a music festival, delivered by a team of qualified teachers). I like to write, and finally managed to fulfill my ambition of publishing my first book ‘Songs In The Key Of Tarn’ at the end of last year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thinking back to your childhood days, what was the song you most remember as a child? Did it have any influence in the music you write today?

 

My earliest memories of music were the videos for Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (which I tend to cover in my solo shows on banjulele and kazoo) and the late, great David Bowie’s ‘Ashes To Ashes’. My parents also had a video of Mike Harding’s early BBC television series’ at Buxton Opera House and Belfast Opera House. I was actually in the audience of the Belfast show aged 5 and Mike’s music and comedy had the most profound effect on my musical path. I was honoured when he agreed to play banjo and harmonica on Jump Ararnd and to voice ‘The Devil’ on ‘The Devil Went Darn To Barnsley’, something that I have ticked off on my bucket list. In the same way that Mike is the biggest influence on my writing, Freddie Mercury was the biggest influence on my stage-performances… he could control a crowd without saying a word, and watching him do that was magical. I can’t think of any other artist that could do it better.

 

Thinking back to the beginning of the band, how do you feel about how you’re performing today and has it changed much since you first started?

 

I always said that, even in the early days, the idea of The Bar-Steward Sons was to perform ‘a stadium-rock-eque comedy show in tiny venues’. All of the pomp and theatrics of Queen’s stadium show, but in a pub. When we finally broke onto the festival scene, it just gave us a bigger platform to arse around and put on a show. I recently had a conversation with Dan from Ferocious Dog, who had made the statement that FD did ‘gigs’ rather than ‘shows’ because he felt they were playing the songs they wrote as mates in front of people that loved what they did. I too love playing in front of audiences that love what we do, but whether there is one person or thousands of people in the crowd, I love to ensure that we ‘put on a show’… leaving them with something they’ll remember, both musically and visually. I have been accused of being a show-off, a one-trick pony and loads of other things but I’m buggered if I’m ever going to be boring.

 

If you could come up with a slogan for your band, what would it be?

 

“We're here for a good time, not a long time" - we played with Gaz Brookfield in Halifax and he asked me if I had come up with that phrase. I don't know if I did or not... it's something I said once on stage and it kind of stuck as a regular thing I would say to audiences. Gaz asked because he put it in the lyrics of one of his songs.

 

If you got the chance to perform with ANYONE in the world, either, dead, alive, or broke-up who would it be and why?

 

We’ve been very lucky to have been able to play alongside or work with some performers who have been inspirational and influential to us… Mike Harding, Eliza Carthy, Graham Oliver from Saxon and Maartin Allcock have all played on our albums, Simon Friend from the Levellers joined the band at Harefest as ‘Duck Doonican’, 3 Daft Monkeys joined us on stage at Bearded Theory, we backed John Otway when he played in Barnsley. We were also very humbled to have been able to support The Levellers, who have been so good to us over the past four years, whilst being some of the nicest folk in the world. Considering that we are a daft little comedy band from Barnsley, we shouldn’t have managed these things, so I regularly wonder how the hell that happened. I’m rather humbled by it all.

 

Tell us about your most embarrassing moment when with the band, on or off stage. Don't be scared to go into detail Haha!

 

I was going to propose to Amanda at Bearded Theory 2014, on stage at the end of our show. However, during our finale of ‘Jump Ararnd’ I decided, in my infinite wisdom, to crowd-surf for a beer on an inflatable lilo. None of the band, or our festival friends who joined us on stage knew what I was going to do; the only person who had seen the lilo was Mark Chadwick who had seen me blowing it up in the wings about 30 minutes before showtime.

Needless to say, the lilo bucked around like something possessed on the way towards the beer, held aloft by our friend Tom Large, even with me holding on for dear life with both hands. Unfortunately, by the time I had got to the pint of beer, I could only hold on with one hand, the beer spilled over the lilo, making it even more precarious and slippery! God knows how I made it back, but I did – there wasn’t much beer left. The stage in the Big Top was very high up, so I ran towards the backstage area to get back on stage rather than attempting to climb back up. As I ran around, I reached into my pocket for the engagement ring, to find nothing but empty pockets and an awful realisation that it was no-doubt somewhere in the crowd, most-likely stomped deep into the mud by the audience who had been jumping up and down on top of it. I never found it.

I finally proposed to Amanda after our set at Beautiful Days (a mere fortnight before we found out she had cancer!), and it was only then that I told her that I had lost the ring. Needless to say, this time around, we chose the ring together!

Here’s the video of the offending performance. Click Here

 

Lastly, How would you like to be remembered? What would you want written on your gravestone?

 

I’d like to be remembered as someone who was a decent human being. Nowt else.

My gravestone epitaph? Maybe something like “I was hoping for a pyramid”. Joking aside I’d probably opt for “Here lies Scott Doonican. Lover of life. Singer of songs.”

 

 

You can check out Scott and the other Bar-Stewards on Facebook, Their website, and their YouTube channel!