25Th Anniversary Tour & New Best of Album - 2525

The Saw Doctors

25th Anniversary Tour & New Best Of Album - ‘2525’

After playing their biggest show ever, The Saw Doctors announce brand new UK & Irish tour dates

 Voted Ireland’s Favourite #1  Comedian Peter Kay is their biggest fan  Championed by the new President Of Ireland - Michael D Higgins

Having just played their biggest homecoming show ever (to over 50,000 fans in Galway City), over 750 shows in the UK and having made almost 100 trips to America - The Saw Doctors celebrate 25 years together with a brand new Best of album, ‘2525’ (out 25th October 2012) plus some very special concerts.

The Tour: The band kick start proceedings in Belfast on November 23rd and travel throughout the UK & Ireland, ending in Glasgow Barrowland on December 20th (all dates below). For the first time ever, they will be touring with new backing vocalist Lindsey Cleary. The band first met Lindsey in the studio while working with Petula Clark and her vocals just clicked with Davy’s. She joined them for the Gay Byrne RTE TV special this summer and has stayed with them ever since. The tour bus will be getting a spring clean in anticipation of her arrival while Lindsey is eagerly learning all the new songs.

Says Leo Moran; ‘Having Lindsey on board will add a completely new dynamic to the shows and allow us to do a bunch of different songs that we haven’t played live before. We will also be doing a special acoustic section midway that really will show off Davy and Lindsey’s harmonies together’.

The Album: ‘2525’ (out 25th October 2012) “It was summer ‘88 – Did you think that I’d forget?” So says the first track on this brand new Best Of compilation ‘2525’ by The Saw Doctors and that is as good a place to start as any. Running in a rough chronological order through the band’s 25 year history, it traces the band’s career from their groundbreaking debut single “N17” - based on the road out of Galway and the last stretch of stone walls and ‘grass is green’ before the local emigrants left home for a life in the UK & US (and now featured in Chris O’Dowd’s new TV series ‘Moone Boy’) through to last year’s chart topping smash “Downtown” – a duet with Petula Clark (the UK’s most successful ever female artist!).

Along the way we revisit the infamous “I Useta Lover” - recently voted Ireland’s Favourite No.1 in chart history and, maybe not unremarkably, also the all-time favourite of UK comedian Peter Kay (who has joined them onstage to sing it on more than one occasion). We drop in on the “Presentation Boarder”(s) (from 1991 – the year the local school stopped taking girl boarders and affecting forever the lives of the young men of Tuam) – and we hear the story of the legendary Tommy Kavanagh, the local DJ who was forced out of town after defying the Bishop’s order and running a disco during Lent. Many years later, after having returned to the town, he visited the studio almost every day of the recording of The Saw Doctors’ third album – but died shortly afterwards – now ever to be remembered in song as “The Immortal Tommy K”.

Also included is “Michael D”, a paean to Michael D Higgins - an early supporter of the band - first elected as minister for Arts and Culture in 1993 and now President of Ireland (he invited the lads over to the mansion house not long ago and what started as tea and cakes ended up as a ‘lock-in’) . “Howy’a Julia – a sideways glance at the notorious antics of the Bishop of Galway who disappeared overnight after news of his twenty year affair and teenage son broke out across Ireland - and the glorious “Red Cortina” – a huge Christmas hit 20 years after it was originally written (and 40 years after the demise of the of the legendary Mark II).

The album also features the glorious summer infused “Me Heart Is Livin’ In The Sixties Still”, the only song that could ever marry the historic twin tales of longstanding roadie & band bus driver Paddy O’Neil taking his clothes off in the Odeon to watch the Woodstock film and the sad glory of Johnny Donnellan the Galway Gaelic Football Captain raising the Sam Maguire (the equivalent of the FA Cup) to a dignified hush rather than a rabble rousing cheer in the 1964 GAA Final, unaware that his father had passed away in the excitement of the crowd only moments earlier. As Leo says; ‘Born into a repressed, catholic, conservative, smalltown, agrarian, angst-ridden and showband-infested society, we’re trying to preserve the positive elements of our background and marry them to the sounds which have culturally invaded our milieu through TV, radio, 45s, fast-food restaurants, 24 hour petrol stations and electric blankets’

It’s going to be a helluva tour and a helluvan album.

Tour Dates (2012): Friday, 23 November Belfast Mandela Hall Saturday, 24 November Dublin Olympia Monday, 26 November Cambridge Junction Tuesday, 27 November York Grand Opera House Wednesday, 28 November Stockton on Tees Arc Friday, 30 November Edinburgh HMV Picture House Saturday, 01 December Liverpool Philharmonic Hall Sunday, 02 December Oxford 02 Academy Tuesday, 04 December Cardiff Coal Exchange Wednesday, 05 December Bath Komedia Friday, 07 December London 02 Shepherd's Bush Empire Saturday, 08 December London 02 Shepherd's Bush Empire (extra date added) Sunday, 09 December Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall Tuesday, 11 December Bridgwater Palace Theatre Wednesday, 12 December Southampton The Brook Friday, 14 December Leeds 02 Academy Saturday, 15 December Manchester 02 Apollo Sunday, 16 December Sheffield Plug Tuesday, 18 December Leamington Spa Assembly Wednesday, 19 December Newcastle Academy Thursday, 20 December Glasgow Barrowland

‘2525’: The Best of The Saw Doctors Vol II (released October 25th - on i-tuams)

1. Downtown (with Petula Clark) 2. Red Cortina (acapella) 3. I Hope You Meet Again (2012) 4. N17 (original recording) 5. Tommy K 6. Friday Town 7. Me Heart is Livin’ in the Sixties Still 8. Takin’ The Train 9. Galway and Mayo 10. Presentation Boarder 11. I’ll Be On My Way (from ‘Live in Galway’) 12. Goodbye Again 13. Wake Up Sleeping 14. Music I Love 15. Villains 16. Chips 17. Bless Me Father 18. Out For A Smoke 19. Share The Darkness 20. Mercy Gates 21. You Got Me On The Run 22. Michael D Rockin’ in the Dail 23. Howya Julia 24. Hazard 25. I Useta Lover (from ‘Live in Galway’)

For further information, Regional Press please contact; Simon Blackmore @ Black Arts PR Apartment 21 – Number One The Parade, Cowes, Isle of Wight, PO31 7QJ T: 01983 281 567 M: 07973 374 423 E: [email protected] W: www.blackartspr.com