Ger Whelan and Dave Frew reflect on creating music and making a living with An Emotional Fish.
Formed in 1988, An Emotional Fish a four piece band from Dublin, with Ger Whelan as vocalist, Dave Frew on guitar, Enda Wyatt on bass and keyboards and Martin Murphy on drums.
Signed to Mother Records in 1989, their single 'Celebrate' was hugely popular in Ireland, and got to number 40 in the UK charts.
Last year the band were selected for major promotion by BBC Radio 1, which ensured significant airplay and publicity for their debut album ‘An Emotional Fish’, as well as a tour of Britain.
Ger Whelan and David Frew acknowledge that being in a band full time and dealing with the music business brings a new set of pressures. As they see it, songwriting cannot be dictated by a record label.
You have to live with your songs and live with your music.
Professional and personal progression is also important to the An Emotional Fish members, who are grateful they can go out and make a living.
From ‘Scratch Saturday’ broadcast on 2 March 1991.
'Scratch Saturday' was a children's programme which was first broadcast on 23 September 1989 and ran into the nineties. The programme was presented by a team including Mary Kingston, Brian Graham, Brian Reddin, Teresa Smith and Andy Ruane. The programme included music, videos, reviews and issues of interest to young people.
