As his story is examined and celebrated on RTÉ One with new documentary This Is Christy, Jason Duffy celebrates Aslan's iconic frontman.
Watch This Is Christy here, via RTÉ Player.
Yes, it’s true. As strange as it now seems, there was once a time when Aslan was a working band, and Christy Dignam was not the lead singer! With all due respect to Eamo Doyle who was unlucky enough to replace Christy following his acrimonious split from his band mates in 1988, what a mad world that was!
"They tried Aslan before without me, and it didn’t work."
Christy is synonymous with Aslan; an icon, blessed with the gift of that voice, a performer, a songwriter and a front man up there with the best of them.
He is also a survivor.
Aslan was not always the critics’ favourite, but to use that oft-repeated and misused phrase, it is a band for the people and nobody represents this more than Christy Dignam.
I first heard of Aslan through my brother Mark, when he came home one day from the Virgin Megastore with a tape of their debut album Feel No Shame. At 12 years old, most of my musical education up to that point came from my big brother’s records, although I did (wisely?) pass up the chance to listen to the Christopher Cross album that he also brought home that day.
There were always some hits and misses with our Mark.
1988 was a strange time for the Irish music scene; a time when record companies were decamping to Dublin every week to find the new U2, and record deals were a dime-a-dozen for any band that displayed an inkling of talent. It took some time for these companies to realize that (for reasons I might theorize some other time) Dublin was not a city like London, Liverpool, Manchester or Birmingham where a ‘scene’ could kick off and all these bands that worked together, played together or went to school together would soon be figuratively hanging out in the upper echelons of the Billboard Hot 100. In the UK, it always moved in these territorial waves, but it was never gonna work like that in Ireland.
Due to this, there were some mediocre Irish bands that snapped up major record deals - although in fairness, most of those artists were only mediocre because they were signed too early, without proper time to develop - and needless to say, they were dropped pretty quickly afterwards when the label had no clue how to market them and decided to blame the artist. And thus began the traditional UK A&R persons ‘jolly’ to Dublin which remained in place for years, where the opportunity to party was reason enough for the record company to book the Ryanair tickets and maybe, whilst they’re there, check out the band that they had no intention of signing anyway!
But Aslan was different.
The band had earned their chops, had been around a number of years and were at the relatively late age of their late 20s before releasing their first album. Feel No Shame exploded from the speakers, and was choc-o-bloc with great songs; a polished, well produced masterpiece with brilliant hooks, outstanding melodies and great performances from the band. And of course, there was Christy’s voice.
You can compare hearing Christy for the first time, to how I imagine those people, that sat in O’Donoghue’s on Baggot Street in the early 1960s, felt about hearing Luke Kelly sing for the first time, it was breathtaking.
At 12 years old, all you want is for another Irish hero – be it in Sports, Film, Music – and like many other Irish bands that I followed, I just wanted, and waited, for Aslan to take over the world! And with that inexperienced and expectant attitude of a pre-pubescent, I simply knew that they would.
Anyway, right after this, they broke up!
I have no personal relationships with any member of the band, and I could not pretend to know the reasons as to why they chose to let Christy go, but we know that Christy’s drug addiction played a significant part. Maybe the decision was made so to save him, or maybe they thought it was to save the band, who knows. Either way, for a band that had a real chance, this was pretty much the end... for now.
Christy persevered with Dignam and Goff, and they had their moments, but for me it simply made me think of what might have been. There was sadness to it.
Likewise, the rest of Aslan went on to form Precious Stones, with Aslan guitarist Joe Jewel on singing duties, and in fairness they also gave us one of the great Irish singles with Red Sky (anorak territory: a lyric and melody segment of this track forms the chorus of future Aslan single Where’s The Sun?).
For me though, it meant that I’d never get to see Aslan play, and at 12 years old I was still itching to go to my first gig. Funnily enough, I’ve heard a rumour that Aslan once played the car-park of the Swiss Cottage in Santry, a pub very close to where I grew up, but I’m not sure of this is true. If so, it was an opportunity missed on my part, and now it was certain that an opportunity to see them again was never going to present itself, or so I thought.
But like every great story, there is a twist in the tale. Five years later, in 1993, Aslan announced their ‘one gig only’ reformation. I didn’t go, but I did go to what I believe was their second performance in this ‘one gig only’ reunion, and what a strange venue it was for a gig – the Departure Lounge in Dublin Airport. For the life of me, I can’t recall why Aslan was playing in the Departure Lounge in Dublin Airport, but I did bootleg this gig, and I still have the tape. It sounds awful, but the show was very special, with Crazy World already in the set.
With a second major record deal on the table following their reformation, they released Goodbye Charlie Moonhead, and although this went Gold in Ireland, and spawned the aforementioned, ridiculously successful Crazy World, they still got dropped.
Over the next twenty years, I would go on to see Aslan dozens of times, from places as diverse as The Jolly Beggarman pub in Donnycarney, and The Lord Mayor’s in Swords to Vicar Street and The Point Depot. Inevitably, Christy excelled, whipping the crowd into frenzy in each venue, no matter how big or small, and always the voice immaculate.
It was the band’s bravery, originality, forward thinking mentality and instinct for survival that allowed those like me the opportunity to catch so many shows, in such diverse venues. With the record deal gone, Aslan needed to survive by themselves, and this was really the making of them. The decision to scale down their live show to an acoustic set for the pubs, with the full set-up for the big venues was inspired. They brought the music to the people, out to the suburbs, reaching the communities and remaining busy (crucially, as they had to pay the bills), relevant and successful. No other artist of that ilk was doing this. Two major record deals, both ending with the ignominy of being dropped from both, was not going to define Aslan.
24 years after getting the band back together, Aslan are still releasing music and packing in the venues; a sold out Iveagh Gardens show last weekend being an example. No doubt it has been a hard road at times, with Christy’s struggle with drug addiction at the fore, along with losing the remarkable talents of bass player Tony McGuinness to immigration along the way. International success has eluded them, and of course, Christy’s ongoing battle with cancer - again, he is surviving.
If there is ever any doubt of Christy’s ongoing popularity in this country, or whether he should sit at the top table with the great singers that Ireland has produced, simply consider the reaction of the public and the level of his performance whilst performing a duet with his contemporary, the remarkable Finbar Furey, on Green Fields of France whilst sat on the couch on The Late Late Show earlier this year.
Sometimes we take Christy for granted, we know about his problems, the struggles he’s endured and sometimes the media focus more on the fact that he’s from a working-class background in Finglas, rather than concentrate on his singing abilities. This is rarely of any importance when the media discuss other Irish bands, so why should it be different for Aslan? Of course Christy and the rest of Aslan are proud of their roots, but let’s just focus on how great they are as artists and the unique voice that is Christy Dignam.
Christy has earned his legend, and we hope he can entertain for many years to come.
This Is Christy, RTÉ One, Tuesday 11th July, 9.35pm - read Alan Corr's review here.
