The singer John Spillane is packing coffee, pigs, seed, books, hens and ‘a positive attitude’ for his desert island trip
What is your earliest childhood memory?
Getting my photograph taken with my father (he died when I was one-and-a-half) standing behind me and my brothers around me. I was lying on my back on the table, in baby clothes. The sunlight was streaming in the window through the lace curtains. My dad came and stood behind me and I felt a lovely warm glow go through me. The picture was around the house when I was small and I suppose that kept the memory alive.
Who was your first pin-up?
Don’t think I really did pin-ups like, but I did have a poster of Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd, and the black and white photographs of the four Beatles that came inside the White Album.
Which of your peers do you most admire, and why?
I have to say I really admire Christy Moore. I loved his singing on the Planxty Black album when I was about 12, and learned those songs on the guitar when I got going. I was also a huge Moving Hearts fan. It has been a great positive honour and excitement in my life that Christy has recorded three songs I have written.
What would you be doing with your life if you hadn’t chosen this career path?
I would be living in a tree house in the African jungle on the banks of the Zambezi river, swinging off vines and roaring like Tarzan, drinking fire water with chimpanzees, swimming with hippopotamuses, wrestling with tigers and howling at the moon.
Can you reveal any guilty pleasures?
Snack Box! Turkish Delight! Beamish!
Who would you like to see cast in the movie of your life?
Hey, I think I could make a good job of that myself, like, if the money was right – the biggest fool that ever hit the big time, and all I gotta do is act naturally. Otherwise, I would be happy with Elvis Presley or Laurence Olivier.
Who are you following on Twitter?
I have to say I’ve never even looked at Twitter, sorry lads. I spend my Twitter time playing the guitar and writing songs instead of going on Twitter. You can’t do everything, like. Also I am thinking of spending more of my Twitter time sound-proofing a shed and putting a piano into it.
What’s the first thing you’ll buy when you win the Lottery?
I think I would have to spend money on finding ways to relieve hunger due to drought, by drilling wells, irrigation, finding ways to transport water across the surface of the planet, by pipes, road, ice. Investment in food production in deprived areas of the planet. Relieving hardship.
What would you pack for your desert island?
A guitar, a piano, a concertina, my family, a herd of sheep, cigarette lighter, fishing line, hooks, nets, twine, Chopin, Planxty, The Beatles, Beethoven, Darach Ó Catháin, Dolores Keane, coffee, pigs, seed, books, hens, a positve attitude.
What’s at the top of your Things to Do Before I Die List?
I am going to write an opera, called The Legend of the Lough, based on a local folk-tale about the Lough in Ballyphehane in Cork. It will be in Irish and English, and on two stages, the overwater stage and the underwater stage. Irish will be the language in the drowned ‘Underworld’ and English in the real ‘Overwater’ world. It is all about a King and a Queen, a Princess and a Prince, a well that overflowed and a Golden Chalice. It is about jealousy and greed, this world and the ‘Other’ world. I hope to stage this opera on the green next to the Lough, on Bonfire Night, St John’s Eve, in a few years’ time. All the people of Cork will turn out for my opera and people will travel from far and near to be there. Fair play to me. I think it is going to be a huge success. Dream on, John, dream on. I would also like to write some really nice songs if I can. I would like to revisit certain beautiful places I’ve seen, like Victoria Falls and the redwood forests of northern California. Forgive everyone.
Stuff like that, like. Thanks lads, Rock on, John!
John Spillane’s new album, A Rock to Cling To, is released on EMI
