Glen Hansard has revealed that his mother bankrolled the first demo made by the fledgling Frames in the late eighties.
Speaking to John Kelly on The Works Presents this Thursday night on RTÉ, Hansard says of the Frames' early years: "I got to the point, and I don't know how I got there, where I need to make a demo of my own songs so I went to Sun Studios and asked them how much it would cost and my mother goes to the bank manager and asks can she get the house done up and the bank manager gave her three grand, two of which we spent on the demo."
John Kelly and Glen Hansard
Hansard, who has just released his second solo album Didn't He Ramble, also recalls being invited out to Marina Guinness' house in Kildare where Stewart Copeland of The Police, Ronnie Wood and late Island Records boss Denny Cordell listened to the demo.
"I knew who Stewart was but I didn't know who Ronnie was. I was a huge Police fan when I was a kid and they were commenting to me on my music. `Well done, it's really good' and Denny said, `Can I see you play?' and I said well you can come in and see us busking so he did and then I met Chris Blackwell of Island Records.
"I was a huge Marley fan but I didn't know he was on Island Records but I went over and I also saw that Nick Drake was also on Island and he was someone I had only heard one song from but I was blown away."
You can watch the full interview with Glen Hansard on The Works Presents on Thursday, October 8 on RTÉ One at 11.15pm
