You do the 'math
The Cronin Brothers have come a long way with their group The Aftermath since leaving Longford to make their fortune. With friends like the Kaiser Chiefs and fans like Chris Moyles, they’re on the brink of making it big.
Phil Udell, 01 Sep 2006
The phone line from Kildare to a mobile in Mullingar shouldn’t present too much of a challenge but with brothers Johnny and Michael Cronin of the Aftermath both trying to make themselves heard over its speaker phone, we may as well be trying to contact the moon.
All we can make out is ‘Leeds’, ‘JCB’ and ‘Terry Edwards’. Eventually we have to call time on the conference call and Johnny takes over to recount the story so far.
“I left Longford and moved to Leeds when I was 15 and got a job as a JCB driver. I was in a raggle-taggle gypsy band over there, then I was in a rock band, working under my own name. I supported the Frames and Damien Rice.
We became friends with a lot of people, Terry Edwards when we supported Gallon Drunk, the Ukranians, people like that.
Michael went to school with the Kaiser Chiefs and we used to play with them when they were in their old band. It was a bit of a strange time for Leeds when we were there. The Smiths were at an end, so was Madchester and there was this raggle-taggle boom for a while so I went into the singer songwriter thing for a while.”
Although things were going well for him, personal events put matters into perspective. “Our Dad died and I thought to hell with it, I want to go back home, I don’t want to die in England. ”
How would he compare the two music scenes? “I notice that the climate has changed with the whole solo acoustic thing but that’s not just here. I was in Leeds on Monday and everybody wants to be either Dizzee Rascal or Damien Rice, whereas over here we all want to be Franz Ferdinand or the Kaiser Chiefs.”
The Irish music scene is, he says, a great deal less predictable: “I remember supporting the Frames in Leeds and Glen would be rocking out and all the lads in the audience would be obsessed with Oasis and the mod thing, Glen had the grunge look with all the holes in his jumper and the girls all went for him because he had no image.”
And so came The Aftermath, named after the brothers’ favourite Stones album, with Johnny on guitar and vocals, Michael on drums and guitarist Justin McNabb.
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