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a guy, and we'd be playing quite a bit. Then Mary would arrive, and as soon as she
started singing, there would be a crowd gathered. We would start to hear the coins

going in from tink, tink to chunk, chunk, chunk.

MS: I would have to say that was where at one point I remember it was not licensed
and so it was questioned by even the guards in Ireland who would get complaints

because of the volume. My vocal style was a touch loud.

BP: Without a mic. She was too loud and also, they were irritated because we weren't
paying tax on the coins that we were getting on the street. Imagine that.

BiTS: Well, I never did.

BP: That's the genuine start
of our blues and it's only when

we sort of started getting
support spots and moving

indoors and using electricity,
that we even developed the
idea of a band.

MS: But I would say, Ian,
again, I think that it's
important for me to say that
I'm very fortunate. Brian has

always been interested in
recordings. So the early

recordings that we made
really were from 1983 and
Brian rigged up a way to
record in the flat.

BP: We used to use the tape
recorder on pause, and it

would suddenly become live
and we'd all huddle around one mic and off we'd go.

MS: So, I really mean this, it was a very honest and very true to a blues journey start

for us because this obviously was part of where the rural blues came from.

BP: On one of our early ones, there's a motorcycle at the end of the song, you can
hear the song end and then, rrrrrr. [Laughs] A motorcycle comes down the street.

BiTS: [Chuckling] I believe that the band has existed for close to 30 years. Is that
right?