John Creedon has told The Brendan O’Connor Show on RTÉ Radio 1 that his entrepreneurial spirit once saw him managing a rapper in his native Cork city.
The presenter joined the show on Sunday to share five songs that have been there at turning points in his life, when talk turned to Creedon’s stint as a budding music mogul.
“You have to tell me about… you managed a rapper at one stage,” said O’Connor.
“He was a manager in Burgerland, which Munster people will remember Burgerland as a kind of proto McDonald’s before we had McDonald’s,” O’Connor explained.
“Yeah, and do you remember right beside it was a place we called Pisaland (Pizzaland)?” laughed Creedon.
“Now, Pisa’s actually a town in Italy, but ‘I’ll have a vegetarian pisa’… Pisaland and Burgerland were right beside each other.”
“He knew I was involved in the pirates at the time – in pirate radio,” Creedon continued about his adventures in management.
“That was a mad rollercoaster. Made a living, paid the bills, but, em, yeah, remember being raided by the guards on one occasion. We’d spent years preparing for it, and the day they arrived, sure, we made a bags of it!
“But yeah, anyway, all I remember was his name was Lester.
“But I decided, because he could rap and he used to do The Sugar Hill Gang and Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five – rap was new – and I thought, ‘Let’s make a fortune! We’ll call you Lester Rapalot!’ Sir Lester Rapalot – that’s the name I gave him!
“Ah sure, look, I was 24 and he was 19, but you know, I was the senior… I was the Arthur Daly in the operation!
“So, we did a tour of west Cork and we did Ballinascarthy Hall. We did… there was a disco inside in the shopping centre in Dunmanway, and I think the Bantry Boys’ Club. And, really, they kind of didn’t get it!”
“You were ahead of your time!” laughed O’Connor.
“Well, that’s it,” Creedon agreed.
Creedon’s music choices included his late father Con, Rory Gallagher, Donna Summer, Christy Moore, and Louis Armstrong.
His new book, This Boy’s Voice: A Journey into Manhood, is published by Gill Books.
The John Creedon Show airs weeknights on RTÉ Radio 1 from 8pm.
The Brendan O’Connor Show is on Saturdays and Sundays on RTÉ Radio 1 from 11am.