{"id":146468,"date":"2025-11-18T14:02:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T14:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/146468\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T14:02:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T14:02:15","slug":"we-got-to-do-everything-a-rock-band-would-dream-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/146468\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We got to do everything a rock band would dream of’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Philpott went to secondary school at Col\u00e1iste an Spioraid Naoimh in Bishopstown, Cork in the late 1980s. When he told his career guidance counsellor that his ambition after school was to make a go of it in a band, he got some pointed advice: \u201cKeep dreaming, kid. Just don\u2019t drag anyone else down with you!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Philpott took no notice of his teacher\u2019s scorn. With his band, Rubyhorse, which was cobbled together with schoolmates from Spioraid Naoimh in 1986, he went to the moon and back, a rollercoaster story which he captures in his memoir, All Roads Lead to Where You Are: From Bishopstown to The Beatles.<\/p>\n

Rubyhorse consisted of Philpott (guitarist), Decky Lucey (bass), Gordon Ashe (drums), Owen Fegan (keyboards) and Dave Farrell (lead singer). They were 14 years of age when the band formed. By 16, they were getting gigs in Sir Henry\u2019s, booked by Tony O\u2019Donoghue (years before he became RT\u00c9\u2019s television soccer correspondent). They\u2019d arrive at the venue in their school uniforms to do the soundcheck, then change into paisley shirts bought from nearby vintage clothes shop Red Square.<\/p>\n

After years playing on the Irish circuit, Rubyhorse jumped on a plane for Boston in January 1997 \u2013 with \u00a31,000 in the band\u2019s account \u2013 intent on making it big or failing spectacularly. Within a couple of months, the band landed what turned into a 62-week residency at The Burren, an Irish bar in the heart of Davis Square. There were queues outside to get into The Burren gigs.<\/p>\n

Seymour Stein, the legendary president of Sire Records and the man who signed Madonna, The Ramones, The Smiths, amongst others, dropped in one night, arriving by limo, to see what all the commotion was about. The world\u2019s top record labels circled, looking to hook the band for their breakout album.<\/p>\n

\" Rubyhorse with Sting<\/p>\n

In March 1998, the band signed with Jimmy Iovine at Interscope, whose stable included Dr Dre, Nine Inch Nails and Eminem. For their first meeting with Iovine in Los Angeles, the band got rear-ended at a junction, which kept Iovine waiting for 40 minutes. He wasn\u2019t impressed, especially because they smelt \u201clike a brewery\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Steve Ralbovsky, a colleague of Iovine\u2019s, tried to excuse them: \u201cThey like their few drinks. Besides, at least they don\u2019t bring their own smoke machine into meetings like some of your other artists.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAmazing things were happening to us all the time,\u201d says Philpott. \u201cI remember there was a green phone in the apartment. I just waited for it to ring because it was going to be something that you could only dream of. It was going to be, say, Jimmy Iovine on the phone saying. \u2018There’s a plane waiting for you at Logan Airport. We’ll see you in LA tonight.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was this feeling where your heart was going to burst because it couldn’t get any better. You\u2019d wake up scratching your head the odd time. Particularly, if you went to places like Vegas or New Orleans, living people’s dreams in your ordinary life, a bunch of lads going for it. Everywhere you went, you were the party. You arrive at a venue. Suddenly, there’s 500 people there and they all want to hang out with you and take you to this place and that place. You go on to the next town and do it again. It was non-stop.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In late 1999, Rubyhorse\u2019s manager, Jeff Kramer, picked up one of his other artists, George Harrison, at the airport in LA. He put on a studio tape of a Rubyhorse track, Punchdrunk, in the car. It was music to Harrison\u2019s ears. He went back to the UK and couldn\u2019t get the track out of his ears. One night whistling the melody he paused and asked himself: \u201cWhat is that? That\u2019s the Irish kids. I better do something with that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And so, in December 1999, Harrison went into London\u2019s Friar Park Studio and laid down his inimitable slide guitar to be threaded into the band\u2019s song.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Beatles are omnipresent in my life, from being a child hearing my parents listening to them,\u201d says Philpott. \u201cThey were the go-to blueprint for how it’s done, but out of reach. Next thing we have George saying, \u2018I’d love to play on this.\u2019 Hearing his part back on Punchdrunk for the first time was mad. When you hear some guitar players on the radio, it’s few of them that you recognise after two notes. Maybe Mark Knopfler, The Edge and George, whose slide style is unique. Still when I think about it, I go, how the hell did that happen?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rubyhorse\u2019s maiden record with Interscope hit a wall, \u201ca million-dollar mistake\u201d. The band brushed themselves down. In 2002, their single, Sparkle, reached No 17 in the Billboard charts. They were invited onto late night talk shows with Conon O\u2019Brien and David Letterman. They supported Culture Club on tour. R.E.M. asked them to do support for a gig in Dublin. They partied with Def Leppard. But then in 2004 \u2013 a year after their keyboardist had left the band \u2013 and just as they\u2019d released possibly their best album, tellingly entitled Goodbye to All That, Rubyhorse called it a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn paper, it made sense for us to keep going because there were things coming down the tracks,\u201d says Philpott. \u201cThe songs were getting better, we were getting better, but our hearts were broken. We were out of gas. We couldn’t go another round. We were in our early 30s. Relationships were suffering. It\u2019s a natural feeling at that age to question everything. It was the right decision. No regrets. We got to do everything a rock band would dream of \u2013 toured all over America, got on the big talk shows, had a Top 20 song, played with a Beatle.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Late Show with David Letterman<\/p>\n

\" Rubyhorse on Letterman<\/p>\n

Not many Irish people have been guests on the iconic Late Show with David Letterman. They include Richard Harris, U2 and the Cranberries, amongst a handful of others. The Cork band Rubyhorse joined that select group in 2002 when they performed their hit single Sparkle at the legendary Ed Sullivan Theater, on the same stage where the Beatles made their American TV debut in 1964.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything about Letterman was high stakes New York,\u201d writes Joe Philpott in All Roads Lead to Where You Are.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show was taped in real time like a Broadway production. One take, no retakes, no safety net. Letterman himself was notoriously aloof, going through some personal issues at the time, including a stalker situation at his home.<\/p>\n

\u201cRehearsal was rigid. A stand-in walked through the script. We were briefed on every detail. Do not engage with David. If he likes you, he will come over. The theatre was freezing, air conditioning cranked up to prevent him from sweating under the lights.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played great. Letterman loved it. After the performance, he broke protocol, walked over, shook hands and asked what we were doing for Christmas. It was July. Deck [Lucey, bass player and songwriter], deadpan, answered: \u201cGoing to your house.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLetterman, famously paranoid and private, looked genuinely startled. Hilarious.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Joe Philpott\u2019s All Roads Lead to Where You Are: From Bishopstown to The Beatles is available in Waterstones (Cork) and Hodges Figgis (Dublin).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Philpott went to secondary school at Col\u00e1iste an Spioraid Naoimh in Bishopstown, Cork in the late 1980s.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60,6405],"class_list":{"0":"post-146468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-music-movies-reviews-munster"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}