Resurgence of Power is the stuff of Dreams for Ronan
POD’S Craig Walker reveals how news of their reforming prompted Boyzone star to post his excitement on twitter
We were sad that it was ending but it just wasn’t viable anymore. It didn’t feel like anyone had the heart to continue.
Ronan Keating was tickled pink when he heard Power of Dreams are reforming, not only to mark the 30th anniversary of their debut album, but to also bring out their actual first long-player of new material since 1994.
“What! How did I not know this? Original line-up? When? My day is made!” the Boyzone singer posted on Twitter.
Ronan went on to describe their 1990 debut album Immigrants, Emigrants and Me – included in the book 101 Irish Records You Must Hear Before You Die – as being “the soundtrack to my youth”.
The band’s singer-songwriter Craig Walker has since exchanged a few messages with Ronan.
“It was very sweet of him to tweet about being a fan of Power of Dreams. He’s a f ***** g nice bloke,” Craig told the Irish Daily Mirror.
“I think fame is a very strange thing. I’ve absolute admiration for people who can be at a huge top level and still be normal – like Ronan Keating. I’ve worked with people who have sold one millionth of what he sold and they were not nearly as nice. So, respect to him for that.”
The 49-year-old Dubliner, who is now residing in Berlin – the very same city where Irish acts Wallis Bird and Wyvern Lingo are also based – first started Power of Dreams (POD) with his younger brother Keith and their two mates while still at school.
They grew up “just down the road” in Walkinstown from the band A House, whose third record I Am The Greatest is considered one of the greatest Irish albums of all time. Coincidentally, that album will mark its 30th anniversary next year.
“They were a huge inspiration. They were the first people that I ever came across in Walkinstown who were remotely famous. The lightbulb went off in my head that, ‘F ***** g hell! These guys from around the corner are signing to Warners’. And that was amazing,” Craig recalled.
They “orchestrated” it for Keith to get to know A House’s frontman Dave Couse.
“I remember saying to Keith, ‘Go down to see Dave and ask him these questions’. And Keith would go down, he was probably 14 at the time, a cheeky little drummer, and ask Dave, ‘How did you get a record deal? What’s a publishing deal?’ Dave gave us great advice. And we supported them. They were very kind to us.”
POD landed themselves their first record deal with an independent label when they were all still at school. And then soon later they were in the big league when Polydor Records offered them a major deal, at a time when most of them – apart from Craig – were all still under voting age.
“Keith was 16 and Mick was 17, and because of that our parents had to come over and sign the deal for them. It was so strange. Weird,” he said, laughing
The record label splashed the cash on the band – even putting Craig up in the plush Hilton hotel in London when they recorded their debut album there.
“I told Van Morrison to f***k off at a Christmas party that year! We’d signed in December and Polydor brought us to the Christmas party. My A&R was the same A&R as his. My A&R guy was like, ‘Craig if you’ve got to come and meet Van. Van, he’s Irish like you’,” he recalled.
“I went over – I was a bit pissed, a bit cocky. And my A&R guy goes, ‘Here Van, he’s Irish like you’. And he went, ‘F**k off ’ to me, straight into my face.
“And I just said, ‘F***k off you old – ” whatever. That was it. I didn’t give a s***t about Van Morrison at the time. I wasn’t really into his music. I thought it was old, but I’ve since come to absolutely reconsider that with Astral Weeks.
“Even his ex-wife who was his muse at the time, said she couldn’t believe how beautiful the music was when the character was so ‘not’ that!”
Craig has fond memories of recording their debut out at a Master Record Studios in Kilburn.
“The Pixies were recording next door when we were doing Immigrants. It was produced by Ray Shulman, who was a member of Gentle Giant. He was 40 at the time. And I’m 49 now. And I remember – I was like 18 – thinking, he was an old fart. Talented but f ***** k old!” he recalled, laughing.
“And he did a great job. I’d asked for Ray to be the producer because he’d done The Sugarcubes, who I loved, and Ian Mcculloch’s first solo album, from The Bunnymen. I was really a fan of that. And he did The Sundays’ first album.
“He said, ‘I want to capture what you do live. If we do that, I’ll have done the job right’. He listened to what I had to say. It wouldn’t have been as good a record if it had been done with a producer who was telling me what to do. An album is more than the sum of its parts…”
Unfortunately, their once upbeat mood was at an all-time low shortly after their fourth album was released in 1994. While out touring in Japan, they called it a day after realising that the small print of their record deal meant their hands were tied and they couldn’t jump ships to a more enthusiastic label offering them a muchneeded cash “lifeline” to keep the show on the road.
It was ironic that it should’ve ended in the Land of the Rising Sun, of all places, because they were quite literally Big in Japan. They’d shifted close to a very impressive 100,000 units of their debut album out there and even had screaming fans turning up at the airport with handmade dolls of them!
“We had a huge following, proper pop star stuff in Japan. It’s really flattering to arrive in a country you’ve never been before and – with the whole place is blowing your mind – people know who you are. It does