‘I’m 64... record companies won’t look at you’
Mary Coughlan has battled demons and rejection, but she won’t be beaten
Irish music icon Mary Coughlan has spoken extensively in recent weeks about the effects that lockdown has had on her, from cancelled live shows and reduced Covid payments to ongoing health concerns. Some of our finest musicians are experiencing hardship at this time and though everyone’s story is different they can surely relate to what the Galway blues singer says.
In an interview with me last month for the Irish Mail on Sunday and Extra. ie, she remarked: ‘You have to earn a certain amount of money to qualify for the €350 a week. If you don’t, you have to go on the dole and be actively looking for a job. I’m not a jobseeker, I have a job. They’ve lowered the money to €203 without any of the benefits, medical card or anything. I have a lung condition, I have stents, I have to take medication. If you earn any money, it disqualifies you.’
A month on, and Mary should have been on a tour to promote her excellent new album Life Stories. Instead she is having to adapt, to survive and hopefully thrive again.
‘I manage myself. It falls to me book all the tours. I do it but I hate it. I’m like a lunatic for weeks arranging everything,’ she says.
‘When this whole thing started, I had to cancel every single flight for everybody involved on the tour. It has to be like that because I don’t want management. It’s very tiring and dealing all with the airlines is a pain in the a***.’
She was scheduled to play Glastonbury in June, as well as other parts of the UK and Europe, and is still feeling the financial fallout. ‘The airlines wouldn’t give me any money back. I have about €3,500 worth of vouchers on my laptop at the moment.’
But she recognises that she is in an enviable position because her talent is recognised far beyond these shores.
‘I have a profile all over the world because Warner [her then record label] ensured I did when was I was signed to them [until 1989],’ she says.
‘I’m still working off that. I’ve never stopped producing music but I have to make sure that the albums are distributed everywhere; in America, Australia, the UK and all the countries where I play.’
The songs on Life Stories, she feels, are among the best she has ever released. All aspects of her life are covered on this deeply personal collection.
‘The songs on the album are totally autobiographical. There is no filter because I have no filter,’ she says. ‘It took me 15 years to write Two Break Into One. That’s about the break-up of my marriage to Frank [Bonadio]. There was me, standing there like a f ****** eejit at the wedding, dressed up like a queen and all the while he was having an affair that I didn’t know about. He told me afterwards. I channelled all the s*** I’ve gone through into these songs and the play I wrote Woman Undone [which was staged in late 2018].’
The song 12 Steps Forward 10 Steps
Back relates her experiences as an alcoholic. She says: ‘I’ve been sober for 26 years but if you’re an alcoholic, you’re an alcoholic for life. You don’t get a reprieve. It’s a life sentence.’
High Heel Boots maybe lighter in tone but it makes a serious point about the wants and needs of a woman her age.
‘It’s for all women to encourage
‘I manage myself. It falls on me to book the tours. But I hate it. I’m like a lunatic for weeks’
them again to do whatever they feel at any age,’ she says. ‘Nobody sings about being a 64-year-old woman who has been through the menopause and having sex.
The menopause for me was as horrific as anyone says, the hot flushes and all. In Australia they call them power surges!’
Mary is ambitious for the album, not just financially but to prove that women at her time of life have still so much to contribute.
‘I’m 64, I’ve been sober for 26 years. I’ve had the heart problems but I’m still bloody here,’ she says defiantly.
‘I went to a couple of majors [labels] because I think this is the best album I’ve made in years and I wanted to make a big international splash, but they wouldn’t help so that was a kick in the teeth. It would be great to have a big international hit at this stage.
But a 64-year-old woman? Record companies won’t look at you. I could lose weight and maybe do more with myself. But people know who I am and I what I am is a fairly real person, you know?’
■ Mary Coughlan’s new album Life Stories is out now.