You were an early adopter of the rock’n’roll party lifestyle, touring before you hit legal drinking age. How did that work for you?
People in Ireland generally start drinking early, so we’d grown acclimatised before we went on tour. When you’re young, you bounce back quickly.
Do you remember Roskilde 1996? If not, I’m not surprised.
We played really early on, got smashed during the show and by the end were totally destroyed. I got completely trollied, dragged a journalist through a hedge, was carried off and put into bed at 6pm.
_What’s the most memorable night of excess you enjoyed? _
This Icelandic promoter showed up at the Astoria with a case of incredibly strong Schnapps and everyone was throwing up like crazy: a different level of shit-faced.
_You weren’t exactly discouraged from partying though… _
Our producer Owen [Morris] was a complete psychopath. Days we should have been working were spent partying, smashing the studio up. I’ve still got a guitar with BB gun pellet holes in it from where he shot up the studio one day.
Rick [McMurray, drummer] and yourself are on the wagon.
A couple of years ago I turned up to soundcheck for an XFM radio session. Rick was already there, absolutely destroyed. He’d been drinking all night and couldn’t remember how to play drums. That was the point where he quit.
