Emperor of Ice Cream take to the stage again, 30 years on from last live gig

“I suppose, like the Sundays song from years ago, ‘here's where the story ends’,” says Emperor of Ice Cream vocalist John “Haggis” Hegarty down the phone. There’s a lovely symmetry between history and personal redemption for the Cork dream-pop outfit - eagle-eyed Downtown readers and Leeside indie anoraks alike will no doubt be familiar with a story in two parts, but for the uninitiated…

Cork youngfellas start a band amid a hot early-1990s period for local music, that sees their peers attain mainstream success; they end up with interest from Sony, who duly sign them and put them on the road in the UK, financing independent releases and such until they’ve genned up a bottom line of interest; and put them to work alongside Motörhead’s “Fast” Eddie Clarke toward an eventual debut album… that gets canned just before completion, as the band are dropped amid the mania for Britpop, and promptly disband, grow up, get real jobs, etc.

Fast-forward to 2020. With the covid crisis giving the world pause, an unexpectedly massive response to a retrospective article on said band in this parish’s sister paper, the Irish Examiner, set the ball rolling for its former members to have a think about working together again. The band eventually unearth old demo tapes that, while not 100% complete, are in good enough nick to be cleaned up and have new tracks dropped in alongside, resulting in the completion and release of said debut album, ‘No Sound Ever Dies’, via FIFA Records, later that year - run and operated, as it turns out, by the band’s former manager, Eddie Kiely.

Up to speed? Good. Over the past three or so years, the name Emperor of Ice Cream has been revived, its potential fulfilled, and its fanbase thoroughly satisfied with developments, with one catch - circumstances have largely dictated that the whole affair has happened online. That is, until later this month, when the bauld Emperors take to the stage of Cyprus Avenue, a venue that didn’t even exist the last time they played together, to take the last steps around erasing the question mark that accompanied their name and work for so long.

“We're no good at planning things. Like, we didn't plan to be a band years ago, and it just happened. We didn't plan to come together and do the album during covid, but that happened nearly thirty years after it was supposed to happen. Finishing the album was a complete surprise, it going to number one on the iTunes indie charts was just a lovely way to, I suppose, tie a ribbon on the whole thing. [This gig] just happened because Graham (Finn, guitars) was coming home with his twin girls, which is fantastic for him, y'know. So yeah, but we're all looking forward to seeing each other, I think. I'm a bit nervous, I would say because it's the first time we've played together in 29 years. But I can't wait to see the lads, and I can't wait to see what we can do.”

The band’s upcoming excursion live happens against the backdrop of life having happened in the intervening years - Finn lives in New York, and drummer Colum Young lives in the Netherlands, while Haggis and bassist Eddie Butt (full disclosure: an esteemed colleague of ours here at the Echo Examiner Group), are both based in Ireland.

The album - as well as the remastering of earlier releases and the writing of further contemporary new material - was all done remotely, and the band’s prep for going back into a jam space is happening in a similar fashion. Hegarty collects his thoughts on the prospect of a non-remote rehearsal..

“As far as the other three lads are concerned, I know that Eddie Butt has been practicing, but only sitting down, so he still has to stand up, and that's going to be interesting. Colm has been playing jazz drums for the last 29 years, so we might have to just give him a whiskey or something before he goes on stage to, y'know, bring some life into his jazz hands. And Graham, at the moment, the only thing he's been handling is two twin girls.

“So it will be fun. I think we were always a band that went for it, but it was also very melodic. So it should be interesting, fingers crossed, We'll be playing 16 to 20 songs that we haven't played in a long time, but I'm really looking forward to seeing the lads, I'm really looking forward to playing on stage with them, but it will take a minute to get used to the volume on stage.

“Just being together again, we always had a great time when we played together and we used practice hard and play hard when we played gigs, and I can't wait to meet up for the lads again really. It's one last night, it's one night only, this isn't a reunion or anything like that - it's just a nice way to finish up what we started during covid.”

For Haggis, that process of preparation has meant getting familiar again, not only with the band’s body of work, but how he used to approach the songs in a very physical sense, as a singer, as well as being mindful of the time that’s passed since the bones of the band’s sole long-player were put down.

“I suppose, for me, for the last eight weeks, it was lovely to sit down again. I just got some guitars together, got some pedals together, and sat in the kitchen, just playing through the songs, first of all getting used to them. Even singing the way I did thirty years ago is going to be strange, because, y'know, years ago, you'd go for it, but in the last 30 years, I released slightly more chilled-out music, more experimental. It's basically trying to get ready for a marathon, even though it's just an hour that we're going to be playing on stage, and it will be gone straight away, like, in two seconds - there's got to be butterflies in the stomach.

“I'm just looking forward to getting up there and playing, and it's brilliant because A Cow in the Water are playing with us, and John Lynch is playing drums with them, who used to be our original drummer for the first year until he left the band, so it'll be fantastic to get up on the stage and see John, it'll be fantastic to be around all the lads. A Cow in the Water was one of my favorite bands when I was growing up as a kid, the original singer was one of my idols.

“Everyone being still around thirty years later is fantastic. There'll be a crowd there, hopefully, to join in, celebrating that we got the album finished after thirty years.”

Emperor of Ice Cream play their reunion/retirement gig at Cyprus Avenue, on Saturday, August 26. Doors 7pm, tickets €22.50 from cyprusavenue.ie.

Emperor of Ice Cream’s discography can be streamed and downloaded at https://emperoroficecream.bandcamp.com/ - debut album ‘No Sound Ever Dies’ is also still available on white 12” vinyl via FIFA Records.