Aslan go full circle with return to Cork for Joy In The Park 2024 

Aslan, one of Ireland’s most successful bands, formed in Dublin in the early 1980s, originally a five-piece consisting of Joe Jewell, Tony McGuinness (who left the band in 2008), Billy McGuinness, Alan Downey and singer Christy Dignam. They released six original records, a live album recorded in Vicar Street, and two compilations, which both went double platinum in the Irish charts.

Christy’s health difficulties were well documented, and he passed away in his home in June of 2023. The remaining trio of Joe Jewell, the band’s lead guitar, Billy McGuinness, who plays keyboards and guitar, and drummer Alan Downey spent some time deciding their next step on their road in the music industry, which now leads them to Fitzgerald Park when they headline Joy In The Park.

Billy spoke of how their first steps back into playing was more for their mental health than career.

“We’ve been asked to do Joy in the Park, and we feel it marks what we’ve been through the past year. We lost our lead singer of 40 years and none of us knew what to do. The hardest part was to say “let’s go up and get the guitars out. We’re not looking to do gigs, we just need to focus on something for our mental health.”

“Denise McCormack, our manager, was really supportive of us. She arranged the studio, we pulled out the guitars, and we just started playing. That was the first step and it was such an important move to make, we were just together as we have been for 40-odd years.

We know that we are lucky and that we did have that support, there are people out there that don’t have it or that don’t make that first call, and they can go into a really dark place. It’s something we take very seriously with the band now.”

Aslan’s debut single ‘This Is’, one of the band’s most loved songs, has a particular connection for Billy to Cork.

“It reminds me of when we played the Lark By The Lee in 1986, and we played ‘This Is’ for the first time, and so it was the first time an audience actually sang the song back to us. The connection with Joy in the Park and being by the same river is important. It’s our first time doing a relatively big crowd since we came back with our new singer, it’s as if we’ve gone full circle over the last 40 years.”

The story of how that song changed is an insight into how Aslan operated, as Joe explained: “The songwriting in the band is collective. Nobody would say ‘here’s a song’, Aslan was never about that, it’d always be ‘here’s an idea, let’s finish it together’. It was always about all of us, because we’re a band. ‘This Is’ evolved as we all got involved. It was written back in the day when we were rehearsing in the pigsty so it actually started off as a really fast song, really punky. We just gradually slowed it down, and it just worked, and for whatever reason, it’s become a classic song about growing up through hard times. Now, what we would describe as being hard times is nothing compared to what the majority of the world’s hard times are, but the important thing was it was relevant to people then and still is today.”

Billy picked up on the point: “I was watching a few things I was sent on YouTube, and one was people in America that have never heard of Aslan, reacting to ‘This Is’ – the video and song – and they loved how everybody’s included in it, colour, race, religion, it doesn’t matter. And to think of that in 1986, it was way ahead of its time, and you can see the song still stands today worldwide, the message in it.”

The band’s new singer, Lee Tomkins, joined them in the studio initially to test the waters, and they found a dynamic very quickly. Joe commented on the new energy in the band: “Lee also plays electric guitar and acoustic guitar, so once he started playing, straight away we had this fuller, heavier, meatier sound and he’s got a different vocal sound too. Once anybody else comes into the fold, if I can put it that way, the band will write different songs. I’m a humble man and I’m not trying to claim all the credit but I was responsible for a lot of the lyrics, so that won’t change, but musically stuff would change. Recently we were in the rehearsal room, taking a lunch break, and Billy played something, he played four chords, and I said ‘what was that?’ We ended up coming out with a chorus, literally in ten minutes, and the rest of the song by bouncing off each other really.”

Lee, while new to Aslan, has a long history of playing in Cork.

“I remember playing Cyprus Avenue back in 2012, and coming back over the years, that’s why it was special when I played there earlier this year with Aslan.”

Billy speaks of that concert in March fondly, another connection to Cork for the band.

“Our first gig back was actually that gig in Cork, it was an amazing night, fantastic. We played intimate venues on purpose, just to get the feel of the band back, getting in front of an audience, because it had been so long. It’s purposely different now, it would have been so easy to go out and just have a Christy lookalike, doing the moves and all that, but it would have been a disaster. What we’re doing now is a new chapter, a new journey. That was step one, getting back playing.

“We’ve already moved on to step two, which is new material. We’d said no more gigs but then we got the call from Joy in the Park, and because of what it’s about, awareness of mental health, and celebration of life, we just said, look, we can’t ignore this gig, let’s park the songwriting, and let’s go down and do this!”

Aslan and Lee Tomkins headline the John McCarthy Stage at 5.15pm.

Joy In The Park - music, entertainment, well-being and Joy

With 10 stages spread out all over Fitzgerald Park, Joy In The Park has become one of the standout days in Cork’s music calendar despite this only being its third year. The brainchild of Linda Plover, as a tribute to her close family friend Joy Sylvie and featuring a main stage named after the Mental Health/Madpride Advocate John McCarthy, it is jampacked with over 30 singers, bands, poets, storytellers, circus acts and a myriad of wellness events such as meditation, yoga, arts and crafts.

Another important aspect of Joy In The Parl is also the Mental Health Activity and Information Hb which features a wide array of organisations such as The Cork Mental Health Foundation, Shine, Jigsaw, Pieta, Aware, The National Learning Network and many more. Sample Studios are also running a drop-in Gallery Space and The Public Museum will feature a short film screening and exhibition of artefacts.

Joy In The Park runs from 12pm to 6pm on Sunday, July 21, in Fitzgerald Park.

Admission is free, but donations are welcome For the full programme of events go to www.joyinthepark.com