Cookstown man still rocking at 60

John McLaughlin is a blues rock guitarist from Cookstown who has been actively involved in the local music scene for over 40 years.

He currently plays guitar with the five-piece rock band Smoking Gun.

Photo credit: Oran McGuckin

Having recently celebrated his 60th birthday, John was joined by friends and family for a surprise party in Cookstown with live music from Draperstown based blues band, Rusty Jacks, and Cookstown folk duo, Skin the Goat.

I caught up with John recently to talk about his life in music, from his earliest influences to some of his fondest memories, and what’s next on the horizon.

Stating some of his earliest influences as Black Sabbath and Status Quo, he recalls, “One of my earliest memories of getting into music was going to the Irish College in Glenvar during the summer of first year at school.

“The lad I was sharing my room with had cassettes of Planxty, a band who still blow me away today, and ‘Hello!’ by Status Quo and it all went from there.

“More recently, however, I have been listening to a lot of Uncle Tupelo, getting more into that sort of alternative country type stuff, as well as The Supersuckers.

John said that he also has a range of the ‘usual classics’ constantly on rotation.

“I’m still listening to plenty of Jimi Hendrix, as well as Black Sabbath’s first five or six albums, and Led Zeppelin.

“I love all that classic rock stuff, but I’m also big into a lot of the early punk stuff too like The Clash, The Jam, The Sex Pistols, Gang of Four, Siouxsie and the Banshees… the list goes on!”

It was at the age of 15 that John first picked up the guitar, describing his first guitar as ‘some weird wee cheap thing that I strummed away at’.

He recalls, “I can’t remember the first full song I learned, back then I was learning snippets of riffs here and there, the usual stuff like ‘Smoke On The Water’ by Deep Purple, ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’ by Blue Oyster Cult, and ‘Paranoid’ by Black Sabbath.”

The Cookstown man started his first band, ‘Warriors’, in 1981 with John McGlinchy, Kevin McCauley and Adrian Duffy, a band he describes as ‘quite a good band’ as he continues, “We went on to do an Irish tour opening for Mama’s Boys on their ‘Plug It In’ tour in 1982.

“We played some great gigs in our day but as time went on we eventually went our separate ways.”

Recalling one of the stand-out shows on the Mama’s Boys tour, John said it all took place in the Baggot Inn in Dublin.

“We went on first,” he begins. “The second band on the bill featured Dave King, who now sings for Flogging Molly, and they all ended up fist-fighting in the middle of their set so were thrown off the stage, so the promoter put us back on again and we probably got the biggest response from the crowd overall the night.

“It was unreal.”

John’s current band, Smoking Gun, plays a mixture of class rock, blues and ‘a bit of punk’ as he jokes, “I’ve finally talked the lads rounds to the punk stuff, so we’ve been playing a few Undertones and Buzzcocks tunes, and the likes of that.”

As well as John’s impressive guitar skills, the band also features Gerry Wilkinson on drums, Gabriel Tarcsa on bass, Hector O’Hare on vocals and Danny Duggan on guitar.

Regarding what’s on the horizon for the popular local rock band, John says that they have taken January and February off, while some of the other members of the band focus on other projects whilst joking that, “We’re all old men and can’t handle the cold.

“But this time of year can be quiet enough in terms of gigging, so we’ll be kick-starting things again coming into the spring and summer.”