Playing a blinder

Hold on to your cloth caps folks. Known for their Irish folk stylings, Peaky Blinders band have taken a sidestep from the usual genre offerings, bringing a contemporary spin to their tunes and releasing their first music video to boot.

The band, previously known as Planxty Folk and consisting of Eamonn ‘Sticks’ Doherty (Strabane) and Fearghal Mac Lochlainn (Lifford), have taken the Guns ‘N’ Roses classic ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ and put their own stamp on it, giving the rock classic a more melancholic vibe featuring the mandolin, guitar, keyboard and Uilleann pipes.

Explaining the change in direction Eamonn said, “Well, it all came about when I was playing with The Squealin’ Pigs, whose music would be a bit more contemporary, and Fearghal remarked how he really enjoyed it. I asked him to suggest songs that he would like to try in the Peaky Blinders genre, and we produced a list, and we began playing music from the likes of U2, Thin Lizzy and the Waterboys.

“After rebranding as the Peaky Blinders Band, we started to try and get ourselves out there. The bookings were coming in, but when people asked where they could see or hear a sample of the music, we realised that we hadn’t got anything to show people. That’s when the idea of a music video came to us.”

Now that the idea for a video was in their heads, the next question was, ‘which song do they use?’

“We kicked around a few ideas, trying to think of which song would suit our style of music as well as being something which we wouldn’t normally do, until eventually settling on Sweet Child O’ Mine, a rock classic.

“Not something you would automatically associate with the style of music we play, we thought that adapting it would show that we’re not just a folk band and we’re capable of adapting to different genres.

“The song just fit, y’know?,” Eamonn continued.

“We recorded, arranged and produced out at my studio in the house, and shot the video there too. Both Fearghal and I had a brilliant time working on the songs and the video. The song was one of six recorded during the sessions and we plan to shoot videos and release them all on my YouTube channel over the coming months.”

Asked what’s next on the agenda, Eamonn says The Peaky Blinders Band aim to continue in the vein of subverting audience expectations.

“Sweet Child O’ Mine went fantastically well and we’re both so pleased with it and hope that audiences are too. Going forward, the plan is to take more songs from outside the folk genre and give them a folk-y spin as well as giving songs known for being folk a more contemporary spin and possibly make an album over the course of the year.”

• Sweet Child O’ Mine can be viewed on The Peaky Blinders Band Facebook page and will be available on Sticks Doherty Music YouTube channel soon.