Kieran Kiely played accordion on Angels in Drag and the organ solo on Place Your Bets.
Kieran has had more true rock and roll experience than anyone I know, during his time with Shane McGowan and The Popes. I won’t go into it right here, lest I scare you off! The bottom line is that he is a sublime musician of great soul, especially when you happen to catch him at the right moment. He played whistle for Sinead O’Connor before she packed it all in, and keys for RK, which is how we met, at TFI Friday in the summer of 2000. I was drawn to the way he played the accordion and made up my mind that somehow, somewhere I would get him down on tape…
Sure enough, many late nights, tours, arena gigs, drinking/studio sessions and TV shows later he was sitting in my front room with his accordion, recording Angels In Drag. It was a one-take special, a beautiful performance, and it transformed the track before my very ears. The accordion adds a wonderful organic ocean-going dimension to the sound, that old sea-shanty feel I was after. I had programmed it before, but Kieran’s feel and sound made all the difference. Its great to have him on my favourite track on the record.
Just before we wrapped up to have a cup of tea and, if my memory serves me correctly, dinner at Adam’s Cafe, he ripped out some funky-ass Hammond on Place Your Bets, which helped the playout of the tune no end. So there we have it – the contribution of the Kielster… top marks for bringing to life the vision of ‘Angels In Drag’. He just got married in the Seychelles – good way to do it!
I’ll put up a mix of some of his accordion mastery soon…
In the meantime, I’m having a lazy Saturday, going shopping for my cousin’s wedding gift and hot chocolate in Max Brenner’s…