Aslan

Aslan From; Finglas Active; 1983 – 1988
Style; tbc
Vocals; Christy Dignam
Guitar; Joe Jewell
Keyboards; Billy McGuinness
Bass; Tony McGuinness
Drums; Alan Downey

The beginning’s

Christy Digham, Tony McGuinness and Joe Jewell had all been in Meelah XVIII. While Billy McGuinness had been in Blue Movies, and Alan Downey had previously been in Alien Comfort, another Finglas based band.

Aslan quickly became popular, regularly selling out gigs in Dublin. In 1983 they went into the Windmill Lane recording studio and recorded some demo tacks.

What’s In A Name

Aslan took their name from the fictional lion in C.S. Lewis‘s series of books chronicling the land of Narnia (Aslan is the Turkish word for “Lion”). The band came from the working class areas of Finglas and Ballymun in Dublin’s Northside, in the mid-1980s. They released a demo single, “This Is”, in the spring of 1986. It was a success and a popular single on Ireland’s pop radio station, RTÉ 2fm.

Janice Long

In the summer of 1986, they played a series of shows in the UK and Melody Maker noted: “Lucky the label that signs this band!” Janice Long at BBC Radio 1 recorded Aslan in session and it aired three times in the subsequent weeks. At the end of 1986, Aslan were awarded The Stag/Hot Press “Most Promising New Band” award and signed to EMI.

London Dates & Melody Maker

Aslan played London’s I.C.A. Melody Maker Feb 7th “The third contestants came on like black leather dockers on a beer sodden bank holiday. Their set was 30 minute surge of unstoppable pillar bursting gutter anthems. The presence of the singer filled the four walls, which fortunately for the Corgis didn’t come down. My vote goes to number 3. This concert sparked an interest from EMI, but no firm offer was put on the table.

UCD Rag Ball review

Following on from The Summerhouse, come Aslan, they immediately started off with the hard hitting “Please Don’t Stop” and from there they steamrolled on with rock and more rock. The now classic “This Is” was greeted with tumultuous cheers by the 2,000 or so people present. This was Aslan’s only slow number of the night and one can say little more than it’s superb. Earlier on in the evening, the fivesome from Ballymum & Finglas were on the IRMA Milk Awards performing their last single “Can’t Hold Back”. This is an energetic rock number relying a lot on Alan Downey on Drums and lead guitarist Joe Jewell.

The Best Laugh, A guy called Jimmy

But the thing that makes most of the Aslan material stand out is Christy Dignam’s vocals. Which are unique. He puts power and punch into all of the songs and is really the icing on the cake. Even when at one stage the sound went off for several minutes their improvisation was literally astounding. Billy McGuinness, the blonde Larry Mullen lookalike did the heroics and in his strong Dublin accent gave us the best laugh of the night with a rap number about the travels of a guy called Jimmy.

The new single

Aslan surprised everyone with the first public performance of their new single. Featuring brilliant sax playing by Derek McGoona and some niffty mouth organ work by Billy. An so after after an hour and 10 minutes Aslan finally had to leave after two encores.

In 1988, they recorded their debut album, Feel No Shame, which went to number one on the Irish Albums Chart. Within a couple of months it was certified Gold. However, in August 1988 after the option for their second album had been picked up, Aslan split up. The band recruited Eamo Doyle previously with Dublin band The Lookalikes as lead singer, but as drummer Alan said on the Made In Dublin DVD that “it was like U2 trying to go on without Bono…it was just never going to work”. Eamo Doyle went on to play with Les Binks from Judas Priest. The ex-lead singer, Christy, went on to form Dignam & Goff with guitarist Conor Goff and other members went on to form another band, The Precious Stones.