Trains, Boats and Planes Berlin-Leeside dash ahead Cork-Tipp clash

Irish Daily Mirror

26-04-2025

The Frank and Walters are ready for another epic at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
Just getting there will be epic enough!
The Cork band are playing in Berlin tonight before a trains, boats and planes dash to Leeside to perform before the Rebels' Munster SHC clash with Tipperary tomorrow.
'We have never played at a match there before, it is definitely a first for us,' said drummer Ashley Keating.
'And for it to be Cork-Tipp as well! My dad and my uncle and my grandad have all been talking about those Cork-Tipp games from every era, there is such a different vibe around those games.
'I hardly have the vocabulary to explain it but I just know that walking into a Cork-Tipp is different to any other game, different to any other in any sport.
'And I'm lucky enough, I have already managed to get the Champions League final in Moscow, Manchester United and Chelsea in 2008 and some other big sporting occasions.
'We have some stadiums with the band, the Olympiastadion in Munich where the 1974 World Cup final was, did Thurles' Féile, half-time at Turner's Cross in a Cork City game...
'But this Cork-Tipp is nothing like that, it is a completely different feeling, totally unique - to get this one, it's just a dream come true.'
Hurling is in the Bishopstown blood.
'Sport was huge in my family, my father followed Cork hurling and football, Cork Hibs and Cork Celtic and we went to all kinds of games back then.
'I was at school and going up to Croke Park the three-in-row hurling titles in the 1970s, remember going up to Croke Park and all through the 1980s.'
And it's a measure of the excitement around this current Cork crop that those of who have seen some of the greats winning trophies have belief in this side.
'Jimmy Barry-Murphy would have been the main hero for me growing up but Gerald and Charlie McCarthy, Tom Cashman, John Horgan, Ger Cunningham.
'Jimmy Barry-Murphy lives around the corner from me, my local pub, Flannery's in Glasheen and, you know, I've met plenty of rock and roll stars over the years from Oasis to even Paul McCartney and I still get star struck as meeting those guys.
'When we were in school my father took us to the 1973 football All-Ireland, we all had long hair at the time because that was the fashion but then Jimmy Barry-Murphy came out with the suedehead cut and we were all were down in the barbers within the next few days getting ours done!'
Cork's class of 2025 have similar capability to inspire, beating Limerick twice last summer and winning the Rebels' first League title in 27 years this month, although they face Tipp having been pegged back by All-Ireland champions Clare last week.
'I suppose this team growth has been gradual for us,' notes Keating.
'We have always had good players and I'd always feel optimistic at the beginning of the Championship season.
'Now I've heard it said that you would think in Cork there are probably enough good players to make a stab at an All-Ireland at any given time but getting it together and getting the balance and dynamics right and getting the training and tactics right is the tricky part.
'That optimism can get shattered and it was especially in the last few years unfortunately, but it feels like this could be a year.
'Brian Hayes, Ethan Twomey and, obviously, Hoggy are the big stars for me and I think they will be ready for this weekend even if it was disappointing last weekend.'
The Frank and Walters's popularity took a huge suge in the wake of TV hit Young Offenders and recording a track featuring an old fan called Cillian Murphy.
A band who first came to prominence at a time when the Cork music scene was almost at the centre of the earth have a great tale to tell.
'It was kind of a strange time, we all drank in the same bar, there were like a lot of bands there in The Liberty Bar on South Main Street down near the Washington Street student area and we used to all go to watch Cork City and when summer rolled around the GAA games.
'Anything to fill your time because, I guess, none of us were working and so it was, like, full time music. Nobody was working, Cork was a bit of a black spot.
'So we're socialising in the same place and there was a kind of nice, healthy rivalry among the bands.
'We would be a little bit behind Cyprus Mine, Five Go Down To the Sea and, obviously, Microdisney.
'But we saw what they were doing, releasing records and doing gigs outside Cork and obviously in Microdisney's case doing international shows so we saw what could be done and got inspired by that, to go further afield.'
The Frank And Walters and Sultans of Ping FC had the Rebel county on the world map.
'The Sultans wrote brilliant pop songs, there was a band called Waiting Room came a couple of years later and Rory Gallagher - I only got to appreciate Rory Gallagher in my later years because he was so different to what we were doing. We were very much indie, we tried to stay away from influences which were, in a sense, too close to us at the time.'
Then the Young Offenders and the second coming!
'That was incredible, we were genuinely winding down, like the numbers were down, which was grand, we understand that in every career you get peaks and troughs, multiple peaks and throughs, in our case.
'Then out of nowhere we had this being played on the Young Offenders and instead of people coming to the gig, it was people coming to the gig and bringing their kids and their sometimes grandchildren. The generational spread at shows now is mental.
'Cillian Murphy was a bit younger than us but had around the tail end at The Liberty Bar and he was definitely aware of us.
'And when he told us subsequently that he was a fan, which was nice, we actually did a song with him, Stages, on our last record (Bringing It All Back Home). It's kind of a spoken word part, which is great.
'If we were in music to make money we'd be doing something else,' added Keating. 'But no matter what it was, I'm pretty certain we'd still be dashing to get to Cork!'