The Office - South Shields 7th Sept 2001

Hairy Ass Mcc Rally 14-15th Sept 2001

The Hairy Ass rally is situated in Cross village, near Kilkee in Co. Clare, Ireland on the south west coast, it is, so I'm told one of the biggest bike rallies in Ireland. The rally is sponsored by the Cetic Motorbike Company.

The organizers had to make some unavoidable changes as the Friday fell on the official day of mourning that Ireland had declared for the American terrorist disaster the previous Tuesday. Therefore no entertainment was forthcoming until after midnight.

Plain Krazy headlined the Friday night (oops Sat' morning) with their Sabbath/Ozzy tribute set, which kicked off at 2.30am, unfortunately by this time there were only about 300 to 400 people left in the marquee. I for one could have done with going to my pit as we had traveled 460 miles to get there & by this hour I was knackered. The set was as usual full of your favorite Sabbath songs with a few Ozzy solo numbers as well. Even at this time of night the crowd did liven up a bit, with one Scottish lunatic deciding it was time for some dance floor acrobatics, mad as a hatter he was. The biggest mistake I ever made was telling Fr Fran that Fairies wear boots was my favorite, as every time he sees me at a gig he insists that I do some singing, tonight was no exception, & I can't sing honest!

Saturday night saw the Krazies doing their rock covers set to what was an absolutely packed marquee, there must have been about 1500 people crammed into a marquee only big enough for two thirds that number. A major oversight, I believe by the organizers was the stage area, the stage should have been fenced off, as there were comatose bodies lying on the stage, beer cans & glasses strewn across the stage, an absolute health & safety risk in my opinion. There were extremely drunken rally goers sitting on bands equipment at the side of the stage, & I know for a fact that some equipment was damaged, a lesson to be learned there I think. (Oh yes get some more lighting as well, 4 cans was not enough).

Despite the latter the band played a blinding set which started with the first half hour doing Sabbath/Ozzy numbers followed by an excellent set of classics from the likes of Motorhead, Zeppelin, Deep Purple etc. This was to be stand in guitarist Dave Morrissey's last gig with the band as he had stood in for some major gigs for two weeks while Robbie was on holiday. I wish Dave all the best for the future as he said he was giving up playing live for a while.

Fr Fran & Co certainly put on a good show whipping the crowd into a frenzy which was kept going until about 2.00am when their set finished, ready for Thin as Lizzy an excellent Thin Lizzy tribute band (as if you couldn't have guessed that).