Kevin Rowland webchat – your questions answered on Dexys, darts and pink suits

This is What’s She’s Like is one of the best songs we’ve written. But I think my best vocal is probably Carrickfergus – I don’t think it’s my best technical singing and I’m sure I could have sung it better technically but before I did the track, I tried to do a lot of preparation and look right into it. My dad told me about the long distance men, Irish guys, that used to travel from town to town, work on a building site for a couple of weeks, probably sleep rough and then go on the drink for a couple of weeks, then walk to another town, he even told me what they were wearing, they had a certain look. I realised that that’s what this song is about, a long distance man, at the end of his life, who wants to go home to Ireland, to die, with his ex who’s already buried there. When we recorded it in the studio, I decided to wear a 30s/40s suits and a cap and an overcoat and after about two takes, something happened. I just felt like my body felt weaker, I felt myself hunching over, and I felt shivery and I turned the collar of the coat up and I just said: carry on – and we did that vocal and coughed half way through it. That vocal is one take and we left the coughing on – I was completely in that song and being that character and most of those guys died form TB. It just felt really authentic and I knew that was the vocal. I send stuff out to people and ask them which version they like and everyone said: that version. My ex manager Tim said: leave the cough in. And I thought: fuck yeah.

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