Eamonn Dowd and The Racketeers

Bio
I played my first gig in the summer of 1980 in a shed in rural South Mayo in the west of Ireland . Within a few months we had made the gloriously stupid mistake of changing our name from The Vibration Squad to New Testament. I think it was something to do with a changing line-up. With Joy Division and The Clash as major influences we were equal parts Gothic doom and rock 'n' roll swagger. Low slung guitars and eye liner were the order of the day, and we must have raised a few eyebrows as we brought our songs of angst and rebellion to dance halls, pubs, parish halls, and student events around the Wild West.
My next ensemble was even more bizarre. Formed in 1986, The Swinging Swine combined country, folk and psychedelic rock 'n' roll in a way that offended more than a few journalists. It was that dark bleak decade when it was a novelty to have a friend who had a real job. Money was hard to come by and it took us until 1990 to find funds to release a record. Appearing on more TV shows than I care to remember, we had a small following for a few years, and even scraped onto the lower rungs of the Irish Top 30. There was scant loyalty in those days and the band imploded shortly afterwards. Following a Kerouac type sojourn on the American west coast, I arrived back in Ireland with a bunch of new songs and quickly put together Captain Hex. Back in those days the Irish music business wasn't so corporate, so we could manipulate the media and score TV shows easily enough, and we gigged happily for a few years, but with a couple of single releases under our belt we were staring disinterest in the face. Around that time ecstasy was the new big thing and live music seemed to take a back seat to the clubbing scene. I wrote the music for a play that had a two week run at Dublin Castle , and with that I quit music.
With a young son in my life, I took on jobs as a roadie, bar tender, bootlegger, jewelry salesperson. I played harmonica on one of Blink's records, and mandolin on a Hyper Borea record that won a Hot Press Award. I eventually got hired to play rhythm guitar with ex-Beautiful South singer Brianna Corrigan. The band toured the UK and it was a never ending party....until the record company pulled the plug. With the money I had saved, I started to record what would become the first Racketeers album, and within six months of the albums release I was on a ferry, looking back at the solid white cliffs of Dover

It was a hectic time. Paddy pubs and mad houses masquerading as music halls, we continued to bring them the songs they often did not want to hear. Our adventures took us from the lowlands of Holland to the Arctic Circle , through the Baltics and beyond. I imagined myself the rock 'n' roll equivalent of Ed Wood. But if the money was right and there was a place to kip, we would turn up and put on a show of sorts. Not unlike Horslips in the 70's who played rural Irish ballrooms, we played dodgy bars throughout Europe where cover bands reigned supreme. What they made of us is any body's guess, but we got away with it for a long time. While the first album, 'By Hook Or By Crook' got us good publicity and opened new doors for us, its follow-up, 'Long Time Gone' suffered a distribution nightmare. Occasionally I meet people who tell me it's their favourite racketeers album, and who am I to argue.

It would take four years before 'Exit Hellsville' would see the light of day and put us back on track. With Jack White calling his new band The Raconteurs, and there being 3 (at the last count) other racketeers out there, one in Boston, one in L.A and one in the UK, the recent album 'Silver and Dust' is credited to Eamonn Dowd and The Racketeers and released by cool German label, Cannery Row Records. This year we're in the process of releasing 4 download/promo singles on each equinox and solstice. It's my pagan way of marking time on the wheel of the year. There's a new album in the pipeline too. Of the 80 -100 gigs a year that I play, about 70% are solo, the rest with the band - Chris Teusner on drums and Leslie Keye on bass. Other players come and go, and I've been lucky to have played with some talented musicians over the past decade, and I've met some great people along the way. So, if you make it down to a gig some night, come up and say 'hello'. We might have more in common than you realize..............
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