Limerick drummer releases new song as a solo artist
A DRUMMER from an 80s band known to many in Limerick music circuits has released a new song.
Niall Quinn from The Hitchers has released Sand and is hoping to release more songs in the coming year.
Originally from Ballynanty and living in Parteen, Niall is best known for his time with The Hitchers.
The Hitchers were formed in 1988 and Niall only recently found a diary from that time when he was 15-years-old, as the members had previously believed that the band was formed in 1989.
“We had always had an official birthday of 1989 as when we first played together as The Hitchers, but now that birthday has shifted back to 1988,” Niall laughed.
At the time when The Hitchers was formed, Niall had started hanging out with Hoss, the bass player and according to the golden nugget of a diary, which he found recently, they started talking about putting a band together within a few weeks of becoming friends.
The Hitchers are made up of Niall Quinn on drums, Andy Gallagher on guitar and vocals, Eric Fitzgerald on guitar and Hoss Carney on bass.
While the band were fairly prominent in their prime, Niall said: “We haven’t been in active service as such, writing and recording for a couple of decades - we still do get back together every couple of years for a session, but two of us are still in Limerick, one is in France and one in Dublin.”
He added: “We are enjoying retirement as such and we still do get back together occasionally and play, but we are not gigging like we used to.”
Niall also released music as Theme Tune Boy along with several other guises.
Coming in at just under seven minutes, this song Sand brings the listener right back to the days of investing in music, both in terms of time and money.
The song tells a story and brings the listener along a journey, it weaves a tale and the listener is almost playing a role in that story, as the music and lyrics bring them along.
It ties in with Niall’s own hobbyist interests in World War II as he collects aeroplanes and even has some in his office for his day job in Mary Immaculate College.
Niall said that he would love to hit the road and tour with some new material and that he is still haunted by the life of the musician past in many ways.
“My other half often laughs when she catches me in the hall waiting for the van that isn’t coming or I’d have a notion that I should be somewhere on a Friday or Saturday when I would have been on stage,” Niall said.
“I never really left music and I have released a couple of songs since The Hitchers, but they would not have had the same interest in our music as The Hitchers.
"I’d love to do more gigging, but music has changed so much. There are no physical copies of music these days, it will be on all streaming platforms, but the sums don’t add up to produce an album.”
Sand is available on all major streaming platforms now. For updates on The Hitchers, see https://thehitchers.ie.