The Mountain Climbers……Scaling New Heights
When The Blades broke up in 1986 I got a call from my old Vipers comrade, George Sweeney. He was rehearsing with a singer, Tom O Brien, and a drummer Robert Hamilton who had been gigging as ‘the V Column’ and of course, they were looking for a bass player.
And that’s how I got roped in (yet again) to rehearsing with what was to be a four-piece band playing power pop.
However, not long after, George and Robert jumped ship and teamed up with Nick Kelly to form ‘the Fat Lady Sings’.
So Tom and myself got hold of a new drummer Robbie Kelly and he brought along a lead guitarist Tommy Courtney and we were back to being a four-piece again. Tom had written a song called ‘the Mountain Climbers love song’ and being very fond of puns had the following couplet;
‘I’ll never rest …till I get home to you’ as the lyrics in the chorus. Somehow we adopted the song title as the new name for the band but later shortened it to just ‘the Mountain Climbers’.
We were popular on the college circuit and even managed to get a television appearance as well as a single, produced by Paul Thomas (who had worked with U2 and Clannad in the early days). It was released on the well-respected ‘Solid Records’ label. The single ‘Grace’ had a guest appearance by saxophonist Padraic McCaul who was playing with a band called ‘the Harvest Ministers’. They were looking for a bassist so I ended up playing with both bands for a while.
The Single – Grace
Listen to The Mountain Climbers single “Grace” played as played on the Dave Fanning Show.
We had a real problem holding on to lead guitarists in ‘the Mountain Climbers’ and in our short time together (18 months) we managed to go through four. And the fourth one was none other than George Sweeney who rejoined us after leaving the ‘Fat Lady Sings’ but then left for a second time.
That pretty much contributed to the end of the band. And that’s when I threw my lot in full-time with ‘the Harvest Ministers’.
Click here to find out more about my time with the Harvest Ministers.