The Saw Doctors
The Saw Doctors rose to gain national attention during 1987 and 1988 as they toured in support of popular Irish bands such as the Hothouse Flowers and The Stunning; they also proved a major hit when they played at the 1988 Galway Arts Festival. In the spring of 1988, when The Saw Doctors were playing a six-week residency at the Quays Bar, Galway, their energetic live show attracted the attention of the The Waterboys, who were then recording their Fisherman's Blues album in nearby Spiddal. Pub sessions and budding friendships among the two groups would prove fruitful for the Saw Doctors' future, and would see eventual crossovers between the two groups. The band's current bass player, Anthony Thistlethwaite, and former drummer, Fran Breen, have both been members of the Waterboys. In the fall of 1988, The Saw Doctors filmed a satirical "rockumentary" on a flat-bed truck while driving between Galway and Salthill. A parody of U2's newly released Rattle and Hum film, in which U2 play Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" from a flat-bed truck in San Francisco, The Saw Doctors' Crackle and Buzz had its "world premiere" at the Claddagh Palace Cinema in Galway. The Saw Doctors played live from the cinema's balcony, parodying the short acoustic set U2 played atop the Savoy Cinema on O'Connell Street when Rattle and Hum premiered there on October 27, 1988. Footage from the tongue-in-cheek stunt was featured on RTÉ's main evening news. In late 1988 and early 1989, The Saw Doctors accompanied the Waterboys on tours of Ireland and the UK. In August 1989, Waterboys' frontman Mike Scott produced the band's first single, "N17," a song about an Irish emigrant longing to be driving on the N17 trunk road that connects Galway with the Saw Doctors' hometown of Tuam. Although "N17" did not chart upon its original release, the band's barnstorming live performances over the next year, particularly their appearance at the inaugural 1990 Féile music festival in Thurles, County Tipperary, cemented their reputation as a formidable live act and the song became seen as the band's anthem. Following their success at Féile, the band released their second single, "I Useta Lover," a humorously off-colour paean to an ex-girlfriend. The single topped the Irish charts in September 1990 and spent nine weeks at number one, becoming Ireland's best-selling single of all time, a record it still holds. A re-released "N17" reached number one in the Irish charts at Christmas 1990, and the following year, the band's debut album If This Is Rock and Roll, I Want My Old Job Back entered the Irish album charts at number one. At the 2008 Meteor Irish Music Awards they received the Lifetime Achievement Award.