RELEASING one’s debut cd should be a major milestone in anyone’s life. Former Sawdoctor Turps Burke, who is
facing just such an event this week with the release of Illuminate, however is taking the whole thing in his stride.
Fourteen years after he joined one of Ireland’s best known bands, John ‘Turps’ Burke is just hitting
his stride. Debut album Illuminate sets out an impressive stall of tracks that encompass a wide range of tastes, unified
by the unmistakable sound of a man who spent the latter end of the Nineties finding his voice.
With impeccable North Galway credentials — born in Cluide, he moved to Tuam at age eight and now lives close to his
parents in St Joseph’s Park — Turps’ finest moment so far is bound to place him firmly high in the pecking
order of bankable Irish singer songwriters.
His musical experience began at the age of eight travelling and playing spoons with dad Brendan Burke, singer of the Keane
Family Ceili Band.
Later, as one of the first punks in the west, Turps played with his own proto-punk Tuam bands — hands up who remembers
Blitzkrieg, The Lads and All Cats Are Grey?
In 1987 he formed The Sawdoctors with school friends Leo Moran and Davy Carton and they quickly became the best known band
to hail from the west.
“I was just back from London and the lads knew I played guitar, so they gave me a shout,” he says now.
1990 saw the band produce the biggest ever selling single, I Useta Love Her, and the rest — including albums
If This Is Rock n Roll I Want My Old Job Back and All The Way From Tuam — is history.
Turps rapidly began to find his voice within the band, co-writing tracks, singing on the tracks he penned himself, and
contributing his crystal clear high harmonies and melodic mandolin/keyboard themes to the sound of the band.
It was around this time he also contributed vocals to The Waterboys’ West of Ireland-recorded album Room to Roam
at the request of old mate Mike Scott.
The association with Scott has stood to Turps down through the years.
The folk super hero evidently is impressed with the breadth and range of Turps’ talent and has called on him a number
of times down through the years to contribute to his work.
By the time in 1997 that Turps had decided to leave The Sawdoctors, he felt he was ready to tackle the music scene head-on
as a solo artist.
“The time between 1991 and 1992 was pretty difficult because we were touring so much. It was difficult not to get
distracted,” he says now of his time with the band.
With a publishing deal to back him up, he was able to concentrate on writing.
And it was during this time that he began to travel to Spain.
It is clear that living there had a profound effect on him — the laid back Mediterranean atmosphere obviously agreed
with him, and the album includes a number of tracks that were written there, or written somewhere between here and there.
So, with a gestation period of four years on this album, was it worth the wait?
“Apart from the stuff that happened along the way which I wasn’t expecting, I always liked the way Mike
Scott and the Waterboys, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Mike Oldfield and Radiohead have made a lot of albums and
then go out and tour them,” says Turps. It dosent really matter if it takes 2 to 5 to 7 years to make a record,
as for me the final product is what matters, to feel right inside about it, give birth, and then let it spread its wings
and fly!
To the same end, he has amassed a stock of some 120 songs over the past four years.
“I just wanted to make a theme type of album, like a film or say sonic picture. The 10 tracks I’ve selected
for this album may not necessarily be the 10 best songs I’ve written, but they are the 10 which work best together,
and that was important to me,” he says.
Even the album sleeve of Illuminate provides lots of local interest with name checks of more than a few familiar
names, including the staff and management of Maloney’s Pub, High Street.
“I really like the atmosphere in the place. The live venue would remind you a bit of the Mean Fiddler in London,
and it is the kind of place where you would get people of any age sitting down and relaxing,” he says.
The immediate future, he says, will involve a few gigs some time soon — certainly over the summer.
Catch him either live, or by buying the album Illuminate available in usual outlets.
— Mary Conroy
