MacD on Music: 'Borderland' - Big Electric Ceili Band

History is filled with classic reunion albums. Albums such as ‘Long Road Out of Eden’ (the Eagles), ‘The Rising’ (Bruce Springsteen’s reunion with the E Street Band), and ‘Say You Will’ (most of the ‘Rumours’ lineup of Fleetwood Mac).

This week I’m talking to Brian McMonagle, member of the Big Electric Ceili Band, the legendary Derry/Donegal group, who are currently finishing up their very own comeback album. I met with Brian in the Guildhall cafe, where we spoke about the new album, his work in Beechwood Recordings and had our picture taken with the Derry City’s (then) newly won FAI cup (although only two of those things are relevant to this column).

Speaking about the history of the band, Brian told me: “It’s the first album in twenty five years. This band were together about twenty five years ago, and at the time we were one of the biggest bands on the Irish circuit, one of the biggest live acts.

“There was one August, when we were at our peak, when we played twenty-six nights in a row, which is kind of unheard of for bands these days. We did an album at the time, which did fairly well. We sold maybe ten thousand copies of that. It was album of the week on RTE, we played on the Late Late Show, Live at 3 and some stuff for the BBC.“

After breaking up, the band kept in touch, even as they were all working on other projects. For years, they talked of a second album, particularly after Brian opened Beechwood Recordings around seven years ago. Eventually, they decided to go for it, and began work on album number two.

Brian tells me: “There’s four songwriters in the band, and the biggest problem we had was deciding how to whittle down two hundred songs into twelve or fourteen. On the new album, which is called ‘Borderland’, we sat down for a couple of weeks and decided which ones to go for. And though this album is 95% finished, we’re starting the next one in January.”

“Lineup-wise, we’ve got a great mixture of traditional players, folk players and rock players. The four main songwriters all come from different songwriting perspectives. You’ve got purely folk, indie rock, I’d be more into the progressive rock side, and Dessie is more of a traditional player, so when those four elements fuse together, it creates quite a unique sound.”

As mentioned above, Brian also owns and operates Beechwood Recordings, and he told me about some of the artists that have recorded there.

“Rory Doherty, Jeanette Hutton, the Barbiturates, the Runback, they’ve all recorded albums there just recently. I was kind of in between recording those guys when we did the Big Electric album.”

During our chat, I asked Brian if there were any other acts he’s had his eye on.

He tells me: “I can only go with the people that I’ve worked with. The Barbiturates’ album is fantastic. Jeanette Hutton’s album, great. Rory Doherty’s album, and the Runbacks, those are the four that I’ve spent the most time working with recently. All local bands, all original material. Diverse, and as good as anything you’ll hear anywhere.

“There’s some great local bands, like Invaderband, Our Krypton Son,  their stuff’s excellent as well. And they’re all nice people, more importantly. I run the studio, and you could be spending literally weeks in the room with people, so you form a nice bond. People become friends.

“Over the last few years, with Beechwood Recordings, I’ve met some lovely people, formed some nice friendships, and it makes it easier to work on the music.”

“I love working with solo artists. Marty Logue’s stuff is fantastic. Marty is a singer-songwriter, and he basically comes in with his acoustic guitar and vocal, and quite kindly let’s myself and Jim Walker put guitars, bass, drums and keyboards on his songs. He was great to work with. His album’s really good.

“Top notch singer songwriter stuff. I’d highly recommend it. To be honest, I’d highly recommend any of those people. I’m not just saying that because they recorded with me. Their stuff is outstanding.”

Coming back to the Big Electric album, Brian says: “It really was an absolute pleasure to work on. To reconnect with people that you played with twenty five years ago, and say ‘let’s do it again’, that was brilliant. Already, the next one, we’re starting in January. We can’t wait to get to that one.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is that. The new Big Electric Ceili Band album, ‘Borderland’ will be released very soon (possibly even by the time you’re reading this), and until then, they can be found on Facebook. Their music can be found on all good streaming sites.