Whipping Boy and the story of Heartworm, the classic album that deserved more
Whipping Boy are rereleasing their Heartworm album.
The windows in Bono’s downstairs loo were round, like portholes on a ship. Outside glittered Killiney Bay, and further off, the lights of Dublin. But as he gazed out, Whipping Boy singer Fearghal McKee, visiting Bono’s residence as a guest of a member of U2’s road crew, spotted a design flaw in the room. The apertures were too low in the wall, resulting in a partly obscured view. Somewhere at the back of his mind the spark of an idea twinkled.
“Fearghal found himself in Bono’s house one evening,” explains Whipping Boy guitarist Paul Page. “And he noticed the portholes were quite low in the toilets. He put this random line in the song. People thought we were taking a pop at Bono. We weren’t… We were in a way taking a pop at the Celtic Tiger, where there was this side of Irish society where it was about pursuit of money and of status.”
