'We said to each other, we have to get home': Frank and Walters wouldn’t stand a Cork-less Christmas
After what has been an eventful year for Cork band The Frank and Walters, Christmas will be celebrated at home in Cork — a tradition that has remained in place ever since the band’s failed attempt at spending Christmas abroad back in the ‘90s.
The Frank and Walters had a flying start to 2024 when they were named Cork Persons of the Year at a reception at The Metropole Hotel in January in recognition of their profound impact on Cork's cultural tapestry and the arts over their 30-year career.
Fast-forward 11 months and the band announced a collaboration with Cork City FC on the 2025 away jersey, which is orange in colour, paying homage to the band’s iconic stage outfits, and has the Frank and Walters name embroidered on the back and ‘After All’ on the sleeve cuffs, a nod to one of Leeside’s most-loved songs.
The band — comprising lead vocalist and bass player Paul Linehan, drummer Ashley Keating, lead guitarist Rory Murphy, and Cian Corbett on keyboards — will return to the stage at Cyprus for two gigs this Friday and Saturday before taking some well-deserved R&R over the Christmas period.
Reflecting on 2024, Ashley Keating spoke of a great year for the band and described the collaboration with Cork City FC as one which reflects their deep connection to Cork and to the sport.
Speaking to about the band’s long history with Cork City FC, attending games since childhood and the highs and lows along the way, Keating described the collaboration as a very fitting one and said it was “an honour” to work with owner of Cork City FC Dermot Usher on the project.
“I work in the Opera House and Jeremy was doing some fundraising shows there and I was telling him that I was in the band and he put two and two together and figured that the players run out to the song ‘After All’ and have been doing that for years and so then he mentioned it [the collaboration] one day and we thought it was an amazing honour.
"It’s our hometown club. If anyone asks us what team we support, Cork City FC is the first name out of our mouths. It’s always Cork City number 1 for us.”
Keating said despite his busy schedule, he always tries to make time to attend a game while touring, describing it as “something that’s in you forever, something you never lose the grá for”.
He described the Cork crowd as “amazing”, whether it be at a music gig, GAA game, soccer game or rugby game.
The Cork crowd is just amazing. When we play in Cork, they’re always our most nervous gigs because you don’t want to let the people that you grew up with down. We have played all over and I could walk on stage in London, New York or Paris not a bother but before Cork, I’m always well nervous.
“You want to put your best foot forward. And Cork people will always call you out - if you do something that wasn’t good, they’ll just tell you. They’d back you to the hill, even if you do something wrong, but they’ll still call you out, which is great because it keeps you down to earth.
“Cork people love their sport and love their music and there is quite a crossover. I don’t know if any other city crosses over as much. I’ve noticed for years that the same people you’d see in ‘The Shed’ on a Friday night would be the same people you’d see in Thurles at a Munster final and would be the same people you would see in the likes of Sir Henry’s, Cyprus Avenue and the Opera House.”
On the stand-out moment from his personal career, Keating said it always circles back to Cork.
“It’s weird. I was only thinking about this recently. We moved to England in about 1991 and it was almost the stick with the bindle over the shoulder. We got Slatterys bus and had to bribe the bus driver to take our equipment because there was a limit on the size of the bags,” he said.
“We went and really worked hard in England but we were living in a hostel and we were surviving on about £11 a week. Crazy stuff. Then we got a bit of success and people followed us and I remember the first gig we did in Cork when we came home which was around Christmas ‘92 and it was in City Hall.
“We had never played City Hall before and we had grown up seeing bands like Thin Lizzy, The Waterboys and New Order in City Hall and it was borderline unachievable for us to ever think we would be able to grace that stage.
I remember walking out on stage that night and it was probably one of the most amazing moments. We were obviously proud of what we had done but we felt so proud that we had gone and made everyone else so proud.
"It was almost too much to handle, we nearly had to slap ourselves and compose ourselves to be able to play and the emotions were very high. I was at City Hall recently and those memories came flooding back.”
Keating said the band is looking forward to a quiet Christmas at home - something set in stone after an attempt to spend Christmas abroad in ‘98 went wrong and the band panic bought tickets from the States to Cork.
“We've never spent a Christmas abroad. We lived in the States in the late '90s, we were living in New York but doing a West Coast tour. And it seemed a bit tricky to get home for Christmas because we had more gigs on the East Coast of the States at the end of January,” he said.
“I remember we were in San Francisco and it was December 22 in 1998 and we had no show and we were due to fly back to New York in the evening and a radio DJ asked if we would come in to do a Christmas song special with some guests.
“During the show, the DJ said: ‘And next we have the greatest Christmas song ever written’ and he played Fairytale of New York and I swear, the three of us nearly died. The song finished and we just said to each other, we have to get home, we can’t spend Christmas here.
“We spent an absolute fortune but we didn’t care what it cost and we finally got into Cork at around 7pm on Christmas Eve. That was our one and only attempt at spending Christmas not in Cork. Every other year we thought, "Nah, it’s pointless”.”
- The Frank and Walters play Cyprus Avenue on Friday, December 20 and Saturday, December 21.
