Big Mug -Artwork by Binman and
Murgatroid Art.
Photo by Edel Ni Dhuinn
Released: by Murgatroid Independent Recording Company
October 1997 Ireland & UK
Formats: CD (Mur CD04)
Track Listing :
1. Big Mug**
2. About You*
3. My Band*
4. Cemetery*
1. written by Niall Quinn; 2. written by Hoss
Carnage;
3. written by Niall Quinn and Eric Fitzgerald; 4. written by Andy Gallagher.
Recording Details: 1. & 4. Recorded at Xeric Studios, Limerick Spring/Summer 1996.
2. & 3. Recorded at Xeric Studios, Limerick May 1997. 1. & 4. Engineered by Pearse
Gilmore. 2. & 3.
Engineered by Fergal O'Neill and Mixed by Pearse Gilmore.
The Hitchers: Andy - Vocals*, Guitars, Keys; Niall - Vocals**,Drums;
Hoss - Bass; Eric - Guitars.
Additional Musicians: Robin Robbyns - Keys; Dave Early - Percussion; Marco
Petrese - Trumpet, Flugelhorn;? - Strings;
(above)
Video shoot for Big Mug
Banna Strand Co. Kerry, Ireland. 13th July 1997
(Photo Edel Ni Dhuinn) and (right) in a boiler room of the old factory in The
Foundary area of Limerick. Niall's "double" on drums is Nigel Nix.
Big Mug was the final single
lifted from It's All Fun & Games Til Someone Loses An Eye. It had a very
different vibe ...much mellower ...to it compared with the earlier
Murgatroid singles and the lead track itself is much different from the way
I'd imagined it'd be. The original demo -which appeared on the b-side of
She'll Be Sorry a couple of years earlier -was much more (probably too much
more) energetic and full on whereas this version is a lot more laid back. It
took me a while to warm to the idea when it was suggested we strip it down
but I could see the logic in it as the recording came together.
The other three tracks gave the lads a more than well earned airing of songs
they'd written. Hoss' 'About You' is a tower of a song and deserved to be a
single in it's own right.
'My Band' started out life as a guitar riff Eric was working on and I built
a lyric onto it.
The Hitchers were only a thing of beauty in the most abstract open ended
interpretation of the word ...But Andys 'Cemetery' is beautiful.
