And the band played on...

Nothing much phases Mick Foster who in fairness couldn't be anything other than relaxed at his beautiful home at Walshestown.Watching his horses from the glass-sided house set on manicured green acres the world renowned musician is happy to chat about his past successes although he modestly puts his achievements down to "pure luck"."I'm allergic to pressure, I always have been," said the musician."I always find it strange when fellas say that they need to unwind after they've been on stage. If I'm tired when I stop playing I could fall asleep on a bed in the wings of the stage, no bother at all."Foster & Allen are still going strong and are just about to release a box set with four or five cds and a dvd and a new album for the Christmas market which will come out in November. The band's main market is not the Emerald Isle but the UK and they also have an army of fans in the US, Canada and South Africa as well as the faithful followers at home.The duo also already have their gigs marked out until the end of 2010 and in the interim will tour Australia and Canada as well as the UK and Ireland."We usually have a hard year and then an easy year. This year was an easy one and next year will be a hard one and that's usually how it works out," said Mick."Still it's better than work," he laughed . "I really think that we were just very lucky and that we were in the right place at the right time. Sure you could never get a swelled head in Ireland about being an accordion player. There's always a fella around the corner whose better than you. But I tried work and I wasn't that mad about it," he joked."I actually failed what was used to be called the Intermediate Cert and so I couldn't see much point in trying for a Leaving Cert or staying on at school. So, I got myself a trade and after a few years was working as a block layer and doing music on the side. I was doing a couple of gigs a week and it didn't take me long to work out which paid better. I got 45 shillings for a full week's work and 30 shillings a night playing in the band. But I stuck it out and finished serving my time before the music thing took off for me. Until just before we turned professional I was still laying blocks and plastering."As I said I think that we were just lucky that we took off when we did. At the time there was a Scottish group called the Alexander brothers and when we started having some success we were seen as the Irish version of them. We just seemed to tap into something and then with Bunch of Thyme and Maggie we started touring internationally on the back of the those. I think that we have been to Australia 15 times over the years and of course we are popular in South Africa as well."Foster & Allen have been touring professionally since 1977 after starting the band ten years before. But Mick has been playing in public since 1961 and got his first break on RTE in 1963 when he played on children's programmes which featured traditional music.He has come a long way since those first traditional sets and these days Mick's house is full of gold discs which he collected with his musical partner and lifelong friend Tony Allen.On the same wall as his gold discs Mick also has a reminder of the band's 1993 triumph when they held Diana Ross and Take That off the chart's top spot with their hit By Request; a testament to their wide reaching popularity.Originally from Ballymore Eustace Mick moved down to Rathconrath when he was just 12 and has always considered Westmeath as home."All the lads that I started working with and going to the dances with are still my best friends and my local is in Rathconrath. My kids all live around me as well, Jackie lives at the end of the lane here and Denise teaches music in Loreto College. I also have twin girls: Sandra is an architect and Louise is an accountant. I have two grand children one is 22 and the other is 18. Daniel is in college in Galway and is an amateur jockey as well. I was a father at 20 and a grandfather at 38. I have been with my partner (Foster & Allen's band leader Moira Frazer) for 17 years. Apart from a few bumps here and there everything has worked out more or less according to plan and sure you can only do what you can."Foster & Allen will be playing in Ireland towards the end of the year. Dates to be announced.