International superstars charm and entertain on Unfiltered with SJF
"Today’s guests on Unfiltered are international superstars. They’ve sold over 20 million albums world wide. Now, when I say I grew up with these two, I mean, I grew up with these two. Foster and Allen, you’re very welcome to Unfiltered. For anyone who doesn’t know, Mick Foster is my grandad, so I’m going to be referring to Mick as grandad today, so it’ll be grandad and Tony for today’s podcast."
With those words, Sarah Jane Foster introduced a pair of particularly important guests on her new podcast, #Unfilteredwithsjf.
In an episode sponsored by the Westmeath Examiner, Sarah Jane, "grandad" and Tony chat about how the duo became the success they are.
They remember their appearance on Top of the Pops and offer their views on the music industry as well as the highlights of their 50 years performing together.
Tony explained that their career first gained traction when, after a week playing at a pub in Kilburn, they knew they could make a living from music, but never envisaged becoming major stars. “We didn’t think we’d end up touring the world performing concerts,” he said.
Mick said he didn’t want to be famous, “I wanted to be an accordion player - the famous end of it didn’t come into it”.
“All we wanted to do was make enough money playing music without having to have a day job as well.
“It took us two years, which was a short time in this business; we started in '75 and by '79 we were gone professional.”
Promotion
At a time when communication was much more basic than it is now and “we didn’t even have a house phone” the lads went to Eason in Dublin, where they could get papers from anywhere in the country, said Mick, explaining their promotion strategy.
“We worked so hard at that - at the very start Tony and myself went to Dublin, and we got all the local papers from around Ireland, the Westmeath Examiner, the Longford Leader, the Tipperary Guardian, all the local papers.
"We came home and we studied where there was music similar to ours in pubs, and we wrote to those places... and I don’t think anyone refused us, we always got in, and once you get in the one night, it’s up to yourself whether you’re good enough to get back. If they give you a chance, you’d better avail of it, and luckily enough, we did, and we’re still here.”
“Still getting back,” added Tony.
Listen to the full interview on: