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Today's Blog: 4/20/18 Damien and Glenn
Thinking of this because over the past couple of weeks Damien Murray, our former drummer and still great friend, did a podcast on HavingBeersWith.com with Paul Wilborn. He discussed his days with the band and some of the crazy things that happened.
And Rosanne Barr recently dedicated episode 4 of her newly revived show to Glenn Quinn, Damien's cousin who passed away in 2002. These two events took me back... back... back ....blurry wiggly lines... doodley do...doodley do..doodley do...
When the original Rosanne was on in the 1990's, Glenn and occasionally other cast members would stop in at Ireland's 32 in Van Nuys when we were playing. Now Glenn landed the part of Mark on the show not long after he landed in L.A. from Dublin. He knew he wanted to act so he lost his Irish accent when he stepped off the plane. However, it only took a sip of that old black stuff (to borrow a Tod lyric) to bring back the accent. Damien who left Ireland as a kid would get an Irish brogue as well. Then Glenn would come on stage with us and play drums while Damien would come up front and sing. This was back when The 32 still allowed smoking inside. Ireland's 32 had an indoor cloud, Irish beer, Irish bartenders and with two Irishmen on stage, this place was authentic. For a few hours you could feel like you were in a dark corner of Dublin taking in the Craic! ~ with American celebrities.
Back at this time, Damien could party pretty hard and Glenn had the resources, a home in the Hollywood Hills, a restaurant and a successful actor's income. One night we were booked at Molly Malone's on Fairfax. This is where Flogging Molly got their start and their name. We were the third band to go on so we had some time, but we didn't have a drummer. Damien had gone up to Hollywood earlier to party with Glenn and he hadn't arrived at Molly Malone's as we were preparing to go on. Thoughts went through our heads of Damien in a complete drunken stupor or just enough to be forgetful. We were panicking when the back door opened and in walked Roy Murray, Damien's brother, carrying a kick drum. "Oh crap! Roy is going to fill in!" "What happened to Damien?" Although Roy is a great drummer, we had never played with him before and playing Molly Malone's was a pretty big deal for us at the time. The panic only lasted a few minutes, then Damien walked in with more gear. Roy was just helping carry in the kit. The gig was great!
There were other questionable moments during Damien's time with us, but to his credit, he never let us down. Always there, always played his heart out, great times! Thanks Damien! Cheers!
Check out Damien Murray in his current band Ray Band 80's. And check out Roy's band, the U2 Tribute band Hollywood U2
Band Facts and Lore
