Musical youth

For Limerick band Whenyoung, a spontaneous reaching out to Shane MacGowan’s manager set in motion a chain of events that led to their upcoming appearance on the Nick Cave/Patti Smith double bill in Kilmainham next month, writes Nadine O’Regan

Andrew Flood, Aoife Power and Niall Burns of Whenyoung

Sometimes, if you want to get somewhere in life, you have to take a risk. Last November, after the Irish band Whenyoung recorded a version of Fairytale of New York, the classic song from the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, they didn’t just sit on their hands.

“We sent it to Gerry O’Boyle, who is Shane MacGowan’s manager,” Aoife Power, the band’s frontperson, relates down the phone line from her adopted home of London. ...