GENEVIEVE CARBERRYtalks to Ashley Keating of the Frank and Walters
What's your earliest holiday memory?Going to Crosshaven with the family, 14 miles from Cork city. We would load up the Morris Minor and head down. There were about 45 of us, a load of cousins, staying in two small houses. It was great fun. In later years we were more upmarket and went to Youghal.
What was your worst holiday?I went to Magaluf, Majorca on a last minute deal with my girlfriend and our two children and my sister and her children. But it turned out that we were in a stag and hen hotel. It rained for the week and the place was geared up for drunken louts, not kids. It was hell on earth. We just walked around for hours in the wet. The kids were miserable and in the end we turned to drink.
What was your best holiday?I've had some great ones with the band – like touring the US west coast and the band also has a love affair with Spain (particularly Galacia). My best holiday was backpacking around southeast Asia in 2002. It was brilliant to meet other backpackers. I cheated as I had a bit of money and could get a nice hotel every few nights.
If budget or work were not a restriction, what would be your dream holiday?I'd like to go to Australia as I have family there and feel guilty that I've never made it over. My dad's two brothers and some 70 first and second cousins live there. We almost always have one of them staying with us on their gap year. But I don't like the look of it. I way prefer the old stuff (Rome or Athens) and have no interest in seeing the Sydney Opera House. I'd purely like to get over there for family.
If you had your pick, who would you bring on holiday with you?Alan Brazil. I'm a huge football fan and have listened to him on Talksport radio in the UK for years. He tells it like it is and doesn't talk in footballer cliches. I ended up watching the European Cup final with him recently as I got talking to him in a Manchester hotel. He had great stories about Ipswich, meeting George Best and Pele. It was one of the best nights I've ever had. I'd also bring French Algerian philosopher Albert Camus and newsreader Anne Doyle circa 1979 (one of my first crushes).
What's your favourite place in Ireland?West Cork. Whenever I go there, I always say: "I don't come here enough." There's a great festival in Skibbereen every year. The weather always seems good even when it's raining in the city.
Your recommended holiday reading?On holidays I try and keep it light and trashy, like Jack Higgins or Tom Clancy.
Where will you go to next?We'll go on tour in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.
The Frank and Walters will play the Cork Midsummer Festival on June 26th. www.corkmidsummer.com.
In conversation with Genevieve Carbery