The Lost Brothers (Oisin Leech)
What's on your rider?Two local maps, some nuts, a compass and a bottle of Laphroaig.
What would be on your fantasy rider?A turf fire, Planxty playing backstage, a pint of Guinness, and a game of Scalextric with Faye Dunaway.
What's your pre-gig ritual/routine?Find the other Lost Brother, wake him, and get onstage.
How do you get to the gig – limo, taxi, walking?If our horses are tired we take the bikes. If we have money we take the train. And if we're really flush we take the rickshaw.
What's the best gig you've been to?The Olympia, 10 years ago. Van Morrison. He sang Georgia On My Mind.
And the worst?One of my own gigs, when my 12-string guitar fell and broke in two.
Who is the most famous person to have shown up at one of your gigs?Sissy Spacek was at our gig in Texas. M Ward, The Coral, Andy Irvine, Brendan Benson, Arctic Monkeys.
Most embarrassing on-stage moment?In Liverpool I swallowed a fishbone that lodged in my throat. Eight weeks later it sprang back into my mouth during a gig in Cork.
What's your crowd-pleasing number? All the Cats on the Table do the Bop
Chatting between songs — good or bad?If you're a master like Tom Waits or Christy Moore then I say yes.
How many roadies does it take to change your lightbulbs?Lightbulbs? We're much more of a candles outfit.
Have you a special stage wardrobe?I have a lucky white shirt.
Do you like to meet and greet fans after the gig?Yes. All Lost Brothers fans are called losties, and a lostie is a lostie for life.
Any useful stage tips?Do your own thing, get lost in the songs.
What's the worst thing ever thrown at you?I got shot onstage with a pellet gun last week in West Donegal.
If you could be in any other band, which one?Van Morrison's Them.
In conversation with
Tony Clayton-Lea. The Lost Brothers play The Odessa Club, Dublin, on Thursday
