BRACKLEY — Island bar band The Bog Donkeys — singer Mark Hansen, along with guitarists Frank Gillis and Peter McDougall — have a big task ahead of their biggest show on St. Patrick’s Day: they must learn the entire song “Heave Away.”
By heart. All of it.
On top of this, they must learn “Home for a rest“, “Dirty old town,” and even “The night Pat Murphy Died.”
“Somehow, we just didn’t get around to learning these new songs,” explains Hansen. “We just figured we’d coast by on our usual set of Tom Petty and the occasional Hip song thrown in. It’s worked for us for the past 6 years, but I guess if we’re ever going to play bigger gigs like the Legion, we have to change things up a bit.”
“These songs are popular on St. Patrick’s Day, despite never having heard them before, so we’ve got like 9 hours to figure this out.”
As of 8 AM this morning, guitarist Peter MacDougall had discovered, in his words, “An amazing band called Great Big Sea that Frank and Mark really should hear.”
The Islander 