The Mahones

The Mahones
The Mahones performing at Queen's Day in Groningen, Holland.
Background information
Origin	Kingston, Ontario
Genres	Celtic punk
Years active	1990–present
Labels	Whiskey Devil Records
Website	themahones.ca
Members	Finny McConnell Dom "The Bomb" Whelan Katie "Kaboom" McConnell Sean Winter Eryk "Chainsaw" Chamberland
Past members	Joe Chithalen Mauro Sepe Owen Warnica Andrew Brown Gerry O'Sullivan Chris Ward Chris Scahill Chris Smirnios Miranda Mulholland Ewen McIntosh

The Mahones are an Irish born Canadian Irish punk band formed on St. Patrick's Day in 1990 in Kingston, widely believed to have pioneered the Irish Punk scene, having debuted years prior to other modern Irish Punk bands.^[1]

Biography

The Mahones are an Irish-born, Canadian Irish-punk band, formed in 1990 by Dublin-born^[2] Finny McConnell, as a one-off band for a St. Patrick's Day party.^[3] Encouraged by a positive reception, McConnell decided to pursue the band full-time.^[4]

The Mahones have released eleven albums to date, Draggin’ The Days, Rise Again, The Hellfire Club Sessions, Here Comes Lucky, Paint The Town Red - The Best Of, Live At The Horseshoe, Take No Prisoners, The Irish Punk Collection, Whiskey Devils - A Tribute To The Mahones, The Black Irish Album, Angels & Devils, and one very rare cassette, Clear The Way. The Black Irish Album, The Mahones’ critically acclaimed 7th studio album, was released along with a tribute album in 2011, featuring 20 international bands covering Mahones’ songs.^[5][6] The Mahones' latest album, Angels & Devils, features guest appearances by Greg Keelor of Blue Rodeo, Jake Burns of Stiff Little Fingers, and Ken Casey of Dropkick Murphys.

In 2012, The Black Irish won the Independent Music Award for Best Punk Album,^[7] and Angels & Devils won Paddy Rock Radio's album of the year,^[8] as well as Vandala Concepts' album of the year ^[9]

The Mahones’ music has appeared in several major films. Recently, their song “Paint The Town Red 2010” was featured in the climactic final fight scene of The Fighter, starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, and Amy Adams. The film went on to win two Academy Awards and several Golden Globes.^[10][11] The Mahones also co-wrote and recorded the title track for the Hollywood Pictures movie Celtic Pride, featuring Damon Wayans, Daniel Stern, and Dan Aykroyd. Their song 100 Bucks was also featured in the movie Dog Park, featuring Natasha Henstridge, Luke Wilson, Janeane Garofalo, as well as Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney from Kids in the Hall. The Mahones’ song ‘A Little Bit of Love’ is in the new film Ecstasy, based on Irvine Welsh’s critically acclaimed book.

The Mahones have shared stages and toured around the world with bands such as Dropkick Murphys, Stiff Little Fingers, Shane MacGowan and The Popes, Billy Bragg, Chuck Ragan, UK Subs, Sick Of It All, The Defects, Agnostic Front, The Buzzcocks, D.O.A., Against Me, The Tragically Hip, Crash Vegas, The Damned, Suicidal Tendencies, The Prodigy, Gwar, Skunk Anansie, Tricky, Blue Rodeo, Steve Earle, The Alarm, Sinéad O'Connor, Street Dogs, Roger Miret and The Disasters, Flogging Molly, Spirit of the west, The Dubliners, Christy Moore, The Band and Van Morrison. More recently, Scuffy Wallace of Dropkick Murphys joined The Mahones onstage for a few shows as Tin Whistle player in Toronto and Montreal during a recent Dropkick Murphys Canadian tour.

The band’s cited influences included The Clash, The Pogues, The Who, The Waterboys and Hüsker Dü. The group’s lineup has changed a number of times, with McConnell and Whelan as the main constant members. Pogues members Terry Woods and Phil Chevron joined the band on tour in 2003.^[12]

In 1999, bassist Joe Chithalen died in Amsterdam shortly after a concert. He had accidentally ingested food containing peanuts, to which he was allergic. The Joe Chithalen Memorial Musical Instrument Lending Library, Joe’s M.I.L.L., was established in Kingston soon after by Wally High. The Mahones perform fundraising concerts for Joe's M.I.L.L. annually.^[13]

Members

Current Members

• Finny McConnell - Lead Vocals, Guitar, Mandolin, Songwriter
• Dom "The Bomb" Whelan - Drums, Vocals
• Katie "Kaboom" McConnell - Accordion, Vocals
• Sean Winter - Banjo, Mandolin, Harmonica, Vocals
• Eryk "Chainsaw" Chamberland - Bass, Vocals
• Michael O'Grady Tin Whistle

Former Members

• "The" Barry Williams
• Andrew Brown
• Mauro Sepe
• Owen Warnica
• David Allen
• Kevan Williams
• Miranda Mulholland
• Ger O'Sullivan
• Chris Ward
• Chris Scahill
• Chris Smirnios
• Ewen McIntosh
• Joe Chithalen
• Paddy Concannon

Discography

Studio albums

Compilations

   1. Queen and Tequila
   2. Drunken Lazy Bastard
   3. Paint the Town Red
   4. Whiskey Devil
   5. A Drunken Night in Dublin
   6. Streets of New York
   7. Across the U.S.A.
   8. Shake Hands with the devil
   9. The Amsterdam Song
   10. Celtic Pride
   11. The Irish Rover
   12. Going Back to Dublin
   13. Down the Boozer
   14. London
   15. Whiskey in the Jar
   16. Is This Bar Open Til' Tomorrow
   17. Drunken Lazy Bastard (Live Version)

Singles

References

External links

• The Mahones official website