Bog The Donkey were formed in 1995. They are one of the most successful and distinctive bands currently playing out of Ireland. They play all of the major festivals and clubs throughout the country, as well as touring the UK and USA on a regular basis.
People who have seen Bog The Donkey live have described them as “Incredible, Wild, Mad, Exciting, Too Loud, and Not to be missed.”
“Who or what are Bog The Donkey?” is a question that is often asked, but a difficult one to answer that does justice to the band. However, here is an attempt to answer these questions;
Who? A Band!!.
What? With around 80 years of musical experience between them, these guys really should know their trade. And it really shows in their live performances.
Their regular show is an incredible mix of every kind of music. This really shouldn’t work, but somehow every track seems to compliment the next effortlessly. It really is a beast of wild energy, with controlled musical finesse.
The set the guys have compiled for Weddings is a clever and thoughtful mix of classic ‘Sing-a-longs’ and ‘Floor-fillers’, ranging from steady waltzes to unforgettable party tunes. The band pride themselves in being able to suit any wedding audience, and have even been known to occasionally invite members of the audience to join them onstage to add to the musical fun.
Yet, through all the different styles and songs the guys can perform, they always manage to keep the ‘Bog The Donkey’ essence of fun and high standard. Our advice is to just go out and see Bog The Donkey live. I guarantee you haven’t heard or seen anything like them before.
If you’ve already seen Bog The Donkey you know exactly what all the talk is about. If you haven’t seen them, then get along to one of their gigs and enjoy the craic with the lads.
Individually Niall (Sav), Mark, Pat, and Andy should be in care, but thanks to Irish law they are allowed to perform music as a collective through a legal grey area. But who are they?
MARK KELLY (BASS GUITAR/VOCALS/TIME KEEPING)
Mark is outstanding in his own field, in fact, that’s exactly where he was found.
Always a lover of nature as well as music, he has three pet ‘stick insects’ that he fondly refers to as Ginger, Posh and Sporty.
Aside from his incredible bass playing and silky smooth vocals, it is a little known fact that Mark is an incredible athlete.
At the tender age of twenty three, he was an important part of ‘Paddy O’Brien’s Circus Las Vegas’.
Originally taking the role of the ‘bearded lady’, his real gender pulled him towards the trapeze and soon became the newest member of ‘The Fabulous Flying Focus’. For six whole months, a clean shaven Mark was the star attraction, until one day he walked unshaven into the arena and was instantly spotted as the ‘bearded lady’. His high-flying career was over.
Thankfully, his bass playing landed him a place in Bog The Donkey and he still sports that same beard to this very day.
NIALL (SAV) SAVAGE (DRUMS/VOCALS/SET DESIGN/LIGHTING MANAGER/YADDA YADDA.../GENERAL WORRYING)
Sav is always full of fun and frolics…..
Half Latvian – half Irish, Sav can speak eight languages fluently and on occasion can be found on the streets of Cork putting woolen weaves into young girls hair for extra cash.
At the age of fourteen it became apparent that Sav had a talent for the drums. His parents sent him to bed one winter’s night and within ten minutes they heard a rhythmical thudding, and heavy breathing, emanating from the young mans bedroom. A wonderful example of a teenage Sav hard at work practicing his trade.
Aside from drumming, Sav’s major passion is swearing. Now, I’m not just talking about swearing in a common sense, I mean creative, artistic swearing. He holds the record in both Bell End (near Lickey End, Wales) and Shitbritches Creek (California, USA) with the only sentence in existence that comprises of solid, back-to-back swear words. Amazingly it still makes sense. Obviously I can’t write it here, but I have heard him use it on Andy. The poor guys ears are still bruised.
It starts with 'F'.....
Sav’s motto is simply: - “If you’re going to do it – do it right!” ......... Poetry.
PAT O’SULLIVAN (ACCORDIONS/KEYBOARDS/VOCALS/SOUND MAN/GENERAL EXHAUSTION)
Patrick is the musical backbone of the band.
A man with so many talents, that if he had been the Titanic, he would have missed the ice berg. I reckon he would have had a ‘back sea route’ ready that would have got them to New York a day early.
Pat, with his biker appearance, actually does have a wicked passion for vintage bikes. He owns a Penny Farthing that is worth in excess of seventy five euros and will not ride it for ‘fear of some langer stealing it’.
His other love is ‘Twitching’ (Bird watching to you and I). This entails disappearing into the country for days on end with just his camera, a flask of soup and a hooded Mack in the search for a shot of a rare and extravagant bird.
In fact, Pat is the only man in the country that owns a genuine photograph of a ‘Swuck’. A rare and nearly extinct breed of bird, which is a cross between a Swan and a Duck. Our very own Dr. Doolittle can talk to the animals, and is often seen communicating with birds via the gift of texting on a cell phone.
ANDY PITCHFORTH (GUITARS/VOCALS/DESIGN STUFF/REGULAR OFF-LICENCE STOPS/REASON FOR SAV WORRYING)
As the saying goes, ‘There’s always one’. Andy is that ‘one’ every time.
An extremely versatile, and talented musician if you like guitar solos to go ‘Widdley Widdley Widdley Woooooo Widdley Widdley Waaaaaaaaaaaaahh!!’
Andy’s heart really lies with his first (and only) proper job. He worked on the bins.
It took him fifteen years, man and boy, to perfect his trade. By the time he was twenty six he had the whole of East Anglia in England clean and free from problem, overflowing bins.
Times were good, and a local newspaper even did a full quarter-page spread of Andy’s hard work, focusing on his speed and efficiency. He even got onto the ‘Norwich Worthy Workers’ yearly calendar as Mr. December, with saucy gold bin and glitter safety goggles. This eventually led to him being voted ‘King Of Anglia’ 1996.
But, sadly, due to a severely broken flask, Andy had to give up his dreams and fall back on his education.
He auditioned for Bog The Donkey, got the job, and has never looked back at his career in waste removal ever since. (He tore a muscle in his neck on the first gig so he couldn't).
When asked about his voice he said he “Drinks a pint of fresh, organic broken glass every morning.”
Nuts. Really. Every one of them......