Tipp tops the charts with Johnny's rap for hurling heroes
The song that's the talk of the county in the build-up to Sunday's All-Ireland Hurling Final is helping to raise funds for a very worthy cause.
Proceeds from The Premier Rap, which is proving a huge hit on the video-sharing website YouTube, will be donated to the Chernobyl Children's Project.
The success of the song, which is a rallying cry for Tipperary supporters before their team takes on Kilkenny in Sunday's big match, has even taken its composer by surprise.
"It's going very well for us, I can't believe it. Once I started recording I knew it was a good song but I didn't realise it would take off the way it has", says John O'Brien, the frontman with the Cahir-based band Johnny B and The Boogie Men.
The hilarious track, written in a rap style, name checks all the players with lines including "I'd prefer to get hit by a car than get hit a shoulder from the Bonnar Maher" and "Busting out of defence he's going to flatten ye/He's from Newport he's Conor O'Mahony". It features John's fellow band members Tommy Buckley (guitar), Oisin Kelly (drums) and Hamish Brewster (bass).
John, who has been writing material with the band for the past ten years, wrote the song in just a couple of hours after Tipp beat Waterford in the Semi-Final.
"We came home from the match and there was a real buzz around the town, everyone was talking about the All-Ireland."
He admitted he was "under a bit of pressure" to write the track when he come home from work on the following Tuesday because he had time booked in a Dublin recording studio for the following day.
The studio is owned by his friend, music producer Philip Magee who has worked as a sound engineer for well-known band The Script.
John is grateful to all his friends for turning out for the video shoot, which was filmed in the Cahir area by film studies student Tessa Davis, who's also from Cahir.
Two versions of The Premier Rap have been uploaded onto YouTube, with combined hits of over 30,000.
John has been told that the Tipp team has heard the song but he appreciates that they're keen to stay away from all the hype at the moment.
"If we win we'll try and sneak into The Burlington Hotel on Sunday night to the post-match banquet and give a rendition. People who are into Tipp hurling know we're just having a laugh and raising funds for charity. It's something we're passionate about", he says.
John is a big Tipp fan who attends most of the matches and he proudly sports the blue and gold Finches jersey that he wore at the 1997 All-Ireland Final in the video for The Premier Rap.
He's looking forward to travelling to Croke Park for the final. "It will be a more physical game than last year. But if we can stick with them in the first half we'll be there or thereabouts at the end. We've such a classy forward line and have the firepower to match Kilkenny, something no other team can say.
Noel McGrath has improved, Lar Corbett and Eoin Kelly are still at the top of their game while Gearoid Ryan and John O'Brien are also playing well."
John works as a self-employed hurley maker in Cahir and is helped in the business by his father Ger O'Brien. The craft has been passed down through the generations as his grandfather, Johnjo, made hurleys for Nicky English and many other Tipp players.
The initial pressing of The Premier Rap sold out and extra CD copies were produced to meet demand. The CD is on sale in Golden Discs in Clonmel and the Lar na Pairce shops in Clonmel and Thurles.
It's also available for download on www.johnnyb.ie.
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Wednesday 08 February 2012
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