Cormac Neeson grins as he recalls playing in Madison Square Gardens, the legendary stage that has been graced by Led Zeppelin in the past. The Answer’s frontman has reason to smile as for the past couple of years they have been living out every rocker’s dream, supporting AC/DC during the Black Ice World Tour in Europe and USA. After initially expecting to get only a few support slots, they stepped out of the huge 14 month tour to concentrate on their 15-date UK tour.

BY RUTH MAGENNIS

The meteoric success of the foursome from County Down is legendary in the local music scene. The band broke out with the aptly named album ‘Rise’ in 2005, which sold 100,000 copies, with rave reviews from Kerrang! and Classic Rock. Rock veteran Jimmy Page is among their fans, which is unsurprising as the band’s blistering riffs and Neeson’s vocal acrobatics owe more than a nod in the direction of Led Zeppelin.

Their next album ‘Everyday Demons’ was released around the start of AC/DC tour and was heard by around a million and a half Americans. They plan to return before the year is out to do a tour of their own. As Neeson says, “I definitely think the kind of music we play is well suited to the American audience…the big challenge of conquering a country that size is playing as much as you should.”

However, we aren’t going to lose the band to foreign audiences any time soon. “It’s a very unique atmosphere, our homecoming gigs…the Northern Irish audience are a lively bunch and obviously this is where it all began for us, so the people that we are playing in front of are our oldest fans…the great success we’ve had along the way has had as much to do with those guys as with us.”

Not ones to sit idle, the band is writing new material to road-test during gigs in Spain and Australia next month. Cormac is looking forward to returning to Spain in particular. “They are really diehard, loyal supporters of the band….We first played there about three years ago…[we] had no idea that anyone knew who we were and they were completely mental.”

A past Queen’s student, Neeson enrolled in a course in ethnomusicology soon after their guitarist, Paul Mahon contacted him about forming a band. “I had kind of forgotten they had been in contact…it wasn’t until I walked into the first morning of ethnomusicology and sat down beside this dude…turned out it was Paul! If I hadn’t met him I would probably be some crazy, ethnomusicology website director or something.”

So would Cormac give any advice to aspiring musicians at Queen’s? “Just believe in what you’re doing and work hard at it…Whenever we first came onto the scene we were criticised and ridiculed for playing rock n’ roll music…but we knew what we were doing was important and we loved it, we would never play any other style of music. You’ve got to do it for yourself and no one else.”