rocking through the years

From a shed in Howth, Ferdia Mac Anna set out to conquer the world. In his memoir, he charts his teenage years of acting and playing, his unsuccessful rock career, his work in Irish media and his grace in overcoming critical illness. By Edward O'HareThe Rocky years by Ferdia Mac Anna. Hodder Headline Ireland, €9.99

Ferdia Mac Anna has carved out multiple careers as a musician, journalist and novelist. To some, he is Rocky De Valera of the Dublin band the Gravediggers, and later a member of the Rhythm Kings. He has also worked in television as a director and producer. Born in 1955, Mac Anna's mother was an actress and his father a theatre director and associate of the Abbey. In a period of creative and bohemian non-conformity, Ferdia enjoyed the kind of anarchic early childhood we all would like to have had.
Not all of his childhood experiences were as positive. Being an intensely imaginative boy, school was torture for him. Despite going to a good school, the snobbery of his classmates brought him more misery. Worst of all, his baby brother Naoise contracted the mumps and was left permanently brain-damaged. The toll this took on his mother meant that she and Ferdia became estranged. His unhappiness was not helped by the fact that his father was absent for much of his early life. Mac Anna sought refuge in Sci-Fi B-movies, TV shows like The Man From UNCLE and the novels of Ray Bradbury.
Theatre dominated his early life. When his father comes to direct the school play, this leads to several chaotic incidents, one of which (involving a supposed attempt on the life of Eamon De Valera) is absolutely priceless. Mac Anna takes up acting himself and at 14 travels to Paris with the Abbey players to appear in Borstal Boy. Eventually, living and working with actors leaves Ferdia disillusioned with the idea of an acting career and he returns to writing. Encouraged by his father, whose love of the arts passes to his son, he struggles to become an author.
Mac Anna also struggles to cope with the boredom of school-life. His resentment of the Christian Brothers' glorification of Ireland, her language and her heroes becomes hatred. He also hates the brutality, ranging from mindless violence to sexual abuse, casually meted out by some of the more depraved brothers. He and his friends plan to escape to Morocco. They never get as far as leaving Dublin, so Mac Anna resolves to cause trouble instead. He ignores his teachers and indulges himself in rock music, soccer and mind-expanding fiction.
His teenage years follow in this freewheeling style. He dabbles with drugs, pursues girls and even tries his hand at that peculiar 1970s phenomenon, astral projection. Back home, his close proximity to his fellow (all male) students and an encounter with a predatory gay classmate leads to the usual adolescent confusion. Mac Anna notes the total incapacity of Irish society to accept the youth culture that was developing in those years. The Christian Brothers finally bring their students together with the girls from a local school for a Céilí when they are approaching their twenties. The image of the youth of Ireland attempting Irish dancing while high as a kite on drink, dope and pills is one of the most memorable in the book.
Mac Anna decides to go to London for the summer. Whatever innocence he had is soon swept away by drink, music and colourful encounters with the opposite sex. Returning to college, he throws himself not into study but music. Punk is the new big thing and along with some other visionaries, he forms a group, Rocky De Valera and the Gravediggers. From a shed in Howth, they set out to conquer the world. No great success comes, but Mac Anna's evocation of this seedy world is enjoyable.
In the midst of all this he goes to work as a researcher for the Late, Late Show. This leads to a look at the making of the show and an account of the behind-the-scenes trials involved, such as subduing a predictably drunk and raucous Oliver Reed. After leaving the show, Ferdia hits the road with his next band, the Rhythm Kings. In touring Ireland to great acclaim, he finally accomplishes a life-long ambition. He also meets his future wife, Kate.
In 1985 Mac Anna suffered a brain haemorrhage that nearly killed him. No sooner had he recovered than he falls ill with a tumour. He is operated on but the cancer is later found on his lungs. From this point, the book follows Mac Anna's heroic but harrowing account of how he fought to overcome his illness. He and his wife bear the trauma with grace. Receiving support from his family and friends he carries on the process of living and defeats the cancer.
Mac Anna's memoir is honest and humourous. You get what the man truly feels. You share every joke and every sorrow. This is certainly refreshing, given the overload of bloated, self-serving and heavily ghost-written “celebrity autobiographies” currently on the shelves. Mac Anna is not sentimental about his rock-star years – he is content to recall the past without dressing it up as something it never was. The angst of the times is palpable. It charts cultural change and you get a real sense of Ireland finally waking up to the fact that it is part of the world. An entertaining and engaging book. π