Ross and Roll

Ross is getting married and the producers of Friends need a Celtic-sounding band for the wedding scene. Do they persuade Phoebe to perform her masterpiece, Smelly Cat, in a Clannad style? Do they call The Corrs, who have the requisite diddley-aye quotient, and who have already appeared on an episode of Beverly Hills 90210? No, they hire The Hormones, an Anglo-Irish band fronted by Dubliner Marc Carroll, whose jangly punk sound is marked by the almost complete absence of Celtic mist. On Monday evening, Network 2 will screen the cliffhanging final episode in the current series of Friends, and viewers will catch a glimpse of Carroll & Co giving it loads on the bodhran, fiddle and uilleann pipes. What gives? Stay tuned, and all will be explained.

Flashback to Marc Carroll's earlier incarnation as the leader of Dubcore revolutionaries Puppy Love Bomb. The band briefly achieved notoriety for their Dublin Is Dead T-shirt, which was modelled by Ms D. O'Riordan of The Cranberries, and which encapsulated the stagnation of the Capital's rock scene in one simple, three-word slogan. The band's lively, rebellious spirit was not matched by its music, however, and so Carroll decamped to London in search of new musicians.

"One, I wanted a better band," explains Carroll. "Two, I wanted better players; and three, I wanted a whole new change, really, just a different vibe, something to get me excited." It was a tour support slot with American band Sugar which crystallised Carroll's vision of a perfect pop outfit. Fronted by his long-time hero and ex-Husker Du member, Bob Mould, Sugar made Carroll realise that sloganeering is no substitute for great rock'n'roll. The Dublin Is Dead T-shirt might have made a lively diversion for the Irish media, but it effectively killed off Puppy Love Bomb's chance of making a serious musical impression. "I don't regret doing it," says Marc. "That T-shirt was just an idea that came up after about 10 pints. We never really took it that seriously. It got more attention than the music, though, and I suppose you have to grow up some time and get on with it."

Growing up for Marc meant a move from Stillorgan to Swiss Cottage and a change of name from the pubescent-sounding Puppy Love Bomb to the adolescent-friendly Hormones. Songs like Stay Ahead, Are You With Us? and Don't Let Them Get You Down, all written by Marc, are prototype teenage anthems, infectiously defiant, and with a vibrant us-against-the-world sentiment. "It's more Marc Carroll against the world, actually," he laughs. So, is the 26-year-old singer simply reliving his teenage angst? "I got over mine, thankfully," says Carroll. "A lot of people don't. I just want the band to be exciting and full of adrenaline. When we play live, we play as if we're going to break up the next day. That's the kind of tension I like to have on stage, and I didn't have that in the last group." Although Marc loves living in London, he could still find plenty of reasons to print up a ream of London is Dead T-Shirts. Ask him what the music scene is like, and his answer comes straight from the hip: "It's bollocks. It's all style over content, and I'll never ever play that game, ever. It's cheekbones rather than chords, and I find that sick. It's all trends, and scenes, and it's all pushed along by the media. And I'm sort of old-fashioned in a way - and `cliche ahoy' - but for me it's all about the music."

The Hormones' debut album, Where Old Ghosts Meet, gives just a few clues to the broad range of Carroll's influences. Comparisons to Teenage Fanclub and Stiff Little Fingers come easily when you listen to the chunky guitar riffs and the strident, rabble-rousing rhythms, but the odd ballad may betray a love of Neil Young and Bob Dylan, while the soaring vocals might signify a harmonic homage to Brian Wilson. Many of Carroll's biggest rock heroes are dead - yet he refuses to romanticise the rock'n'roll lifestyle which killed them. "I got over my teen angst, but Richie Manic didn't, and now he's gone. I just think it's tragic and it's a waste and a human failure. I mean, come on, man. Look at Kurt Cobain. You've got to survive, one, in this world, and two, in this business or you'll end up like Kurt Cobain, and he's one of my almost all-time heroes. I'm just gutted that he's not around any more. "I think I've got enough inner strength to stay away from all that. I certainly don't need drugs - I'm mad enough without them. You have to get over your teen angst, otherwise it'll control your life." The title of the album, says Marc, refers to an imaginary place where all his long-dead heroes reunite in a sort of celestial VIP area. "Maybe it exists, and maybe it doesn't, but it would be nice to end up there, and see what it's like. It's quite a spiritual title, it's taken from Raglan Road, which is one of my favourite poems ever."

It was Marc's genuine love of Irish folk music which led to his incongruous appearance on Friends, and saw the band swapping their Telecasters for traditional instruments. Marc had written a trad-inspired song, Tired Old Souls, which appeared on the b-side of The Hormones' single, Stay Ahead. ("I wrote it about a year and a half ago, in a moment of emotional upheaval. There's no singing, it's a completely instrumental piece, very haunting. It's something that we do about every 10 or 15 songs, we'll delve into that.") Ray Conroy of the band's label, V2 Records, had heard that the producers of Friends were looking for a Celtic-sounding group to play the part of the wedding band, so he gave them a copy of the single. One night, Marc was sitting at home watching telly, when he got a phone call summoning him and the band to the London set where the episode of the sitcom was being shot. Four hours later he and the boys were in their tuxedos chatting to Rachel, Monica, Joey, Chandler and Ross like old friends.

"There we are in the background, like four knackers with all these big stars, and it was bizarre. We were giggling the whole time, like, `what are we doing here?' We spent about two days there, from about eight in the morning till about five the next morning. They had us miming to our song from the b-side of Stay Ahead, and then they asked us to record a version of Here Comes The Bride and The Wedding March in an Irish traditional way. It all happened so fast. I didn't even find out how the episode ends - they filmed two endings while we were there."

So did you get to meet the stars of Friends, and what did they think of The Hormones? "I was talking to that Jennifer Aniston, if you'll excuse me," he says with a hint of pride in his voice. "And she was like, `Ohmigod, it's so Enya-like, it's beautiful. It's so Celtic, this is so good, Ohmigod'. Thank you Jennifer, God bless. The whole cast went off with a copy of the record, and I got some really nice pics of myself with Courteney Cox. They're all very charming people. "Actually, they came over to us during the breaks and asked us about the song, and we were trying to explain to them that we're really a rock group. You only see us for a few seconds; blink and you'll miss us. But I'm glad we did it. It was great fun, although it was a bit mad. You try standing in a tuxedo, miming with a bodhran in your hand, thinking about Neil Young, in the middle of an episode of Friends, and trying hard not to laugh. It's a challenge."

Friends goes out at 8.25 p.m. on Network 2 on Monday.