Still on thyme

In the pantheon of Irish music, among the rock gods, Celtic warriors, pop queens and boy wonders, sit two portly, middle-aged men with distinguished, greying hair. The bearded one holds an acoustic guitar to his chest, while the tall one has an accordion on his lap. Both are undisputed lords of their kingdom, which lies somewhere between the worlds of Celtic, easy-listening and middle-of-the-road. They are Foster & Allen, and between them they have sold 18 million records, making them one of Ireland's biggest entertainment exports, in the same league as the U2s, Enyas, Boyzones, Corrs and Riverdance's of this world.

Mick Foster and Tony Allen have been performing together for 25 years, and they are celebrating this momentous anniversary by embarking on yet another successful, money-spinning, granny-thrilling world tour. So far this year, the duo has played Australia, New Zealand and the US, and they're about to start an Irish tour, which will take them to all the country's top ballrooms this month.

They've also signed a deal with the American label Gold - owned by veteran crooner Pat Boone - which will see the Foster & Allen back catalogue distributed throughout North America and Canada. They're not - as some of us might wish - hanging up the leprechaun suits, binning the bunch of thyme and calling it a day. Kildare-born Foster isn't going to put the accordion out to pasture and concentrate on his passion for racehorses. Westmeath-native Allen isn't planning to put away his trusty guitar and work on producing the likes of Daniel O'Donnell and Charlie Lansborough in his studios in Moate, Co Westmeath. In fact, Ireland's most successful double act is recording a new album, featuring more easy-listening favourites.

"It doesn't seem like 25 years," muses Tony Allen on the eve of the tour's first date in Pontoon, Co Mayo. "I first met Mick around 1967, when I left school and joined a local band, The Marylanders. And he was playing in the band. But that doesn't seem like 30-odd years ago, either. But it was an action-packed 25 years. We started off just working around Ireland in the pubs and clubs, and then of course the Bunch Of Thyme went to Number One in Ireland in the late 1970s, and then it went on to Number 18 in the British pop charts in 1982, and that changed everything completely, because from trying to get work in Irish clubs in England, we went straight on to doing theatres and workingmen's clubs, good clubs."

At 52 and 48, respectively, Mick Foster and Tony Allen have earned enough to enjoy a comfortable retirement - should they so choose. Not likely. The duo have had a busy start to the new millennium, and though they intend to cut down on the workload, they're determined to carry on until they have to be carried off. They're still good friends, they say, even though they don't socialise with each other, and claim never to have had a single argument.

According to the duo's press material, only one act has had more gold and platinum albums in the UK than Foster & Allen, and that's the Rolling Stones. "The difference between us and them is that they would go into the charts and go platinum in the same week," explains Allen. "We would sell all year round. We'd more or less stay in the top 100. At the same time we'd be selling for birthdays, wedding anniversaries, Christmas, Easter; people would buy a Foster & Allen video for the granny's birthday."

So, what's the secret behind Foster & Allen's enduring popularity? Is it the honest, hard-hitting sentiment of 100 Golden Love Songs or the tough, socially-conscious stance of Christmas Album? Or perhaps the ambient, spiritual soundscapes of One Day At A Time? Or maybe Foster & Allen are simply blessed with that same Celtic magic which has made superstars of Westlife and Samantha Mumba.

`I don't think the Irish part made any difference," says Allen, "apart from the green suits which we wore on Top Of The Pops. There were many in Australia and Canada who didn't even know we were Irish. It's just that easy listening music was neglected, and still is, basically. There isn't that much around, with the exception of Daniel O'Donnell. Most of the Irish music which is being marketed abroad is pop music. Which is great. Where the Irish bit comes in, and you look at U2, The Corrs, The Cranberries, Boyzone, it's that they're not afraid to work. That's the great thing about being Irish, if you get out on the road and you enjoy being on the road, living in hotels, having a few jars after the show, meeting people." "When everyone else was playing country, pop and folk, we did what we enjoyed doing, and what we were able to do. We wouldn't do music we have no feel for, or that we can't play. And we wouldn't do a song or instrumental that we didn't like or didn't feel right about. We've done Beatles numbers, Strauss numbers and Dire Straits numbers, but I doubt if we'd ever do an Oasis song", says Foster.

Using what could be described as a "dogme" style of video-making, the duo churned out countless cheesy, three-minute promos which have sold in their millions. The wardrobe department consisted of whatever cardigan or sweater was clean at the time, and the extras were local, ruddy-cheeked colleens dressed in their Sunday ceili best. Props were limited to the odd sheep, the occasional waterfall, or some nearby stunning Irish landscape. ead O'Connor her cropped hair, and Aidan Walsh his cowboy hat, so too did Foster & Allen have t Their signature look was the "leprechaun" suits which the duo wore for that first, fateful appearance on Top Of The Pops 18 years ago. Accusations of paddywhackery fell on deaf ears as the British public took the Men In Green to their hearts. Foster & Allen are unrepentant.

"Originally, in 1975, when we started, we were with Release Records," says Allen. "Mick O'Riordan - who is now with IMRO - and Jimmy McGee from RTE were involved with Release at the time, and Mick decided that we should dress up for the sleeve of our new LP. This Barry Lyndon film was out at the time, (Stanley Kubrick's period epic, filmed in Ireland and starring Ryan O'Neal) and all the guys in it were wearing the medieval Irish costumes with the short britches and big curtain material coats. So we said `no problem', so then in our wisdom we decided to get them done in green for our American tour. And then in 1982 we were going on Top Of The Pops, and the record company wanted us to wear something new. But we'd been wearing the suits since 1975, so we said `no, no, we'll wear these'. And they became a huge talking point from there on. All the media in England took it up, everybody thought we'd dressed up deliberately, but we didn't."

He's also unperturbed by the merciless lampooning the pair has received over the years, most famously by British comedians Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, whose characters Mulligan & O'Hare bear an uncanny resemblance to our singing leprechauns.

"We don't even take ourselves seriously. We've been doing it all our lives and if I live until December I'll be 53 years old, and will have been playing music in public for 40 years. It's just the luck of the draw - there's plenty of fellas down the road who can play accordion better than me, but we've been lucky, we've been able to do what we enjoy and make a living out of it. We do take the business seriously, though: we've never missed a gig, been late or turned up drunk. We've been blessed with good fortune and good health, and though I wouldn't be overly religious, I still go to Mass and give thanks for what I have."

Foster & Allen play the Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny tonight, the National Concert Hall, Dublin tomorrow night, and the Hawkswell Theatre, Sligo on Sunday as part of their 25th Anniversary Irish tour.