Return To Eden

You could confuse Ian Henderson and Mark Power for family members rather than bandmates, so at ease and familiar they are with each other, especially with the odd slag thrown in. But what else would you expect from musicians who’ve been working together over 20 years?

Otherwise known as electro-pop duo, Eden, the pair are releasing The Singles, a greatest hits collection, not just as a celebration of their successes, but also, as Ian says: “To put a stamp on it, to say – ‘that was that lot, now let’s try something new’.”

Before we speak about the present, we chat about their past, how two kids from Clondalkin and Church Street made the leap from Ballyfermot Rock School to playing for 100,000 people at the Brandenburg Gate. Mark begins, for as he jokes, “I’ll go first because was born first. was a quiet child for whom music was everything. used to learn all the harmonies to every song knew. had terrible asthma, so would be gasping while was singing. My mam was very droll. She’d be like, ‘yeah Mark, that’s grand’.

“When was a teenager came out of the closet and into the newspapers, because went into 4 Guyz – the first gay boyband. Our manager at that time was John Pickering, who was well known on the gay scene. I’d never travelled much in my life and here we were, going everywhere. We’d be on TV in interviews and there’d be ministers giving out saying we weren’t natural, but we had this confidence because we had each other.”

4 Guyz had limited success, and after a year or so on the road, the band called it a day. But Mark stayed with manager Pickering, who had new plans and made contact with Ballyfermot Senior College’s music production course.

According to Ian: “I was only four months in the college when got a call from a lecturer saying: ‘An English guy [Pickering] is looking for a keyboard player and he wants to meet you’. met Mark two days later – he was blasting out The Bee Gees’ ‘Alone’ from a big silver BMW. Within two weeks we were on stage in Berlin, playing a show for television.”

The pair signed to a label in Germany and moved to Berlin. “It was a very interesting time to be there,” says Mark. “We’d go from one side of the wall to the other, the people were way back in the ’80s, they had all the ’80s hairstyles. We got these two producers, United 6. They wrote our first single, but we rewrote the lyrics and did our own B-side – a ballad with strings and harmonies. We thought it would get better with the next single but the record company said, ‘do a cover version’.”

Ian follows on: “They moved us over to this guy called Stefan, who was into hard dance music. It was not a fit, so it all just fell apart. Although we went on tour with Boyzone – which was weird!”

“It was a really bizarre phase.” Mark agrees, “We were on Beat On The Street, we met Boyzone, Westlife. Then all of a sudden that died down, and we ended up signed to Polydor. We were going, ‘Oh, alright, we have another record deal’. The people we worked with on the label really believed in us, but we kind of lost our way with the first album. The first single release was a success, though. ‘Let It Flow’ charted in Germany and became the most requested song of the year with no video, no nothing. So the record company panicked.”

Ian continues: “The head of Polydor himself got involved. He wanted us to sound more like Ronan Keating, more ‘Ireland’, he just saw a quick buck. We came back from a holiday and they actually had the cover made for a single we wrote for someone else, but our names were on it. So a song we never intended releasing was released and the radio stations were like, ‘what’s this?’ and wouldn’t play it.”

There was an extra little affront for Mark. “They fixed my nose on the cover. was sitting there going, ‘what happened to my nose?’ – ‘Oh we just sliced a little bit off’.”

The guys decided to make the type of music they wanted instead of being dictated to. Mark says, “We came home and recorded Electric! – an album which would represent exactly what we had set out to do ten years before. We did everything ourselves, wrote and produced it.”

The album, and the first single, ‘I Wish Was A Pet Shop Boy’, garnered them a lot of new attention but after a while, the pressures of managing their own career caught up. “We got sick of looking at each other really,” Mark says, “and we kind of needed a break.”

In music industry terms, it wasn’t a long break – just two years. Then Ian started thinking about the Eden days again.

“This is a big celebration for us. We’ve been friends for 20 years, together through ups and downs, and we made a great body of work.

“I was fecking around with a song and just decided to send it to Mark,” Ian says. “Two days later, was in Boston with my wife and he sent me his idea for the song. It was really good. was in a subway station and on the wall it said, ‘outbound to wonderland’ and thought, ‘that’s an album’. The whole thing just popped into my head, not just the melody or the words, but the whole production.”

And with that, Eden were back together. It must be surreal to be releasing an album marking such a long working relationship.

Ian agrees. “When we started to compile the tracks, all these memories came back. Like the song we toured every bloody corner of Germany to promote, with Hermes House Band and the ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ guys.”

Mark laughs, “And lost a jacket because Marc Almond wouldn’t allow me back into the changing room. Then a drag queen nearly killed Ian when he was accused of pouring champagne into her handbag.”

“Remember we did the Coronation Street party?” Ian asks Mark. “No, you don’t remember anything. It was Manchester Mardi Gras and we had to perform on the Coronation Street set. Afterwards went for a walk up Coronation Street and this guy started following me. had to stop him and say, ‘Wrong one, it’s the other guy who’s gay’.

Mark sighs. “He wouldn’t have got anywhere with me, wouldn’t have even realised he was following me.”

For all the memories, it’s the music that bound this pair together over the years, and it’s the music they want to share once more. “This is a big celebration for us,” says Mark. “We’ve been friends for 20 years, together through ups and downs, and we made a great body of work.”

“We look at all the bands who were around at the same time as us,” Ian adds. “They might have gone on to sell a lot of music but they were all burned out within two or three years.”

And Eden are far from done. Recent gigs have introduced them to new audiences, and they’re going down a treat. “And none of them are gay!” Mark exclaims, “We thought we played for especially gay audiences.”

“So we’re cool on the electronic scene now. At least am.” Ian deadpans, getting in one fi nal dig before we end.

“What am I?” Mark laughs. “Chopped liver?”

‘Eden: The Singles’ is available from Eden’s website, eden-info.com