Frankie can go to blazes fumes fire chief
TOP British rock group “Frankie Goes To Hollywood’ has firemen in a Co. Carlow town fuming.
For the group claims in a prestigious rock magazine due out tomorrow that firemen from Bagenalstown were “pissed” when they arrived to deal with a chimney fire at their Carlow hideaway last year.
The group fronted by outrageous gay singer Holly Johnson, who recently revealed he was having an affair with his personal manager, a young man called Wolfgang.
Mr. Fintan O’Neill, Carlow’s Assistant Chief Fire Officer, yesterday described the allegations about his men as “ludicrous and totally untrue.”
Stunt
He told SUNDAY WORLD: “There is no question of firemen being drunk that night. And if this particular group is pulling a publicity stunt at our expense I’m not going to let them get away with it.
“I’m not in the business of shit slinging, but if they start bringing the firemen into disrepute we will expose their conduct that night.”
The controversial incident happened on September 20 last year at Borris House — home of the aristocratic Kavanagh family — where the Frankie were in tax exile working on their new album, “Liverpool.”
The night before they left thee was a chimney fire in the residence.
FGTH’s guitarist Brian Nash admits in the September edition of “The Face” magazine that he was responsible for the first.
“I threw this wicker basket on the fire — cos, like, you had to chop your own wood — and all the sparkes went up the chimney” says Nash.
“We had to get the fire brigade out at one o’clock in the morning… and they were all pissed.”
The magazine goes on to relate how Nash and another group member Ped Gill “ended up on the roof wearing firemen’s helmets and clutching a hose.”
There is also an ambiguous reference to a bottle of Jameson being polished off and “a selection of part-time Irish fire-fighters who would not be shown the way to go home.”
Carlow’s Assistant Fire Chief, Fintan O’Neill, yesterday told SUNDAY WORLD he was horrified to learn about the allegations, which he stressed are totally without foundation.
Mr. O’Neill told me: “I’m not going to let my men be dragged into the gutter where these fellas came from.
“I am very clear about what happened that night because the Bagenalstown station officer later spoke to me about the problems his men had encountered in trying to deal with the fire.
“He told me how the firemen were hampered in their task that night by the members of the rock group who insisted on climbing ladders and generally causing problems.
Design
“Because of the design of the building it was a difficult chimney fire to tackle and those guys certainly didn’t help the situation.
“I’m quite satisfied that the firemen were not drunk. I can hold my head high wher their behaviour is concerned.
“The members of that group should look at their own conduct before they start commenting on the conduct of other people.”
Mr. O’Neill added that he will be asking Carlow Co. Council to put the matter in the hands of their legal advisers.