The rock and rollercoaster history of The Saw Doctors defies logical explanation until you remember that, in the end, perseverance gets rewarded.

In the last eighteen months, Ireland's Saw Doctors have blazed back phoenix-like from almost two decades of unsung glory. Out of the blue, their rambunctious cover of The Sugababes' About You Now rocketed to No 1 in Ireland, restoring them to their rightful place as that nation's best-loved good-time band.

Fronted by two criminally under-rated songwriters, Leo Moran and Davy Carton, this is the band that entered the record books back in 1990 when I Useta Lover spent nine weeks at number one, becoming Ireland's best-selling single of all time. They followed up with the No 2 hit, N17, and a chart-topping album, If This Is Rock And Roll, I Want My Old Job Back, but somehow the momentum wasn't maintained.

Irresistably singable songs (To Win Just Once, Hay Wrap and Same Oul' Town to name but three), still flowed from Moran and Carton; their stormingly exuberant live shows remained unparalleled celebrations of the spirit of great rock; and their substantial phalanx of hardcore fans on both sides of the Atlantic never wavered in support.

"I suppose we’re a bit like an old dress," says Leo Moran with a wryly philosophical smile. "If you keep it long enough, it’s bound to come back into fashion."

Typically for the Saw Doctors, coming back into fashion happened in the least likely way imaginable, on February 12, 2008. "We were on the Podge And Rodge Show," laughs Davy Carton. "It's a late-night Irish Television Show hosted by two rude puppets. Part of the show involves a spinning music board. They spin the board and the guest artist has to perform whatever song it lands on. It landed on The Sugababes hit About You Now."

At the end of the show, The Saw Doctors took to the tiny Podge And Rodge stage and delivered up their blindingly transformed re-interpretation of what had been a slick r'n'b pop hit. Now it was entirely their own, as surely as if Moran and Carton had written it themselves. Suddenly, About You Now had become a ranting, raving rock anthem.  

On October 18, 2008, with hot releases from P!nk, Kings Of Leon and Snow Patrol trailing along in their dust, About You Now by The Saw Doctors debuted at No1 in the Irish Charts. Generous to a fault, the band donated all proceeds, over €10,000, to Galway’s Salerno Cystic Fibrosis Fund.

There's a trace of impish delight in Davy Carton when he notes that The Sugababes' original version of About You Now stalled at No 2 in the Irish Chart. "We're not pretty to look at," he admits, "but we were No 1."

Leo Moran is typically self-effacing when he addresses the question of exactly what went right for The Saw Doctors after almost two decades of hovering just off the radar. "Sometimes you stumble upon a bit more attention," he reckons.  "With The Podge and Rodge Show, and the Meteor (Lifetime Achievement) Award in 2008, we got a lot of attention.”

For many artists a Lifetime Achievement Award comes towards the end of a long and acclaimed career but, for The Saw Doctors, it came at the start of their second sprint to the top – just three days after their momentous appearance on the Podge And Rodge Show.  

The Saw Doctors were formed in Tuam, Galway, Ireland, in 1986. Although membership has fluctuated over the years, two founder-members have remained constant. Leo Moran, formerly of local reggae combo Too Much For The White Man and Davy Carton, a refugee from short-lived punk band Blaze X, were there right at the start, when it felt like success to be able to play in local venues such as Tuam's Imperial Hotel.

The Saw Doctors were discovered in the back room of the Quays Pub in Galway in 1988 by Mike Scott of The Waterboys who was recording The Fishermans' Blues album in nearby Spiddal.  Mike Scott asked The Saw Doctors to open for The Waterboys' on the Fisherman's Blues tour of the UK and Ireland in the Autumn of 1988.

After posting a second Number One album (All The Way From Tuam), The Saw Doctors set about touring the UK and in February 1996, the band's third album “Same Oul' Town” went to Number Six in the UK Top Twenty,  yielding two Top Twenty UK singles, World of Good, and To Win Just Once.  The Saw Doctors appeared on BBC's Top of the Pops in January and July 1996 to promote the two singles.

Even after the first flush of success faded, The Saw Doctors were never far out of earshot. Guinness, for example, used the Saw Doctors' song Never Mind the Strangers in a multi-million dollar ad campaign for Harp Lager in the USA. The band made a film appearance in Walter Foote's directorial debut, The Tavern, which featured Same Oul' Town, and their song She Says became the theme to the BBC Northern Ireland comedy series Give My Head Peace.

In May 1997, the Saw Doctors undertook their first major coast to coast US tour and as a result landed a US record deal with Paradigm Records in New York.  Sing A Powerful Song was released in November 1997, prompting Geoffrey Himes to write in The Washington Post that “the Saw Doctors are one of the world’s most appealing  roots-rock outfits”. 

Through it all, the twin planks of the band's enduring appeal have been immensely singable songs and riotous live performances. Instead of the usual swaggering rock cliches about life on the road, drug problems and easy sex, their songs range from bringing in the harvest, to running away to join the army;  from the plight of Ireland’s unmarried mothers to the effect of strong religion on a nation’s youth; from playing football against a neighbouring village to loving the prettiest girl in town from a distance but lacking the courage to tell her.

“From country to punk to pop and rock'n'roll”,  explains Leo Moran on their success,  “we stole all our favourite bits”.

Saw Doctors' fans go home glowing from a gig crammed end to end with songs about real life. The band work the same live magic wherever they play, from the Royal Albert Hall in London to a convent in the West of Ireland, from the paddock at Sandown Racecourse to the front room of a lucky fan who won a live Saw Doctors concert as a competition prize.

As their new compilation, To Win Just Once..The Best of The Saw Doctors, hits the streets,  The Saw Doctors current lineup features  Leo Moran (vocals, guitar), Davy Carton (vocals, guitar), Kevin Duffy (keyboards), Anthony Thistlethwaite (bass guitar, saxophone), and Eímhín Cradock (drums).