Trisha: "It was at a party. There was a queue a mile long outside the gals’ and there was no one in the blokes' so we went in there. We knew each other before that but that was the first time we'd discussed a band."

Izal. Or rather I see.

This debate occurred just prior to Christmas 1983. Trisha (vocs), Jacqui (sax), Mitzi (drums) and Lynder (double bass; stricken with a raging virus on the day of our meeting and consequently absent) became the Shillelagh Sisters.

Much more recently they appeared on TVs The Tube. A brief but courageous shambles which, I guess, woke up a few of the countless millions into breathless living room shimmying.

Enchanted, I stumbled out to see them at Camden's salubrious Irish Centre. A packed floor, a busy bar and the Shillelagh Sisters were a joy. All eight of them.

It was a slight shock soon after to find them contractually obliged to CBS and a little boring to witness the predictable, cynical lumping of the cuties into the cowpoke and hay bale camp.

Sign to Big Company and reek strongly of Opportunism and Hype.

Trisha: "One of the secretaries at CBS came to see us just for a night out I think, and told somebody in A&R there about us. Four weeks later, at the end of November, they had the contracts drawn up. It was the best deal, there were others."

Wasn't all this major label interest surprising?

Trisha: "Yeah, we couldn't really understand it. We had a lot of press all of a sudden and it was when people started ringing up to get on the guest list we realised there must be something going on."

What do you think the collected A&R departments saw in you?

Trisha: "The 'girl’ aspect must have had a lot to do with it. People thought ‘ha, I’ve gotta see this girl band'. A lot of people on the rocking circuit thought girls playing rock and roll would be good for a laugh.

"We get lumped in with Pogue Mahone (now re-named The Pogues) and the Boot Hill Foot Tappers and we don't play anything like them at all. Maybe we wear cowboy shirts sometimes. But people lump us in with Yip Yip Coyote, I've heard their single and it don't sound like country to me."

Jacqui: "Yip Yip Coyote are like Bow Wow Wow. We've played with Pogue Mahone and the Boot Hills before and it's the same sort of crowd who go to see the different bands. Except for Yip Yip Coyote who seem to be... apart."

Mitzi: "We wouldn't want to classify ourselves as a hillbilly band or anything like that because we all like different types of music. Our single is different from the rest of our stuff and we've got a Latin American song so..."

Jacqui: "What we're playing at the moment, is traditional rockabilly but the new numbers aren't really as rocking. They're rockabilly, soully, country and a bit of Irish too."

Ominously fussy over 'product', CBS nixed the original recording of the debut single, the assertive throb-abilly (with trumpets!) of 'Give Me My Freedom', demanding the thing be re-done with a different producer. It’s easy to wonder why and speculate on company desire for a 'just so' acceptably (cowish) pat sound.

Jacqui: "They weren't sure of it, that's all."

Trisha: "Because the whole company wasn't saying 'ah, this is a wonderful record'."

Mitzi: "People seem to be waiting to say 'they can't play' and they don't think of the production being separate but, in fact, it is."

Jacqui: "The song's brilliant but they weren’t sure of the production on it. Whether it was what they wanted it to sound like."

In London, the Shillelagh Sisters attract a regular coterie which turns their gigs into the rave-ups which make for such pleasurable occasions. Are they possessed of sufficient zap (a vital ingredient) to counter the missing friends and positively sway potentially doubting provincials?

Trisha: "Since The Tube a wider crowd has come to see us, out of curiosity obviously."

Jacqui: "We're getting itchy to go outside London, we get bored with the same clubs. We get accused of holding parties on stage because we have such fun people want to get up and join in. At Dingwalls we invited a low people up and the whole of the audience got on stage."

Trisha: "We invite people up to play washboard if they're brave enough."

Mitzi: "I'm the drummer so I play at the back. I looked up and there was about six people right in front of me dancing. Amazing, all I can see is their backsides."

Jacqui: "it's not really music to sit down and concentrate on. It's... mindless, I suppose."

Mitzi: "If we have any trouble at gigs we handle it quite well. A kick up the backside and they soon behave."