Eric McShane

Eric McShane (Born 7th January 1967), is a former drummer and who played with George Hudson and Howard Taft under a variety of band names from 1980-1981, before the two others formed "Mr Creosote and His Friends" - later Creosote - with Jeremiah Creosote. McShane continued to drum for other Manchester bands until 1987 and was reasonably successful on the local scene, known for his punk ethic, onstage energy and increasingly good looks. In 1987 he married Elisha Brisbane and was forced to work 'more steady jobs' on the arrival of his daughter that same year.

In 1988 during the peak of Creosote's success, he attracted some attention for his former role with Hudson and Taft, and his feelings of regret and hurt at his abrupt rejection from the group. Press interest increased considerably following his launching of a lawsuit in August 1989 over the song, "All About You" from Creosote's debut self titled album. While not a single and often overlooked, an instrumental version was used heavily a film in 1988, resulting in considerable royalty payments being made to Creosote. McShane claimed he had not only written the drum beat, but had also made influential suggestions on the song's structure and leading riff. Matters were complicated by the fact the original song, written in 1981, was performed under several different but similar names, including "What About You", "Better Than You" and "You Barely Knew". After some brief deliberations and postponements (Creosote were at the time filming Murder On L'Elegant Express!), the case was swiftly settled with an undisclosed out of court settlement by the band in early 1990.

Following the conclusion of McShane's lawsuit media interest in him dwindled, and he opened a pub in 1992 with a combination of savings and his settlement money. He was divorced in 1995 and remarried in 1999. McShane began an auto-biography in 2002 but ended his plans upon receiving scarce interest from publishers and finding his part in the 'The Creosote Tale' was now incredibly small in the face of the Railway Kings formation and their brewing feud with Creosote.

Despite very successful years in the early 2000s, his pub was forced to close in 2009 due to the recession, the very same 'blady credit crunch', which caused Creosote's failing fortunes the same year. The comparison was not lost on *The Mirror*, who published an article remarking, "Don't Worry Jeremiah! You're Not Alone - Former Creosote Member McShane Loses Famed Manc Pub". A few other stories followed from other papers on the similarity of Creosote and McShane's business fortunes, receiving more attention than was really due as the newspapers hit their famously dry spell in late summer, with not much else to report on.

The 2009 press coverage, and his continued presence in Manchester as a pub owner - he would open a new pub in Salford in 2013 - have prevented McShane from fading to complete obscurity. He also made an appearance on BBC Four's "Manchester's Punks", a late night documentary on the history of Manchester's punk scene. In 2016 he was listed 14th on The Daily Mail's '20 D-Listers You Forgot About'.

## Post-Creosote

Following his departure from Hudson and Taft's band, McShane found himself drumming in a variety of bands in the young Mancunian music circuit. Despite his lack of commitment within the early form of Creosote, competant drummers with good kit were still in demand with student bands and he rose in popularity within the local pub circuit as he was able to turn his drumming into a part-time job during his two years studying at Xaverian college.

However, as the 1985 came and went, McShane started to harbour some resentment to his former bandmates as he saw their increasing popularity culminate in the 1986 debut album 'Creosote'. His current bandmates and anyone he worked with as a session drummer noticed that he had become increasingly dependant on alcohol to keep himself in higher spirits, especially when on stage. Despite this, no one made an issue of it with him and he managed to keep the problem mostly concealed until he met Elisha Brisbane in April 1986. Following this, he seemed to improve and moved away from the music scene with his marriage to Elisha in December 1986 and subsequent birth of his daughter in April 1987. However the release of 'There's Still More' in June 1987 led to a resumption of his resentment, bitterness and subsequent alcoholism. The problem escalated with the release of Night Boat on the Bosphorus and then the announcement of Murder on L'Elegant Express!

## Controversies

McShane has been involved in several controversial media appearances and spats, mostly in regards to his former band. In October 1988 he was interviewed in the wake of filming commencing on Murder on L'Elegant Express! Several press journalists had noticed he had auditioned for two roles within the film that would have put him in close contact with the band for several weeks, while he didn't get the roles the subsequent press chatter ensured he found himself in the media spotlight for several months.

In this interview he made several offhanded comments about the bands success on his work, prompting interviewers to question him on the topic of his work with George Hudson and Howard Taft. On the 12th October 1988 he made an appearance on a late-night MTV news show to discuss the lost potential of his tenure and departure from what would eventually become Creosote. Many audience members noticed he was evidently intoxicated to a degree and while McShane was capable of coherant speech he was clearly in a vindictive state of mind as he proceeded to rant at the host for 20 minutes about how the many contributions he made to the lyrics, structure and instrumentation of certain Creosote hits had gone completed unnoticed by the public, and in his eyes, conveniently swept under the rug by his former bandmates and "my greedy, self-absorbed former friends".

When questioned as to what he meant by this, McShane responded with a list of several songs included All About You, Blackened with Dust and Off the Rails from the debut album Creosote as well as insisting that he had written almost the entirety of Around the Rings Again and What Me? Tell Me, Show Me how from There's Still More. The subsequent media storm surrounding this would cause irreparable damage to his friendship with his former band-mates and solidified him within UK media as a golden example of an opportunist.

The day immediately after McShanes televised appearance saw Hudson, Taft and Jeremiah Creosote all accosted by the press for their side of events. While Hudson and Taft brushed off the journalists and ignored them, Creosote lay down a short, punctual yet incredibly angry rant stating "If some jumped up sod who can't handle being passed over because of his own inability, then he didn't deserve to play with those two lads regardless and he got everything bladdy coming to him."

On the 21st of October, 9 days after the broadcast of the interview, Creosote met for a press conference to address the issue. Jeremiah was rather conspicuous in his absence but excused his absence to the Daily Mirror saying "It just isn't my fight in all honesty, I trust the lads to deal with this sod in their own way". In the five hour slog that was the conference Hudson and Taft explicitly denied that any of McShanes accusations were true, with Hudson going as far to show the notes that would evolve into Off the Rails, Blackended with Dust and What Me? Tell Me, Show Me. Every single one of them was covered in stain rings, various scribbles but most importantly dates that showed that even the nucleus of each song hadn't been conceived until well after McShanes departure. The conference concluded with Taft standing and saying "In all honesty, this is already far too big for what it is. We'd rather just sit down with Eric, have a pint and go over this like the mates we thought we were. This could so easily have been cleared up without it becoming a big kerfuffle. It still can be. You know how to reach us mate." With this, both Hudson and Taft simply departed without another word.

However, this olive branch was in vain, as McShane, seemingly in a spiralling delirium as his alcoholism became worse and the media attention somewhat remedied both his seething resentment and jealously as well as the problems he was experiencing at home, completely declined any attempts at a more peaceful and calm resolution. He loudly announced his intention to bring the matter to court during an appearance on BBC Breakfast Time. The legal battle that would ensue would be bittersweet for McShane. While he himself believed he was an underdog, treated unfairly by inconsiderate people who had piggybacked off him to succeed themselves, the media was starting to doubt this story as he became increasingly erratic in his appearances and cracks in his case against Creosote began to show.

When asked to provide evidence he claimed he had proving his involvement in the writing process, he clammed up and refused to talk, often claiming he had "already submitted it to the appropriate individuals". Demos he claimed he had produced with the band in his family garage never surfaced and while he had believed the sympathy of the public to the down-trodden man would have saved his case, he quickly found himself as a pariah. Much of the British public saw him as a bitter opportunist trying to leech off the achievements of others. Even his own wife, Elisha Brisbane, struggled with him during this time, at one point taking their daughter to her mothers house for over a month. In an interview with the Daily Mail around this time she said "It is all consuming for him, we don't matter in his eyes and all he seems to care about are Hudson, Taft and Creosote. The music is banned in our house, i'm not allowed to mention them. It concerns me that this matters so much to him and that he is going so far.".

The case would drag on through 1989 with the actual submission of the case to the courts taking place in August. It would take until March 1990 for it to be fully resolved due to the fact Creosote were involved both in the recording of Stained Tablecloth and the recording of their second feature film. However, it was quickly found there was little to the case and in a rare act of benevolence, Jeremiah Creosote insisted that the band pay McShane a settlement to save him from further embarrassment and to hopefully prevent any further cases coming up again. When asked about this in 1995, Creosote simply said 'As much as his bladdy antics drove me up the wall, ah guess ah felt a bit sorreh for the buggah. He wound himself up so much and dug a hole so deep he woulda nevah gotten out if we hadn't ahv helped him somewhat".