POST-2005 PRESS REVIEWS: Irish Times: Friday December 9th 2005 Among the Irish acts you'd vote least likely to resurface would be Whipping Boy, who noisily broke up nearly a decade ago. Tony Clayton-Lea talks to two original members about the painful process of separation and reconciliation - and their determination to, this time, keep control of their destiny. Read more >> PRE-2005 PRESS REVIEWS: Hot Press: Sweet Mangled Thing, Oct 1989 Irish newcomers Whipping Boy are a flexible flyer, a spandex truss (postcards only, please) a disreputable perm, a wholesome tweak. It’s nice to know that there’s someone out there who realises that this is NINETEEN EIGHTY NINE and not therefore a time of flowers and spiritualism and all that shite. Read more >> Hot Press : Whipping Boy EP August 1990 Whipping Boy have buckets of attitude (bad attitude that is, which is even better), a definite grasp of what they are doing and, lurking beneath the mangled maelstrom and mayhem, some quite nifty pop melodies. Read more >> Melody Maker : Live Review : Camden Falcon : London 1990 Whipping Boy put as much energy and emotion into the first song as most bands put into their entire set. They certainly don’t have their mind on the party afterwards. When this Dublin-based crew are in town, you can guarantee that music will be allying with her sister performer, theatre, to create a spectacle that is immediate, sexual, rough, and sometimes magical. Read more >> Melody Maker : Live Review : The Cube : London 1990 For the final song - the new single, 'I think I miss you' - everything shivers and collapses into an awesome apocalypse of Coppola - esque proportions. Rollercoaster. Read more >> Hot Press : Live Review : The Underground : Dublin, March 1991 Whipping Boy will never, ever, ever get on 'Top of the Pops'. They're noisy, dangerous, decadent, horrible and loud. Overpowering, overwhelming, yes disgusting in a beautiful sort of way. The Whipping Boy are going to die roaring, a gift from God, a gift from God. Read more >> Melody Maker: Submarine, June 1992 Theres an atmosphere and an attitude here stretching way beyond limp copyism. Never mind that Lynchian chestnut about the dark,seething interior beneath the cute, clean surface. Whipping Boy's album tastes, appropriately enough of the weals and scars on the surface itself. Read more >> NME: Submarine, June 1992 "Submarine" has a startling delicacy, all the more for its surprises and soft edges. Its a debut album to rank with the finest this year, an album to remind the pack that its better not to rush into things but to sit, wait and speak when you have something to say. Read more >> Melody Maker : Live Review : Splash Club : London, May 1995 If this kind of heart-heaving commitment and blow-torching intensity, this reluctance to armour-plate their souls has you backing off because it's now so deeply unfashionable, well frankly, fuck you! Read more >> Melody Maker : Live Review : SFX : Dublin, September 1995 Boys throw themselves with an alarmingly disregard for safety into the ever-growing melee. Security Guards clutch their ears and pray main band Smashing Pumpkins will be along soon. They can't be as rampant as this, surely? Read more >> Melody Maker: Heartworm, October 1995 If you want a comparison that does Whipping Boy justice, think of James Joyce and Martin Scorsese-pissed up angry and morose, ready to hit the confessional with all they have got."The Dubliners" via "Mean Streets". Scary. Uncompromising. Magnificent. Read more >> Hot Press: Heartworm, October 1995 Heartworm is a unique album. It is a startlingly honest exploration of the psyche of the outsider. But its very melodies are joy. And its chords and beats are rocking like no other. It is like poitin and poitin mixed. Explosive! Heartworm is one of the best albums I have ever heard. Read more >> VOX: Heartworm, October 1995 Whipping Boy are-wait for it -the biggest thing out of Dublin since U2, and Heartworm is an astonishingly impressive work. Quite simply, one of the albums of the year. Read more >> Q Magazine: Heartworm, December 1995 The band have the power and dynamics to drive McKee's explorations to frightening heights of romantic intensity, particularly on Blinded and A Natural. This kind of intensity is a rarity these days, which is why Whipping Boy could and should be huge. Read more >> Hot Press: Whipping Boy (Third album), April 2000 It is an epic yet intimate record which sighs, sparkles and burns in equal measure. If the Whipping Boy story ends here, it is a fitting closing chapter. Listen and yearn. They might have been giants. Read more >> Dublin Event Guide: Whipping Boy (Third Album), April 2000 It sounds desperate and sad, but gloriously uplifting at the same time. That's Whipping Boy all over - they're in the gutter but they're undoubtedly staring straight at the stars. You would be advised to drag yourselves into their intoxicating underworld as soon as is humanly possible. Read more >> The BigTakeover: Whipping Boy (Third Album), May 2000 In the end, it’s hard to find a flaw with this fantastic, meticulously put together record, which makes it even more bittersweet. It makes you pissed off that the band is kaput, when they had so much more to offer. Read more >> Cluas (Website): Whipping Boy (Third Album), May 2000 Ireland 2000 needs band like Whipping Boy. With the country succumbing to a gross cosy trendy materialism veiled in pretension and the musical landscape desolate of fresh hope we should thank the stars that a band with intelligent rock and roll principles embedded in their hearts have reformed. Read more >>