EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH THE ANSWER

The News of the World caught up with rockers The Answer recently to talk Liverpool, Man United and not supporting England.

Having opened for legends AC/DC on their American tour in the autumn, even bigger things are on the horizon for the quartet from Northern Ireland.

Now back in the UK and embarking on a headline tour of their own, what better time to catch up with the boys?

Not shy of an opinion, the band built across enemy lines offer advice to Ryan Babel and to all Americans attempting to master the beautiful game.

To see if they do indeed have the Answer, read our exclusive chat with vocalist Cormac Neeson, lead guitarist Paul Mahon and bassist Micky Waters...

So, Cormac, you're a Liverpool fan, aren't you? Is it still a case of 'in Rafa we trust'?

I'm still a supporter of Rafa - it's plain to see he's had a bad run of it with injuries. The key for Liverpool is stability and if we were to get rid of him it would upset us for a good few seasons. I'm still a firm believer he'll come good. We're having a bad patch but hopefully it will pick up.

Have you been to Anfield recently?

I haven't been to a game in a long while. We do that much travelling it's very hard to pencil it in to our calendars. We're actually trying to squeeze in a game during this approaching tour so if the stars are aligned hopefully we'll get to a game in the next few weeks. I don't think Paul will be joining us though!

Paul, I hear you're a United fan. That must make things quite tricky in the band!

Yeah, I'm a United fan. Football's very important to us so it can get quite heated!

(Cormac: When it comes to football, Paul's a hard man to listen to!)

I tell it like it is. Results speak for themselves.

(Cormac: Not so much on the individual matches.... Last month was probably the last good result we've had! I'm hoping the Red Army will come down to the Liverpool show and show their support.)

The Kop would be welcome!

(Cormac: There you go - you heard it from a United fan!)

I think I'm quite a diplomatic United supporter - I could be a lot worse!

(Cormac: One United fan told me we only let you beat us so they wouldn't sack Benitez!)

You're a supporter of Benitez, Cormac, so does that mean you blame the club's American owners for the current trouble?

In one way it was their cash injection that made it possible to get Torres, the greatest striker in the Premiership, but after that it all went a bit pear-shaped. I was talking about unity and stability and those boys definitely don't bring unity and stability.

Shouldn't Benitez carry the can for some of his buys though? Players like Ryan Babel?

You can understand Benitez's investment in people like Babel because he's got potential but he needs to start growing into a man sometime soon.

It's what's let Liverpool down, a bit like Arsenal in the past, they just haven't had the players in the squad. If the money's not there to improve the squad, your hands are tied. Between Benitez and the American owners they're going to have to sort that out.

So what's your prediction for the season?

I think we're going to finish third or fourth in the Prem and win the Europa League!

Paul, are you happy with United's start?

It's been so far so good but it's all going to depend on how we're going to do without Ronaldo because the past two or three years we've really been built around him.

Do you think Valencia will prove an adequate replacement?

I think it's too early to say whether Valencia can replace him effectively. To be honest, I expect more from Berbatov. I think we still need a poacher up front, harking back to Van Nistelrooy or someone like that, but I think the rest of the team's pretty good.

Has it been difficult to keep track of the goings-on at your clubs while you've been stateside?

Cormac: It is hard keeping up to date. Obviously because of the time difference when we were in the States but also because Setanta's been axed. When we got started, before last Christmas, Setanta was still up and running and you could see the Premier League games. There's a couple of dodgy websites, like that Iraq one, where you can just about make out the football and the players...

Did you get into any of the American sports while you were over there?

Cormac: We actually got into a few while we were away. I can imagine your readers going 'oh no, here we go!' They've been to America for three months and they think they're American!

I can actually follow a game (of NFL) now. I'm not completely lost. We actually went to an American Football game in Chicago and a baseball game as well. Going there, you pick up a lot of the rules. We had our guitar tech, who was an American with us that day. After the first kick of the game an entire team runs off the field and we were just looking at our guitar tech and going 'what the f**k is this here?!' He was just laughing his head off.

He insisted that we went down to the sidelines and heard the crunch of the players. It's a tough sport - too tough for us!

EVERYDAY DEMONS: The album

You must have given them a game of proper football to make up for it?!

Cormac: A lot of the stadiums that you play in have indoor astroturf pitches so we used to have the Irish and the English against the American crew members and we wiped the slate clean after that.

Micky: They don't understand the whole stop the ball and then kick it. They just boot it and run! It's so funny to watch.

Cormac: I really did start to enjoy American Football I have to say and we had a football pool, us and the AC/DC crew, maybe 40 in total...

Paul: They're Rangers supporters. We're Celtic so we'd be slagging them!

Cormac: We had a few pounds on it and that helped keep things interesting.

You're from Northern Ireland but you also support the Republic...presumably, you're still a bit upset!

Cormac: I'll never use a Gillette razor again! It was heart-wrenching, you know yourself, well, you don't know, England have made the last however many World Cups, but it's not the same when Ireland aren't in it.

When they're in it, it's like the best three weeks. Every bar is rammed to breaking point full of mad fans who share in the one goal to cheer Ireland across the finishing line and it's just an amazing feeling.

I hope France go out in the group stages!

Surely Henry is not quite the villain he has been made out to be?

Paul: We were in a taxi and the cab driver made a good point that if it had been at the other end and Robbie Keane had handled we wouldn't have cared at all.

Trapattoni deserves a lot of credit for getting that Irish side to within a whisker of the World Cup.

Cormac: They played amazingly well to get to that point. Ironically it was Keane, who got the first goal but in some ways lost the match for us because he missed a couple of sitters. And Duff missed one - he's spent so long playing for Newcastle he's bound to get sloppy in front of goal!

Supporting Northern Ireland must be even harder work!

Paul: I remember the first World Cup I saw was 86 and Northern Ireland were in that and the Republic didn't really come on the scene until Euro 88 and Italia 90 but then they became almost like a national phenomenon.

Cormac: The die-hard Northern Ireland fans would say they've never been any good because the Republic steal all the good players, that they smuggle all the good ones across the border! I'm not sure that's entirely true.

Micky: Darron Gibson was born in Derry...

Paul: You can choose to play for the south if you're from Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland are a pretty poor team. They show a lot fighting spirit but they haven't got many decent players.

So, with Ireland out, you'll be supporting England next summer...

Micky: I'll be cheering on the Liverpool players like Stevie G...

Cormac: I think I can categorically say that I will not be supporting England!

Paul: I think when the World Cup comes round all this English pride becomes a little bit too much.

Cormac: It's not the same when Ireland aren't there. I'm bitter - I'm just the first one to admit it!

The Answer bring their ground-breaking year to a spectacular close with a 15-date UK tour in November and December - for full details visit www.theanswer.ie.

The interview took place at Marylebone's Sportsbar & Grill - the ideal place to watch all live sport in London.

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