“A whipping boy, was a young boy who was assigned to a young prince and was punished when the prince misbehaved or fell behind in his schooling. Whipping boys were established in the English court during the monarchies of the 15th century and 16th centuries. They were created because the idea of the divine right of kings, which stated that kings were appointed by God, and implied that no one but the king was worthy of punishing the king’s son. Since the king was rarely around to punish his son when necessary, tutors to the young prince found it extremely difficult to enforce rules or learning.”

End of lesson. Ahem.

Whipping Boy were another name on the list of bands that almost made it, from Ireland in the 1990s. There seems no real reason why it didn’t happen for them, so it proves one more time that luck has a large part to play in the life of any band that you see perform on MTV.

They had three albums – Submarine (1992), which was their first album and received some good reviews, which lead to interest from Columbia records, who released their second album – Heartworm (1995). The band broke up in  1998, leaving their third album unreleased, which later found its way out in 2000.  Whipping Boy (2000) on Low Rent records.

The band has since reformed without original members Paul Page and Myles McDonnell. Two new members have joined the band, as well as  long time live guitarist Killian McGowan. You can follow them on their facebook page here. They play dates around the county in May and June, but I can’t find any sign of a Dublin date, sadly.