THE Frank and Walters singer Paul Linehan has revealed how he tracked down the ex-girlfriend who inspired their monster hit After All.
The Cork frontman dated English girl Katy Linfield in the early Nineties but lost contact after they split in 1994.
However, when producers of TV comedy The Young Offenders decided to use the song in the finale of their first series, Paul decided he wanted to let Katy know.
Paul told The Irish Sun: “I hadn’t heard or seen Katy in 25 years. I wondered was she living in America or Australia?
“I found a person on Twitter with the same name who might have been her. I messaged ‘It’s Paul, do you remember me?’ Of course she did and we ended up texting.”
The former sweethearts later met up before a London concert by The Franks and Walters.
And the singer shared the news with fans that the woman who inspired After All was in the house when it came time to perform their best-known song that night.
Katy told The Irish Sun: “Paul asked my permission if he could point to me in the audience when he dedicated After All to me.
“I was in the middle of hundreds of die-hard Franks fans and the
all looked around at me and were asking ‘is that you?’.
“I’d brought my 16-year-old daughter Tess along for moral support and she couldn’t believe the reaction. Everyone going crazy for the song, and asking ‘is this about you?’. It made me feel very special.”
Graphic artist Katy was 24 when she first met Paul at Newcastle’s Riverside venue, where the Frank and Walters opened for Bristol group The Blue Aeroplanes.
Paul recalled: “I thought Katy was stunning and way out of my league. But when she told me she was moving to London the following months, I suggested we meet for a drink.”
Paul and Katy were soon an item as the Cork band took off with the UK music press. But their biggest hit was to come from a tiff between Paul and Katy as he headed back out on another tour without her.
Paul said: “I came back upset about an argument we had and the song After All emerged from that. But the song is a celebration of our love. I was in love with Katy.”
Katy was astonished when her song became the Franks’ biggest hit, climbing to No11 after the group performed on Top Of The Pops.
‘IT WAS A SECRET’
She said: “I didn’t tell anyone After All was about me. It was a secret, really.”
Paul and Katy dated for two years before they split in 1994.
Decades later, Katy now has two daughters and is in a relationship with an artist.
‘I GET EMOTIONAL HEARING IT’
She told us: “I get emotional hearing the song. Looking back, it’s nice to think it hadn’t been for nothing because Paul had been such a huge relationship in my life.”
Paul, together with partner Katharina Walter for 20 years, added: “As I sing in After All, ‘I know we fight and our loves gets pushed to the side but it ends alright’.”
The Frank and Walters play The Lighthouse, Dun Laoghaire, on July 12.
Paul and Katy tell their story in RTE series Aistear an Amhrain on June 10 at 7pm on RTE 1.
The popular song was used in the finale of the first series of The Young Offenders[/caption]
