Irish showband: Difference between revisions
Fixed Typo. Tags: Reverted Mobile edit Mobile web edit |
Fixed Typo. Tags: Reverted Mobile edit Mobile web edit |
||
Line 11: | Line 11: | ||
| caption = |
| caption = |
||
| stylistic_origins = [[Pop]], |
| stylistic_origins = [[Pop]], [[Rock and Roll]], [[Country and Western]], [[Dixieland Jazz]], |
||
[[Rock and Roll]], [[Country and Western]], [[Dixieland Jazz]], |
|||
[[Big Band]] music, Ballroom |
[[Big Band]] music, Ballroom |
||
Dances - Waltz & Quickstep & Jive |
Dances - Waltz & Quickstep & Jive |
||
& Foxtrot, [[Cèilidh|Céilí]] |
& Foxtrot, [[Cèilidh|Céilí]] |
||
(Irish/Scottish style dance band |
(Irish/Scottish style dance band |
||
music), Folk Music, [[Latin Dance]] - Latin style ballroom dances such as [[Cha Cha Cha]] & [[Tango]] & |
music), Folk Music, [[Latin Dance]] - Latin style ballroom dances such as [[Cha Cha Cha]] & [[Tango]] & [[Rumba]] & [[Beguine]] & [[Samba]] & [[Mambo]] & [[Bossanova]] |
||
[[Rumba]] & [[Beguine]] & [[Samba]] & [[Mambo]] & [[Bossanova]] |
|||
| cultural_origins = [[Ireland]], 1950s–80s |
| cultural_origins = [[Ireland]], 1950s–80s |
Revision as of 16:46, 3 February 2024
![]() | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (December 2016) |
Irish showband | |
---|---|
Native name | seó-bhanna |
Stylistic origins | Pop, Rock and Roll, Country and Western, Dixieland Jazz,
Big Band music, Ballroom Dances - Waltz & Quickstep & Jive & Foxtrot, Céilí (Irish/Scottish style dance band music), Folk Music, Latin Dance - Latin style ballroom dances such as Cha Cha Cha & Tango & Rumba & Beguine & Samba & Mambo & Bossanova |
Cultural origins | Ireland, 1950s–80s |
Typical instruments | Drums,
Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Bass Guitar, Keyboard Instrument, Trumpet, Saxophone, Trombone, Clarinet. |
The Irish Showband (Irish: seó-bhanna)[1] was a dance band format popular in Ireland from the mid-1950s to mid-1980s, hitting its peak in the 1960s, declining from the mid 1970's. The showband was based on the internationally popular seven-piece dance band, sometimes they had 8, 9, 10 members, if there was singer who didn't play an instrument, or if they had extra brass/woodwind players. The band's basic repertoire included standard dance numbers and covers of Pop music hits. The versatile music ranged from Rock and Roll and Country and Western songs to traditional Dixieland Jazz, Big Band music and even Irish Céilí dance, Latin Ballroom dances, Folk music and Waltzes, Foxtrots, Quicksteps, Jiving. Key to a showband's popular success was the ability to perform songs currently in the record charts. Some bands also did comedy skits onstage.
The performer line-up varied, but usually featured a rhythm section of Drums, Lead Guitar, Rhythm and Bass Guitar, a Keyboard instrument (in later years), and a brass section of Trumpet, Saxophone (altor/tenor) and Trombone, the most popular combination. Other brass combinations included two tenor saxophones, tenor & baritone saxophone, two tenor saxophones & trombone, trumpet & alto/tennor & baritone saxophone, two trumpets, two trumpets & trombone, two trumpets & saxophone. The saxophone players may have doubled on clarinet or straight soprano saxophone, and some alto/tennor players doubled on baritone saxophone. The band was fronted by one or two lead singers, who were assisted by other band members on backing vocals. Comedy routines were sometimes featured. The Irish showband, unlike the Big Band, played while standing.[2] Members would often perform choreographed dance steps in the manner of Bill Haley & His Comets or a Soul band, which brought more energy to the performance. Initially, the bands' tours were limited to Irish venues. As the scene progressed, the more successful bands toured Irish clubs in Britain, usually during Lent (Religious event) when most ballrooms in Ireland were closed for seven weeks, and some performed in the United States and Canada. Some later rock- and soul-oriented showbands toured the German nightclub circuit and clubs on U.S. military bases in Europe.
History
1940s–1950s: Big Band Era
In the 1940s and 1950s "orchestras" were popular in Ireland. These were dance bands usually with ten to fifteen musicians, and sometimes more. They wore dress suits and dickey bows. Often there would be a community brass band based in the town where the orchestra came from and the orchestra members would have learned to play instruments in this brass band. They sat down and read sheet music from stands. Many of them took the format of American big bands from the 1940s, such as the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Tommy Dorsey and later on Billy Vaughn, Herb Alpert & His Tijuana Brass also Canadian band Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians, and UK based orchestra & dance bands Geraldo (bandleader), Edmundo Ros, Joe Loss, Victor Silvester, Jack Payne (bandleader), Eddie Calvert (Trumpet Soloist), Ted Heath (bandleader). Instrumental music was to the fore providing the backdrop to a long night's dancing which could be up to five hours long or more (e.g., 9 PM to 2 AM).
Popular orchestras from the time were those of Maurice Mulcahy and Jimmy Wiley both from Mitchelstown, Co. Cork. Johnny Butler, Dublin. Ralph Silvester, Dublin. Mick Delahunty from Clonmel, Des Fretwell from Galway. Brose Walsh (from Castlebar), and Jack Ruane (from Ballina), Dave Dixon from Clones, Co. Monaghan. Jimmy Rohan, Tralee, Co. Kerry. Chick Smith, Dublin. George Duffy, Dundalk, Co. Louth. Johnny McMahon, Limerick.
Big bands turn into showbands
As singing and singers became more popular and instrumental tunes less popular, the orchestras downsized and morphed into showbands, going from eight or ten brass down to three or four brass. The Maurice Mulcahy Orchestra went from fifteen members, five saxophones, four trumpets, one trombone, rhythm section and a singer in the early sixties to ten members in the early seventies, which included two singers but still held five brass, four saxophones and one trumpet, which would have been a large band for the seventies.
There were a few bands that changed their name from dance bands and orchestras to 'Bandshow' before calling themselves 'Showbands'. For example, The Jimmy Wiley Orchestra changed its name to The Jimmy Wiley Bandshow and then to The Jimmy Wiley Showband.
Dave Glover renamed his group to the Dave Glover Showband in 1955, pioneering the use of the word "showband"; he chose the name because he wanted to indicate that their act incorporated both music and skits.
Strabane's Clipper Carlton are credited with being the first to incorporate a 'show' in the middle of their act, 'Duke Box Saturday Night' where they imitated the hits and singers of the day. Fronted by Fergus O'Hagan, they were originally a touring Dance Orchestra. They later became popular in Britain and on the U.S. and Canadian Irish club circuit.
Showbands
Brendan Bowyer, Tom Dunphy and the Royal Showband from Waterford toured professionally around 1958, and became a crowd-drawing success. They were managed by the promoter T.J. Byrne and were the first such band to have a record enter the Irish charts, "Katie Daly", sung by Dunphy. Soon after, Brendan Bowyer had a hit with "Kiss Me Quick", a song taken from an Elvis Presley album. Many would consider Brendan Bowyer to be the King of the Showband era, not least of which was due to his powerful & fantastic voice, handsome good looks coupled with his energetic dance moves on stage.
The Capitol Showband released the first showband L.P. record in 1962, 'Presenting Ireland's Premier Showband, Envoy Records, VOY 9144.
Some other hit records of the time would have been: Fallen Star & I Gave My Wedding Dress Away 1964 : Eileen Reid & the Cadets. From The Candy Store On The Corner 1964 : Dickie Rock & The Miami. She Wears My Ring 1964 : Sean Fagan & The Pacific. The Hucklebuck 1965 : Brendan Bowyer & The Royal Showband. Walking The Streets In The Rain 1965 : Butch Moore & The Capitol. Old Man Trouble 1966 : Doc Carroll & The Royal Blues. Lovely Leitrim 1966 : Larry Cunningham & The Mighty Avons. The Merry Ploughboy 1966 : Dermot O'Brien & The Clubmen. Gentle Mother 1967 : Big Tom & The Mainliners. Simon Says 1968 : Dickie Rock & The Miami. Little Arrows 1968 : Brendan O'Brien & the Dixies. When We Were Young 1971 : Pat Lynch & The Airchords. One Day at a Time 1977 : Gloria.
The Freshmen from Ballymena, Antrim, led by Billy Brown and Derek Dean, combined to produce harmonies on their covers of hits by The Beach Boys and Jan and Dean.
Dickie Rock performed mainly big ballads. First singing with Dublin's Strykers, Blackbirds, Echoes and Melochords, he became a star with The Miami Showband, and later represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1966.
At its height in the mid-1960s, there were as many as 800 full and part-time bands travelling the country.[2] The business as a whole employed many thousands of musicians, support staff and managers.
Other popular showbands included Sonny Knowles/Sean Fagan & The Pacific, Butch Moore & The Capitol, Eileen Reid/Gregory & The Cadets, Sean Dunphy/Earl Gill & The Hoedowners, Jim Farley, The Indians formerly known as The Casino, Dickie Rock & The Miami, Tony Kenny & The Sands from Dublin. Pat Lynch (Cork) & The Airchords from Dublin. Joe Dolan & The Drifters from Mullingar, Co. Westmeath. Brendan O'Brien & The Dixies, Declan Ryan & The Regal, Art Supple & The Victors (Youghal), Michael O' Callaghan (Buttevant), Maurice Mulcahy (Mitchelstown), Jimmy Wiley (Mitchelstown), The Top Ten Big Band (Mitchelstown), Gina/Dale Haze & The Champions (Ballycotton) from Cork. Dermot O'Brien & The Clubmen, Ardee, Co. Louth. Swingtime Aces and Johnny Flynn from Co. Galway. Donie Collins from Askeaton, Co. Limerick. Maurice Lynch, Finnavons, Gerry Black & The Seasons, Big Tom & The Mainliners from Castleblaney, Co. Monaghan. The Premier Aces from Ballintubber, Co. Roscommon. The Plattermen from Omagh, Co. Tyrone. Jack Ruane Junior from (Ballina), Doc Carroll & The Royal Blues from (Claremorris), Co. Mayo. Larry Cunningham & The Mighty Avons from Granard, Co. Longford. The Nevada Showband, from Greystones, Co. Wicklow. The Cowboys (Carrick-on-suir), Mick Delahunty Junior (Clonmel) from Co. Tipperary. The Hilton from Newry, Co. Down. The Jim Cantwell Big Band from Kilkenny.
Embracing rock and soul
A second wave of bands emerged in the late sixties and early seventies with personnel coming mostly from the beat-groups scene. They young proponents of a rock, blues and soul style. These bands included The Dreams, The Real McCoy, The Arrows and The Chessmen. They were most popular in urban areas, while Country and Western leaning bands were generally more popular in the rural areas of the country. Bands playing a programme of real country music such as The Cotton Mill Boys, Bill Ryan & Buckshot, Brendan Quinn, Ray Lynam also emerged.
Johnny McEvoy and Danny Doyle started out as folk singers but changed to showbands in the 70's (Danny Doyle formed a showband with Maxi) as that was the only way to make real money at the time. They subsequently went back to the folk scene after a relatively short period.
However, the hybrid genre 'country and Irish' with tales of loneliness, emigration and bereavement seemed to be what was wanted in some rural areas and bands like Big Tom and the Mainliners, Larry Cunningham and the Mighty Avons, Margo, Gloria, Philomena Begley, Susan McCann, and Brendan Shine supplied it.
Decline of the showbands
By the mid-1970s the phenomenon had peaked, and was in decline. A number of factors contributed to their drop in popularity, including the advent of upscale discothèque, the opening of hotel music lounges and cabaret rooms (with alcohol licenses), and changing musical tastes.
In July 1975 members of the Ulster Volunteer Force murdered three members of The Miami Showband, Fran O'Toole, Tony Geraghty and Brian McCoy and wounded two others, Des McAlea and Stephen Travers. The killings, which occurred as the band was returning from a show in Banbridge in Northern Ireland, became known as the Miami Showband killings. Cross-border band touring dropped significantly as a result and this also hastened the decline of the showbands. Of the bands that did not break up entirely, many reduced their numbers and revamped into small outfits playing locally.[3]
Ballrooms and dance halls
The city ballrooms were often purpose built and lavish. Many rural dance halls, on the other hand, were simple buildings at the edge of the town. Dance halls in smaller towns and villages would host a dance once or twice a month. The fans often travelled miles from the surrounding countryside to see their favourite band. Some city ballrooms were lavish dance palaces from an earlier era. The Mecca in Belfast, Dublin's Town and Country Club (a Corinthian pillared ballroom in the Georgian era), Rotunda Rooms, the Metropole and the TV Club, Seapoint in Galway and The Arcadia in Cork were prominent among the plusher venues.
A chain of venues in the midlands was operated by Albert Reynolds, who would later become Taoiseach of the Republic. Associated Ballrooms was owned by mining magnate Con Hynes. The Lucey brothers had large ballrooms in Cork. In the North East, the Adelphi ballroom, owned by Dee O'Kane and Jimmy Hamilton in Dundalk, attracted audiences from both sides of the border. Summer dancing was held in marquee tents during parish carnivals throughout the country. Mineral Bars dispensed hot beverages and soft drinks. Ballrooms and dance halls did not sell alcoholic beverages. Alcohol sales remained the prerogative of the local pub, who then began to build extensions onto pubs and operate their own disco or cabaret show.
Some of the ballrooms in Co. Cork would have been Red Barn and the Showboat in Youghal, The Majestic in Mallow, The Mayflower in Mitchelstown, The Top Hat in Fermoy, Anglum's Hall in Glanworth, The Lilac in Enniskeane, The Majorca in Crosshaven.
Legacy
Various internationally successful Irish singers and musicians began their careers in showbands, including Van Morrison, Henry McCullough, Mick Hanly, Rory Gallagher, Eric Bell, Eric Wrixon and Colm Wilkinson.
The 1987 Roddy Doyle novel The Commitments is about a contemporary group of unemployed Irish youths who start a soul band in the manner of the late-1960s Irish showbands. The novel spawned a popular 1991 film of the same name, which in turn led to a touring band, The Stars from the Commitments, and a 2013 musical, The Commitments.
The 2005 Irish TV movie Showbands and its 2006 sequel, Showbands II, both starred Liam Cunningham as the manager of a struggling Irish showband in the mid-1960s.[4]
Joe Dolan carried on as good as ever until his sudden death on 26th December 2007.
In 2010, Ireland's postal service, An Post, issued a set of four commemorative stamps depicting four of Ireland's biggest showbands: The Drifters, The Freshmen, The Miami Showband and The Royal Showband. An An Post spokesman said that the showbands "rocked Irish society from its postwar depression".[2]
In March 2019, Ardal O'Hanlon presented a BBC Four documentary about the showband phenomenon.[5]
Dickie Rock continued gigging until 2021 when at aged 84, hearing loss prevented him from continuing.
Johnny Carroll is celebrating 66 years in show business and his 80th birthday this year (2023). Started with the Pioneer/Premier Aces in 1957 playing trumpet, aged just 13. Went on to play with Murphy & The Swallows and the Magic band and then a solo career. He is known as the man with the golden trumpet.
References and sources
- Notes
- ^ "Saol na seó-bhanna < Meon Eile". www.meoneile.ie.
- ^ a b c "Dancehall dynamos honoured on stamps". Irish Times. 23 September 2010. Archived from the original on 26 October 2016.
- ^ irishshowbands.net
- ^ "RTÉ Press Center: Showbands". RTÉ. 1 January 2006.
- ^ Presenter: Ardal O'Hanlon (15 March 2019). "Showbands: How Ireland Learned to Party". Showbands: How Ireland Learned to Party. BBC. BBC Four. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
- Sources
- W J McCormack, ed. (2001). The Blackwell Companion to Modern Irish Culture. Blackwell's. ISBN 0-631-22817-9.
- Finbar O'Keefe (2002). Goodnight, God Bless and Safe Home – The Golden Showband Era. The O'Brien Press. ISBN 0-86278-777-7.
- Harry McCourt (1992). Oh How we Danced. Guidhall Press. ISBN 0-946451-22-2.
- Vincent Power (2000). Send'em Home Sweatin': The Showband Story. Mercier Press. ISBN 1-85635-330-3.
Further reading
- Times Pictorial (3 March 1945) "This Is a Jam Session". Irish Times.
- Larkin, Colin (21 August 2012). "Ireland ... and all that jazz". Irish Times.