Irish big Bands

Subject: Irish big Bands
From: Ireland
Date: 10 Oct 02 - 05:19 PM

Any one remember the Big bands of Ireland (if that's the right description) have any crossed into the tradition music scene.

Subject: RE: Irish big Bands
From: Nerd
Date: 10 Oct 02 - 05:26 PM

Do you mean showbands? If so, there are people who sang and played with showbands who have also gone into folk music (including Tommy Makem, who appeared with one when very young). There are also people who have put instruments like saxophones, etc, into Irish traditional music through the influence of showbands. But more or less, they've been separate streams of culture.

There are also, of course, ceili bands, which could be "big." I never heard the phrase "Irish Big Bands" before, though.

Subject: RE: Irish big Bands Showbands
From: Ireland
Date: 10 Oct 02 - 05:41 PM

Thanks Nerd, it was showbands I was thinking of, were they as popular in America?

Subject: RE: Irish big Bands
From: Nerd
Date: 10 Oct 02 - 10:17 PM

As far as I know, there wasn't as big of a "showband" tradition as such, but we had similar Irish-Jazz-pop hybrid music here which also used traditional players. I remember John Whelan telling me that when he first came here to the US he worked with what was essentially a showband, and gained a lot of valuable musical and business experience that way before he concentrated on traditional and progrssive Irish music. So it is around, mostly in Irish ethnic enclaves.

Subject: RE: Irish big Bands
From: Jimmy C
Date: 10 Oct 02 - 10:56 PM

I remember " The Clipper Carlton" they were the first band I believe that stood up to play. Also the Miami Showband with Dickey Rock, The Royal Showband with Brendan Boyer, Eileen Reid and the Cadets, The Pacific Showband, Joe Dolan and the Drifters., Big Tom and the Mainliners, Frankie McBride and the Polka Dots, the Young Shadows. There were many more, but their names escape me. One of my favourites although not Irish but played a lot of gigs in Belfast was the Acker Bilk Jazz Band.

Subject: RE: Irish big Bands
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 11 Oct 02 - 12:21 AM

There's a great book about the showband days in Ireland called "Send Them Home Sweatin'." I read it a couple of years ago, and unfortunately I forget the author.
It mentions all the great and not-so-great outfits.
Anybody else read it and can help with author/publisher?

All the best.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Irish big Bands
From: Ireland
Date: 11 Oct 02 - 08:16 AM

Who were the boys that could sing just as good if not better than the Beach Boys, I think their lead singer was on the t.v. show about Showbands?

I cannot remember if Big Tom and the mainliners that would have sang at Stoneyford pub or is there another Big Tom?

Subject: RE: Irish big Bands
From: Ballyholme
Date: 11 Oct 02 - 08:50 AM

Guitarist Arty McGlynn had a long career in the showband scene, primarily with the Plattermen, before dazzling the bejaysus out of us with his playing of jigs and reels on the guitar.

The band that sang "better than the Beach Boys" were the Freshmen, who, I think were based in Ballymena.

Subject: RE: Irish big Bands
From: Allan Dennehy
Date: 13 Oct 02 - 10:32 AM

Ah! The Freshmen, I remember them well. Alot of the showbands had a lot of (often very badly paid) talented singers and musicians in them. They played a huge range of different types of music - the ballrooms they played in would typically house 400 people between the ages of 16 and 80 years old. Every self respecting town in Ireland with a population of more than a couple of thousand had a ballroom 27 years and today there's hardly one left. You could go dancing every night of the week in most areas within a forty mile radius. The drunk driving laws were never enforced and there would be five or six of us piled into every car. I don't know how any of us survived those years.
It was great though.

Subject: RE: Irish big Bands
From: belfast
Date: 13 Oct 02 - 11:05 AM

Gerry Anderson on his morning show on Radio Ulster will occasionally reminisce about the showbands - and will remind us how bloody awful they were for the most part. It strange to think that the same muscial milieu produced both Arty McGlynn and Gloria Hunniford.