BS: What ever happened to ?.

Subject: BS: What ever happened to ?.
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 25 Feb 03 - 12:49 PM

Does anyone know what happened to any of the Irish/Scots groups that made Toronto come alive from the late 1960's to about 1990 ?. I used to go every week to hear many of them. I got older and moved to the country but was wondering what became of them as I came across and old LP of the Bonny Scots just yesterday?.

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to ?.
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 25 Feb 03 - 07:55 PM

Well I was IN some of those groups...so who'd you have in mind? The Irish Rebels, Brannigan's Boys, The Cobblers etc.

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: What ever happened to ?.
From: Jimmy C
Date: 26 Feb 03 - 01:34 AM

I also was in a few of those groups. I don't really know what happened all of them but I do know about some.

Bonny Scots - Mick went to Vancouver around 1975, Jackie is still living in the Toronto region.

Brannigans Boys - Joe is still in Scarborough, Glen Reid is making some really nice instruments, he posts here on the Mudcat occasionally. Ronnie Jones I have no idea, and Johnny Devlin went back to Ireland I believe.

Cobblers - They broke up as a group but the various members did show up in a number of different groups for a while.

Irish Rebels - Big Mick Crowley died in his sleep, Dermot Dunne went home to Dublin for a wedding, fell down the stairs and hit his head on the floor and he unfortunately died also. Frank Smith is still in Toronto and involved with the Toronto Irish Players, a popular dramatic society.   Harry Beatley joined Jimmy Carton and played with his group , maybe he still is. Derek Harrington was with them as well.

Sons of Erin - Ralph opened a pub in Newfoundland. Fergus and Dermot joined with Dennis Ryan and Don McLennan to form Sullivan's Gypsies. McLennan went back to Ireland and the other three formed the very successful Ryans Fancy. They are all down in the maritimes, the last I heard.

Albany Brothers - they reverted back to their real names " The McManus Brothers and went touring with the Roy Orbison show. They have since all retired, I see the younger brother John from time to time, he lives in Whitby close to me.

The Tinkers. - The original Tinkers consisted of Ta Burns, Eamonn Hughes, Alec Moffit and myself. Ta went home to Belfast, Eamon went to California, Alec just dropped out of site. I kept the group going with Ken Ponsonby, Chris Ransom and Val Mulholland, after a few years Chris left to sell fire fighting equipment. Ken and Val went as a duo, but kept the name "The Tinkers", I formed "The Foggy Dew" with Phil mc Govern, Chris Ransom came back for a while also. later we were joined by Joe Brannigan and gigged around for a few years, Glen Reid played a few gigs with us during that period. Phil is living up in Aurora, Ontario. Chris died of cancer about 7 years ago, Val died of cancer 2 weeks after Chris. I have been a cancer survivor for 6 years now and going strong. Ken lives in Pickering Ontario, we see each other on occasion. Around 1984 I joined up with couple of guys playing the Newfie clubs. I later went with Irish Harry Cochrane as a duo, that lasted until about 1990, when I moved out of Toronto to settle in Whitby. We are all semi-retired from music now. They were great times and we had a lot of fun, but also a lot of heartache and saw many of the members from the groups die way too young. Some by accident, some by sickness and one by suicide, I forget the young lad's name, he had just arrived from Ireland and he and Johnny Devlin went up to play in Ottawa, when he did not show up for the second set thwy went to his room and found him hanging. Other were Peter Doyle - died young. Billy Murray lost his eyesight in a car accident coming out of the Camelot on Mount Pleasant.

I have not been in Toronto for a while, I know there are still a few groups around but I don't know any of the personnel.

It's possible I may have met you, especially if went to The New Windsor House, The Camelot, The Golden Nugget, The Dick Turpin Room in the Royal York Hotel, The Morrisey, The Parkdale (yes that Parkdale) The Irish Centre, the Pride of Erin, The Wallace House or the Newfoundlander and a score of other establishment.if you PM me we can talk some more if you like. I played tenor banjo, mandolin, handled some of the vocals and used a dancing folk doll in a couple of numbers.

Jimmy C.