Sunday Tribune
2 TribuneReview
DAVID KENNY’S ERINDIPITY
Best tie-in with a
showband legend
THERE’S no show like a Joe show.
Joe Duffy, that is.
The big debate on last week’s
Liveline was whether a tribute show
to Joe Dolan was being staged too
soon after his death. The ‘Joe Dolan
Official Reunion Tour’ features
former bandmates playing along with
a video of the Drifters frontman. The
reaction was extraordinary, ranging
from mild annoyance to outrage.
Some thought it was tasteless and
one woman even suggested that
instead of a tribute show “they should
have a nice mass for him”.
It was great stuff, reaffirming that
Ireland is still mad. Thanks be to god.
With this ‘controversy’ in mind,
and the news that Ronan Collins is
taking his Showband Hits Show on
the road next month, we offer you a
showband-themed column this week,
concluding with an ‘exclusive’
revelation from Dustin the Turkey.
Here’s four Joe-related facts to
start us off...
Hippest showbander of them all
» Joe Dolan is the only Irish artist to
have a top 10 hit in each decade from
the ’60s to the ’00s, when he was still
considered ‘hip’.
» After a hip replacement operation,
Dolan’s pelvis (which had a curious
plaster-of-Paris look to it) was sold by
Podge and Rodge on eBay for €680.
» Podge and Rodge are ‘related’ to Zig
and Zag who starred in Dempsey’s
Den. In 1990, the Den introduced
Dustin the Turkey as a character
when Zag won him in a golf
tournament with DJ Tony Fenton,
who has played his
share of Joe Dolan
records in the past.
» Dustin and Dolan
had a No 1 with
‘Good Looking
Woman’ in 1997.
Remember that
collaboration: we’ll
be returning to it
later. Now for the...
Best showband for being better
than the Beach Boys
During the ’40s and ’50s, it was
considered immoral and possibly
dangerous to perform while standing
up. (Insert double entendre here.)
Then the Clipper Carlton Showband
arrived in the’60s and threw morality
to the wind by refusing to sit down,
the mad things.
This opened the door for Brendan
Bowyer to gyrate around the place
doing the Hucklebuck in 1965 and
The Freshmen to leap about like
loons on stage. The latter specialised
in Beach Boys-type harmonies and
had nine top 20 hits in Ireland. Their
version of The Rivingtons’ song ‘Papa
Oom Mow Mow’ is pure magic.
In 1967, The Freshmen supported
The Beach Boys on their Irish tour
and made a big impression on a
young Rory Gallagher. He later
recalled to journalist John Waters
that The Freshmen’s medley of Beach
Boys songs was
“astonishing”. In
contrast, when the
Beach Boys came
on and did the
same numbers,
they sounded
“rubbish”. If they
were good enough
for Rory etc.
Despite being one
of the greatest guitarists
ever, Rory Gallagher never had a No 1
in Ireland, unlike the former
showbander who wrote...
The greatest rock song by a
showband star
George Morrison – better known by
his Dutch name ‘Van Morrison’ –
started his career with the Harry
Mack and the Great Eight bands.
Aside from all his other classics, his
1964 song ‘Gloria’ is considered one of from those books may even bigger if they had recorded a
the most perfect rock anthems ever
written. The song is so revered by
aficionados that it was inducted into
the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. It
was covered by The Doors and Jimi
Hendrix, who was in awe of the...
Greatest showband guitarist ever
Rory Gallagher sold 30 million
albums over a 30-year career that
began in the Fontana showband, but
never got to No 1 in Ireland. The
Joe Cool: the former showbander was so influential
maestro’s memory that the Stones even tried to head-
will be honoured by hunt him after Mick Taylor left.
Dustin. Below, from Jimi Hendrix was certainly an
left: ‘Dempsey’s Den’; admirer. When a journalist asked him
Mr Chuckles aka Van what it was like being the best
the Man; Jimi guitarist in the world, Jimi answered:
Hendrix; and the “I dunno, you should ask Rory
fragrant Lorraine Gallagher.” Speaking of Hendrix...
Keane
Least naff showband redhead
Red Hurley is completely uncool,
right? All that crooning in tuxedos
and a name that sounds like
something you’d pick up after a
match between Cork and Tipperary.
Jim Capaldi of ’60s supergroup
Traffic didn’t think so, though.
Capaldi collaborated with Hendrix,
Clapton, Santana and wrote songs for
Bob Marley. He was the cool person’s
cool person. He was also a fan of Red
Hurley. Such a big fan, in fact, that he
recorded a cover version of Hurley’s
composition ‘Warm’ on his 1981
classic Let The Thunder Cry.
Crying was something our next act
did after they had the...
David Kenny is Biggest near-miss for a showband
author of ‘Erindipity’
and ‘Erindipity Rides In 1967, The Bye-laws were voted the
Again’. While an biggest Irish pop act/showband in an
occasional snippet Evening Herald poll. They’d have been
be included here, it song offered to them in 1970.
will be flagged as such. The writers of the tune were to
This column is all travel to Dublin
shiny, new material. to hear them play
Any ideas, facts or it but at the last
queries are always moment their
welcome and will be plans changed
acknowledged and went to the
States instead.
Thanks for the Neither band nor
emails. writers could
dkenny@tribune.ie contact each
www.davekenny.com other.
27/04/08
A slot on Top of The Pops had been
booked to showcase the song and at
the eleventh hour the latter hired a
group called Greenfield to perform it.
That band became Edison
Lighthouse and ‘Love Grows Where
My Rosemary Goes’ became an
instant classic. Sickener.
The Bye-laws’ drummer, by the by,
left to join (no prizes for guessing)
Joe Dolan’s band. Let’s have some
random facts...
Some random facts
» Music mythology recounts that
when Big Tom and the Mainliners
played New York in the ’70s, every
junkie in the Big Apple descended on
the gig.
» Big Tom split with the Mainliners in
1975 and formed a new band. Any
doubt that the band’s name would
cause as much confusion were
dispelled when it was announced he
would now be fronting Big Tom and
The Travellers.
» Radio DJ Jimmy Greally’s
psychedelic showband The Orange
Machine reached No 14 in the Irish
charts with ‘Three Jolly Dwarfs’. The
single is a collector’s item and a copy
recently sold for €95 on eBay.
» The longest
running
showband of
them all is the
still excellent
Indians, whose
lead singer,
Eamonn Keane,
is the father of
TV3 presenter
Lorraine
Keane.
» Eurovision songwriter John Waters
was road manager of the Freshmen
Showband in his 20s.
And on that Eurovision/showband
note, we arrive at the...
Best ever tie-in with a showband
superstar
Dustin the Turkey has revealed,
exclusively, to this column that he will
be honouring Ireland’s greatest ever
showband star at this year’s contest.
The foulmouthed bird has told us
he will be wearing his special Joe
Dolan neck-tie during his
performance at the semi-final stage.
“Joe was always telling me to get
knotted, so it’s my turn now,” he said.
“No seriously, I’m wearing the tie in
honour of the greatest entertainer
Ireland has ever produced. I was
going to wear a Chris de Burgh one
but me neck’s not hard enough. Hwa,
hwa.”
There may be no show like a Joe
show, but Dustin will give them a run
for their money.
Dustin’s ‘Irlande Douze Points’ is out now