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Angela Farrell Feature (Active in Ireland 1966-1974)

Photo Gallery - Band Lineups - Discography - Audio samples - Where Are They Now?

The Story

Editor's note: Every care has been taken to present only factual information in our stories based on first person reports, newspaper articles and photographic archives. If you can add anything or correct info in this story, please email us and let us know.

After Dana's triumph in the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest with All Kinds of Everything, the gala event was held in Dublin the following year. Ireland's National Song Contest (from which its Eurovision entry would be picked) featured showband favourites like Red Hurley, Danny Doyle and Sonny Knowles among others. The cover of the Spotlight issue dated March 6, 1971 featured a photo of most of the National Song Contest singers...but surprisingly absent was Angela Farrell.

The preview of the contest described Portadown, Co. Armagh-based, 19 year old Angela, as leading a "double life," working in a chemist shop by day and singing cabaret at night. She was also making her debut on RTE television, although the article reported that she had appeared on Ulster Television and on RTE radio previously. Although living in the North, Angela was actually born in Donegal.  

The song, One Day Love, was written by Donegal dentist, Donal Marin and Dublin housewife, Ita Flynn (although a report elsewhere suggested Ita had arranged the song). Despite a strong showing by the showband "heads," Red Hurley was edged into second place by the relative unknown Angela, with the Coterie Folk group taking third place. The showband loss continued a new trend as Ireland's first five entrants in Eurovision had all been showband stars. But Dana and Angela both came from cabaret, a growing entertainment trend at the time. Additionally, Angela was the third consecutive female singer based in the North to win the National Song Contest (Muriel Day was the first).

The first reference we can find to Angela was in 1966 when she stole the show at the Mother Mary Martin (MMM) charity concert held in Drogheda at the age of 13. For the next few years, Angela, finished her education and continued to sing at local variety shows. In November, 1966 in a report about a Variety Concert held in St. Patrick's Hall, Fintona, Angela was described as the "singing discovery of 1966." However, we couldn't find any other references to her until January 20th, 1971 when the singers for the upcoming National Song Contest were announced. 

In the run up to Eurovision, Angela appeared in entertainment weekly, Spotlight, several times, posing with her parents and in her old job at the chemist shop. There was speculation that she would be backed by a local two piece cabaret group from near Portadown called The Sandmen, but we don't know if this ever happened. The article also featured Angela with her manager, Bill Carville, who also happened to be her cousin. It was also reported that although she had gone back to work for a few days following the National Song Contest, she had quit her job to become a full time cabaret artist before Eurovision. 

However, lightning did not strike twice and it would be another decade before Ireland would win Eurovision again with Johnny Logan singing Shay Healy's What's Another Year. Angela acquitted herself well, placing 11th overall. Severine, from Monaco, was the winner that year with "Un banc un arbre une rue." She was signed by Decca subsidiary, Rex Records prior to the song contest (as was Dana the year before), the record of One Day Love entered the Irish charts just before the Eurovision and went as high as number 4, staying on the chart for 5 weeks.

In the aftermath of the song contest, Angela signed with George O'Reilly Enterprises which in May started a new cabaret division and featured artists like We Four, Angela and Terry McMahon. A decade earlier, George had been guiding the fortunes of another fledgling female vocalist, Maisie McDaniel. By September, it was reported by Donal K. O'Boyle that Angela (and We Four) had parted company with George after being "very badly treated since her Eurovision appearance."

It should be pointed out that back in those early days, there was little opportunity for singers with Angela's talents. There was a reasonable circuit of folk clubs which allowed artists like Danny Doyle and Johnny McEvoy to make a living, but the real money (as both of these artists eventually found out) was in the ballrooms. Even artists like Johnny Logan, had difficulty after his Eurovision win making a living in Ireland's dance halls. Angela was still limited to guest appearances in ballrooms, variety concerts and the occasional TV or radio spot. 

In December, Angela finally released her follow up single, I Am What I Am, which also charted in the top ten, reaching number 9, but only stay in the charts for two weeks. It would be her last chart entry. Although 1972 started well for Angela (as she had a record in the charts, albeit briefly, she remained a "guest artist" for the most part. At one stage she appeared several times with Australian group New World (Tom Tom Turnaround) on the Irish leg of their European Tour.

In December, 1971 Angela took on the starring role of Cinderella in the Cork Opera House's Pantomime of the same name. Although she sang well, reviewers thought she could have been "more vivacious in the role." In February, she was a guest on the popular variety show hosted by the Patterson's folk group on RTE. For the remainder of 1972, Angela on the new and growing cabaret scene along with artists like Eileen Reid (who had left the difficult life of a showband star) to go into the more comfortable surrounds of the singing lounges, which were popping up all over the country. By this point she had left her home in Portadown and moved to Dublin. In an interview with Spotlight's Julie Boyd, she said that she "regretted not making the moving sooner" as Dublin was where it was all happening musically.      

Our records show that Angela released one more record on Rex (the same label as Dana) in November, 1972, Top of the World, which failed to reach the charts. In 1973, Angela was back in the spotlight when she wrote a letter to Maxi who had been involved in the Eurovision with her entry Do I Dream. A major row broke our between Maxi, her management and RTE as to the speed the song was played. Angela wrote a letter to Maxi which had harsh words for RTE and their lack of interest in actually winning the contest (see letter below). It resulted in a "storm in a teacup" with responses from both RTE and Decca records.   

The last advert for Angela performing in cabaret we can find was in  March 1974 when she was on the same bill as Tony Kenny (who had recently starred in Jesus Christ Superstar. Although we have searched the Internet, we can find no information on Angela today, other than You Tube videos of her 1971 performance.

An article in the Sunday Independent in 1981 (below) reported that Angela had gone to America where she was doing cabaret, but had ended ujp in Australia. A check of the newspaper archives shows that in 1988, the Irish Independent said Angela was living in Australia, by 1995, the Evening Herald reported that Angela was living in Skerries and working as a chemist. However, the following year (1996), RTE producers could not locate her as they wanted to do a show featuring past winners (maybe because she was actually still in Australia?!?). In 2000, it was reported that Angela was living in Melbourne, Australia with her family.

If you know any further info about Angela, please let us know.  

Hopefully, more to come.....

Photo Gallery

click on thumbnails for full image

Angela - 1966 Angela - 1971 Angela - 1971 Angela - 1972

Angela Farrell - 1971

Angela Farrell - 1971

Angela Farrell - 1971

Angela and Dana- 71

Angela and Dana- 71

Angela Farrell - 1971

Spotlight - 1971

Angela Farrell - 1972

Angela - 1972

Angela - 1973

Angela - 1981

     

Angela Farrell - 1972

Angela and Dana- 71

Coming Soon Coming Soon Coming Soon
Years Vocals Guitar Bass Drums Keyboards Sax Trumpet
               
               
               
               

Discography

One Day Love / How Near Is Love - #4 Irish Charts
Rex Records - R.11063 - April, 1971

I Am What I Am / Somewhere In The Shadow of My Dreams
- #9 Irish Charts
Rex Records - R.11071 - December, 1971

Top of the World / Dusty

Rex Records - R.11080 - November, 1972

Audio Clips

       
One Day Love        

Where Are They Now?  

  Angela Farrell:

 


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In Loving Memory of Grant Gallagher: Sept. 21, 1990 - Nov. 18, 2006