"Growing
up, there was always music in my house. We lived beside the
dance hall and my dad had a little band and he used to play
there. I started playing the accordion at a local event and then
I was picked to join Ciaran Kelly's Ceili Band. I was still in
school. Back then, the Catholic Church didn't allow dancing
during the seven weeks of Lent. Concerts and plays were
permitted, but whatever went on at the dancing was a different
matter. The priest used to separate the couples who were
close-dancing; he'd say, 'Leave enough room for the Holy
Spirit.'' During Lent, the Ceili Band played in England instead.
We went by the cattle boat from Dublin to Liverpool. We were up
on the deck in the torrents of rain and the cattle were
downstairs with a roof over their heads. It was quite
adventurous but it was hard work, playing six nights a week,
going around different dance halls in London. Landing there was
quite a shock to the system for a young lad of 16 years of age."
The Ciaran Kelly band played all across the
country and in all their adverts they refereed to Brendan as a
"balladeer." It was while he was with
the band that Brendan recorded his first single, "Treat My
Daughter Kindly" with "Banks of the Roses" on the B-side which
was released by Rex Records. Unfortunately, the much better
known Airchords Showband released
the song at the same time and given their popularity among the
punter and Brendan lack of a national name, their version went
to Number 1 on the Irish charts and stayed in the charts for
nine weeks, as well as giving singer Pat Lynch his first number
1 hit.
In March, 1968, on the strength of his
recent recording Brendan decided to go it alone and formed his
own band. Brendan takes up the story,
"Eventually I got my own band going, and in 1968, we had
a weekly residency in the Irish Club in Parnell Square in
Dublin. I think we were successful because I came along with a
very simple sound with my accordion. I always picked songs that
had a strong storyline in them, songs that touched people."
Brendan was only 21 when he launched his
"Country Dance Band." The band would play country and Ceili in
the same vein as Ciaran Kelly and also included drummer Johnny
Dawson, who left the band with Brendan. They played mostly the
traditional gigs (like the Irish Club) where Ceili was much more
popular than pop showbands like the Miami and Royal. During this
period it was just as likely that the band would be advertised
around the country as either a "country" or Ceili" band.
In the band's first few years, they
released further singles including "Auld Ballymoe" along with
the B-side, "The Hymns I Sang As a Boy,"
"High Germany," and Tumbling Waters in March, 1970. None of
these cracked the charts and finally in 1970, Brendan appears to
have decided it was time for a change.
His first move was to
changed management (which had been based in Athlone) to
Dublin-based Noel Carty Entertainments which also managed the
affairs of Art Supple and the Victors
at the time. He also changed the name and direction of the band
to the Brendan Shine Band, moving away from his Ceili and
country roots to be more of a standard "showband." In addition,
in July, he switched record companies, signing with Release
Records.
His first release under
this new management team was "Bunch of Violets Blue" which
climbed to Number 6 in the Irish Charts, giving Brendan the
first of many chart successes. In fact, in his career, Brendan
has placed 40 records in the Irish Charts vs. 19 records for the
legendary Big Tom McBride. Brendan had finally arrived as a
bona-fide showband star in his own right singing a song which
has stood the test of time and is still popular today.
In July, 1972, Brendan
made a major move by firing (we assume) half of his band and
replacing them with four top flight musicians from some of
Ireland's best known bands. Debuting on July 23rd, 1972 in
Fermoy, Brendan put together
what he called Ireland's first country "Superband." The lineup
included several stars in their own right. Frankie Carroll
(bass) had been the lead singer with his own "Ranchers." Seamus
Shannon (trombone/accordion) had been with Joe Dolan's Drifters.
Jimmy Hogan (guitar - a member of the Capitol and one of the
founders of the Spotlights), Johnny Dawson (vocals) had been the
band's drummer, but soon moved out front with Brendan and was
replaced on drums by former Conqueror, Louis Burgoine. Emmet
Wynne (trumpet) came from Red Hurley's Wheels and the final
piece in the puzzle, Brendan's brother, Owen (RIP), stayed on
and played keyboards.
Brendan made the move as he felt that
despite having a string of hits records, the previous line-up
just wasn't clicking with dancers. He had played Dublin quite a
lot as a Ceili band with major crowds, but it seemed his new
country image was not going down as well and it was time for a
major restructuring of the stage show. At the same time, the
hits kept coming as every single they released over the next few
years cracked the top ten with two more number one hits:
"Where The Three Counties Meet"
(Awarded Record of the Year by Spotlight magazine for
1973) and "Abbeyshrule."
In 1973, the band tried to expand its
appeal and gave longtime member Johnny Dawson the lead on a
couple of singles: "I'm Little But There's Lots of Me To Love"
and "Suzi Brown." Both cracked the Irish top twenty with "I'm
Little" topping out at number five. The supercharged
line-up helped propel the band to the elite status among
showbands in the early 1970's, although they still lagged behind
bands like the Miami and Royal.
In late summer 1974, the band underwent
major changes when Seamus Shannon, Frankie Carroll and Louis
Burgoine left and were replaced by members of other bands being
managed by Noel Carty. Sonny Ward (sax) came from the
Swallows after they went from country
to pop and Art Supple (vocals) came from the
Victors after they broke up. Seamus
was signed by Release Record's new cabaret division and started
doing the growing cabaret circuit with his brother Teddie on
guitar.
