College Showband Feature (1963-1968)
Photo Gallery -
Band Lineups -
Discography
- Audio samples -
Where Are They Now?
The Story
Editor's note:
This feature has been compiled from researching newspaper archives and
although every care
has been taken to present only factual information about the band if you can add anything or correct info in this story,
please email us and let us know.
As far as we can tell, the College Showband from Limerick hit the
road in early 1963 as we found our first mention of them on the
Irish Independent's Dance Band adverts. The band was being
managed by Michael Ryan. Early references to the band were many
adverts looking for gigs and the first actually advert for a gig we
found was on Sunday, July 21st, 1963 when they played the Dromineer
Carnival near Nenagh. However, researching the band has been
made extremely difficult as at the same time, there were several
other bands with similar names including The Swing College
Showband and The Savoy College Showband.
By mid summer, 1963, we began to
see the band advertised for gigs around the country including
Glenamaddy, Ballincollig and the Oisin Ballroom in Killorglin,
Co. Kerry. Although we can't be sure of the timing, we know that at
one point the line-up included: Michael Ryan (manager and vocals),
Gerald Ryan (sax), Liam Power (guitar), Steve O'Donoghue (drums),
Billy Brosnan (guitar), Brendan Dunne (trumpet) and and Joe Mulcahy
(guitar).
Based on the handful of photos we
have of the band, it appears that at some point the band became a
six piece, but we're not sure who left the line-up. Also based on
the frequency of their gig adverts they were modestly successful
when it came to playing across the country. In early 1964, their
adverts in the Independent started with the tagline
"Laughs Galore, 1964" which leads us to believe
they were focusing, at least somewhat, on comedy during their act
and they were playing many variety shows it seems.
In July 1964, a report in the
Irish Press said the band had lost most of its equipment when
the roof rack on their station wagon (a common way for many bands to
travel in the earliest days of the era) slipped off the car and
their equipment (worth 500 pounds) was "completely destroyed."
By 1965, the
band adverts had added that they featured an "electric organ" as one
of the photos below shows. For the next few years the band seemed to
do a steady business up and down the country. One of the interesting
things we noted is that they seemed to do a lot of variety shows and
concerts and had several weekly residencies in and around Limerick
which were not always advertised on a weekly basis although they
were still gigging regularly.
In compiling
this story we are unsure whether the band released a record, or
whether there were any line-up changes of note. We do know that
Michael Ryan continued to be the band's manager through the years
they were on the road.
The last gig we
found advertised for the band was the Mullinavat Fete on August
18th, 1968 (see below). Although we can't be sure this was their
last gig, we could find no other mention of the band past this date.
Interestingly, their five plus year stint on the road was pretty
standard back in the day as for many young musician of the era who
happy to be gigging at age 18 or 19; life, marriage and "real
life" kicked in and often put an end to their days on the road,
although many just played locally.
More to come.....
click on thumbnails for full image
