Crackaways Showband
Story (1961 - 1970?)
Photo Gallery -
Band Lineups -
Discography
- Audio samples -
Where Are They Now?
The Story
The first mention of the Crackaways Showband we can find is from a
newspaper advert on June 3rd, 1961 advertising that the band would
be taking bookings after June 17th, which we assume was the start of
the band. The manager was Des Davis (he also played sax) and the band was based in Clara,
County Offaly.
The original lineup was:
Mickey O'Hara (MD, guitar/trumpet), Rickie Scully (sax), Norbert
Gorry (trumpet), Jimmy Cushen (keyboards), Paddy Rabbitte
(trombone), Brendan Cullen (bass), Pat Tracey (drums), and Des Davis
(manager and sax).
Within six months, the band was
doing quite well with gigs all around the country. They were
advertising that they had "played in 21 counties" which something we
can't confirm, but we do know that they had played in Dublin (which
was seen as a feather in the cap of many rural-based bands back in
the day).
In May 1962, a small advert
announced the addition of Jimmy (Seamus) Brennan as the new
guitarist with the band, so we assume Mickey O'Hara had left,
although it appears he may have returned to play bass a couple of
years later for a while.
In December, 1965 the band
released its first single, "Tennessee Wig Walk" with "What In The
World's Come Over You" on the B-side. In early 1966, the band added
a new featured lead singer, Patricia Pender, from Tullamore and the
band would be known as Patricia and the Crackaways. Patricia
had previously been vocalist with the Andy Hennessey Showband from
Kilbeggan and prior to that the Swinging Safaris group from
Tullamore.
In February, 1969 it was reported
that the band had left for a two month (Lenten) tour of American
military bases in Germany. It was also reported in 1969 that
Patricia had left the band to join the Keynotes.
In 1970 Tony Whelan took over
management of the band. He had formerly managed Sandie Jones and the
Royal Earls. After that, we can find no adverts for the band playing
dances so we are assuming they went off the road.
In the late 1970's (circa 1978)
another band called the Crackaways Showband was on the road but they
were based out of Longford so we do not know if they had any links
to the original band or just used the same name.
More to come.....
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