The Firehouse Story (1963-1982)
Photo Gallery -
Band Lineups -
Discography
- Audio samples -
Where Are They Now?
The Story
(with thanks to the late Vinny Baker)
The story of the Firehouse starts around 1963
when the group was first put together by the Kennedy Brothers as the
Firehouse Five. The original line up was: P.J. Kennedy
(guitar/trombone), Donie
Cassidy (sax), Larry Kennedy (drums), Michael Kennedy (guitar) and Noel Masterson
(bass). The band played gigs and relief
locally and their name, The Firehouse 5, came from the fact that the Kennedy brothers lived right
next to the Fire station. We think they added Angela Blacoe to the
lineup in 1965 and did good business around Meath and Westmeath
calling themselves Angela and the Firehouse Five Showband.
Angela quit the band around '68 and was replaced by Pat
Sheridan from Dublin. At the same time, Eddie Newcombe from Mullingar was brought in on sax and
the multi-talented Donie Cassidy moved over to trumpet and the band
became The
Firehouse Showband. They opened for Joe Dolan and the
Drifters and ended up buying their 2nd hand band suits from the
Drifters.
Around 1969, Michael Kennedy left the band to go to Canada
and was replaced by a very young (15 ) Vinny Baker on lead guitar.
During this period, the Firehouse Showband played mostly pop and rock n'
roll. Pat Sheridan was particularly good at Roy
Orbison songs and sang all the pop hits of the time.
However,
Pat left the band in mid-1969 to do resident gigs in Clearys in
Dublin. Vinny Baker almost left with him but decided against it at
the last minute and stayed with the Firehouse. The band were now looking
for a lead singer and if possible, a new direction. Someone told Donie Cassidy about a big guy
from Tara in Co. Meath who reportedly sang just
like Jim Reeves, so Donie Cassidy and Vinny Baker went in search of
a new singer and found him doing a local parish gig in Dunshaughlin, Co.
Meath. Jim Tobin was his name and they discovered he did sing like Reeves.
They knew there and then that Jim would be perfect
to front the new style Firehouse Showband and he was signed
immediately. At the time, there were some reservations
about having a country outfit calls the Firehouse, but it was
decided that changing the band's name would lose the following they
had built up in the past three years and so Jim Tobin & The Firehouse
were born.
Jim had been working delivering
sand and gravel before taking to the stage with the Firehouse and
continued to do so after joining the band for a time. Noel Carty was now the manager of the Firehouse and it was
Noel who engineered the band's success from the change over to Jim
Tobin as lead singer. With Carty at the helm and Tobin as lead
singer, the Firehouse and their new country image
they were well on the way. The first gig we can find for Jim and the
new band was June 1st, 1969 at the Cloghan Big Band Carnival in
Mullingar.
About six months after Jim joined
the band they recorded a little known Reeves song called This is It.
The record, release in January of 1970, was a great success and
climbed to Number 5 in the Irish charts, staying in the top twenty
for ten weeks.
In March of 1970, shortly after their success with
This
is It, the band split with Noel Carty. The change didn't seem to
affect the band's popularity as they continued to gig across the
country, although we are not sure who was managing them after
parting ways with Noel by early 1971 they were being managed by
Seamus Casey. In July, they released their second single, another
Jim Reeve's number called "You Are My Love." Unfortunately,
lightning didn't strike twice and it did not have the same impact as
Jim's first offering and did not make the charts.
At some point in late 1970, Jim
was having trouble with his voice and an article in October reported
that he was finally back with the band. In February 1971 it was
reported that Joe Murray (guitar) and Oliver Bird (bass) had joined
the band. Joe had previously been with
Margo and the Country Folk. Also that month the band
released a new single which was supposed to have "Only A Stand In"
as the A side, but it was reported that "Live and Let Live" was
switched to become the new A side. Even though it failed to make the
charts, the band's reputation continue to grow and they were in high
demand across the country. As far as we can tell, this was the
band's last record for a couple of years.
There was several personnel changes over the coming years...The
Kennedy brothers left, as did Noel Masterson and Vinny Baker, they
were replaced by Ollie Byrd on Bass, Paddy McCafferty on Keys, and
Joe Meehan on guitar.
Based on the number of adverts for
their dance, it appears that 1972 was not a great year for the band,
although they were still playing major venues on the ballroom
circuit (this is by no means a scientific way of measuring success).
In February, 1973 they released their last single on the Release
Label, "January April and Me." A that point Donie Cassidy had taken
over managing the band, but we're not sure of he was still playing
with the band.
In March, 1973 female vocalist
Billie Jo (who was formerly known as Tammy) joined the band. Her
first recording was "Chicken On a Sunday." In his "Scene
in Britain" column in the May 3, 1973 issue of Spotlight, Pascal
Mooney reported the record was produced several months earlier by
Tommy Swarbrigg and had received favourable comments and "a lot of
airplays."
In May, 1974 it was reported in
the Evening Herald that the band had signed with the Tom
Costello organisation. In September, 1975 we found an advert for the
band which named "Maria" as the female
vocalist. We are not sure whether this was a new stage name for
Tammy/Billy Jo, or a new singer in the band.
The band would continue to play
throughout the 1970's, finally calling it quits in 1982 after almost
19 years on the road. Our research show very few gigs advertised
after mid 1981 so it is hard to say how active the band was in their
latter years.
More to come.....
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