King Creole Feature (1980
- 2016)
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.
The Derry-based band, King Creole, made their debut in early
1980 as far as we can tell from newspaper adverts. Bandleader Jimmy
Conway had been in manager Jack Fin lay's "gimmick band"
The Hollywood Stars where he had
played guitar and dressed up as screen legend Charlie Chaplin from
1975 until their apparent demise in 1979. The original lineup
included Jimmy on guitar and Martin "Marty Rock" McColgan
on lead vocals.
King Creole was also a kind
of gimmick band as they dressed in teddy boy suits and played good
old rock n' roll, taking their name from the Elvis Presley movie of
the 1960's.
At the time, the showbands business was on a downward spiral and
there were a plethora of gimmick bands as well as a rock n' roll
revival taking place in Ireland which spawned several similar
outfits at the time including Jim Farley's
Daddy Cool and the Lollipops. The band was managed by Donie
Cassidy in the beginning.
Their high energy rock n' roll
revival show went down well with dancers as "jiving" was taking over
the ballroom scene fueled by the rise in popularity of country
music, which itself formed the basis for many of the early rock n'
roll artists like Bill Haley and Elvis Presley. They soon released
their first record Wasn't That A Party, on Donie's CMR label which
he started in 1978. In fact, the band would release three singles
during their first year on the road. In 1981
Pat Chesters (formerly of the
Plattermen) joined the band on sax but
was not with them long. We think he was replaced by Seamus Downey
who had previously played with the Tahiti Showband.
In January 1984, we found a report that Sid Aughey was the band's
new manager but in 1985, it had changed to Kieran Cavanagh. Through
the mid 1980-'s the band continued to release singles on a regular
basis including "Rock n' Roll Band,"
"Give A Lonely Heart a Home," and "Think It Over." They switched
labels from CMR to Play Records.
Around July, 1986 Martin McColgan
left the band and according to Donal K. O'Boyle, and he semi-retired
from the music scene. The band apparently didn't replace him and in
1987 they released Teenager In Love as a five piece band, now on the
Bus Record label.
Near the end of 1986, the band
decided to make a major change in direction and they introduced
their "Mad Mad King Creole Show" and reverted to dressing up to a
style which was similar to Jimmy's earlier band, The Hollywood
Stars. Advertisements for the band soon labeled them as the
"Hilarious King Creole" so we assume the Mad Mad Show included a
fair bit of comedy.
It would appear the band remained
a five piece but in 1990 they added a female vocalist they named
"Little Maggie Lee." The immediately released a four-track cassette
which featured "Cotton Fields." Based on adverts for the band, it
appears they had dropped their mad show and were now singing "hits
of the past 30 years." A report on the band in February 1993 (see
below) showed a photo of what looks like a different girl with the
same name Maggie Lee. We don't know whether it was that or just a
complete makeover. At some point Maggie Lee left the band but
returned to the lineup in June, 1997.
Unlike so many of the bands from
the era, King Creole continued to survive and thrive into the
2000's. In 2002 they added lead singer "K"
to the lineup and continued on. Like man y of the older bands from
the ballroom era (like the Conquerors
and Indians) They would eventually become
more of a corporate, wedding band outfit and continued playing until
Jimmy left the bandstand following a serious illness around 2015 or
so. We spoke to Jimmy recently May, 2020) and hope to have more of
the story of one of the few bands who persevered, adapted and kept
going for almost 40 years!
click on thumbnails for full image
