Platters Showband / Plattermen (1959-1990)
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.
Platters Dance Band/Orchestra
Although
there have been literally thousands of bands, showbands, and country groups in
Ireland, very few get to enjoy the kind of success reserved only for the very
best...even rarer is it happening twice to the same band, but in different
genres. The Plattermen were just such an enigma. Starting out in their
native Omagh, they would go on to have one of the most
interesting histories in Irish entertainment. Even more interesting, perhaps, is
the near legendary status the band achieved in Ireland.
Friends at the Christian Brothers School in Omagh, Ray Moore, Leo
Doran, Billy McGinty, and Pat Chesters formed a band to play local
dances in the late 1950's. It wasn't long before they wanted to try
their hand at becoming a showband. In 1959, they formed the Platters
Dance Orchestra, but they soon would also be known as the Platters
Paramount Showband. When the boys expanded, the
new lineup was: Pat Chesters (sax), Leo
Doran (sax), Billy McGinty (trombone), Ray Moore (trumpet), Jackie
Adams (drums), Brendan O'Donnell (keyboards), Arty McGlynn (guitar), and
Aidan O'Neill (bass and vocals-our thanks to Brian McCaul for Aidan's info).
In 1960, the band underwent a major change when Brian Coll was added
as lead vocalist, Seam Hamilton came in on bass and Johnny Murphy on
drums. Aidan O'Neill would stay with the band moving over to vocals
and keyboards.
In 1962, Brian left the band and was replaced by Dave Thornton. Dave would front the band
for the next three years, although during that period they would
only release one single, Face In The Crowd in May, 1964. They continued to build their
reputation as a hard working band but seemed to only make modest
inroads on the
Southern Ballroom circuit. In 1964, Aidan left the band when an operation left him deaf in one
ear and he left the business. Brian Coll would spend time with the
Polka Dots
during this period.
Plattermen Stage 1
April, 1965 was the starting point
for changes
for the band which was now five years on the go, and meeting with
moderate success. Pat Chesters, leader of the band, was quoted as
saying changes were necessary including that of their name (see
article below). The
reason was that although they had toured as the Platters for so many
years, they would soon be recording regularly and couldn't use the name on
record because of the famous American Platters. Additionally, up
until that point Pat had been managing the band as well as playing
and they decided it was time for a professional manager, which is
when Belfast man
Jim Aiken stepped in to guide the band's future.
Around this time, Pat also met with Brian
Coll for a cup of coffee and told him Dave was leaving the band to
return to the cabaret scene in Belfast. Both he and Jim Carson (both
from Belfast) had grown tired of the drive to Omagh where the band
was based (back in the days when band members all rode in the one
vehicle to gigs). They had remained good friends while Brian was
away and it was only natural for him to rejoin the band which he did
in April, 1965. Almost immediately, they recorded
their first single, I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen.
Although the record did not chart, it set the tone for the band's
musical direction for the band's recordings for the next five years:
"country and Irish."
Once together again, Brian and the
band went from strength to strength. Kathleen provided the impetus they needed to start pulling in the punters in
the ballrooms. Interestingly, as the Plattermen's (and Brian Coll's)
reputation got bigger and better, the band continued to release
singles....but they never had a record in the Irish charts.
Definitely one of the biggest bands in the North, slowly the
Plattermen and their lead singer gained a foothold in the southern
ballroom circuit. Other than Brian and Aidan, from their start to 1967, there were no
other changes in the
lineup.
Plattermen Stage 2
Around
June, 1967, there were two lineup changes that would
alter
history. Sean Hamilton left the band and was replaced by Robert
Armstrong (aka Rob(bie) Strong),
from Derry who had been with Frankie McBride and the Polka Dots (the first band
Brian had sang with). Additionally, Arty McGlynn left the band and
was replaced by guitarist, Alan
McCartney. Strangely, both Arty and Sean would join the Polka Dots.
The new lineup created a new set of problems
for the band. The strong brass arrangements of Pat and the boys,
coupled with the strong rock vocals Rob brought to the band started
a move in a new
direction. In the end, in early June, 1968 when Brian Coll left to form
The Buckaroos (who would
later be rejoined by Arty McGlynn after he spent four years on the sidelines)
manager Jim Aiken decided it was time to make a major change. In
July, 1968, the band announced the addition of Simon Scott (aka Ivan
Vaughn),
a singer with Maltese ancestry who had been in Britain to join the
Dave Glover Band only a few months previously, was drafted by the
band. Simon sang ballads and pop and with Brian gone, there would be no more country and no more yodeling.
It
was straight ahead pop, rock and blues, with Blood, Sweat and Tears-style horn riffs
bringing the band charging into the seventies. In February, 1969, the band added
Ivan Laybourne on keyboards and Gerry McIlduff on drums, to provide the hard driving beat they would
need for their pop/rock programme.
During 1970, the Plattermen moved towards what
they called a more "progressive" sound and the punters seemed to
like it. In 1971, Ivan left the band to join The
Freshmen, replacing Billy Brown who left to start a solo career
(although he would return to The Freshmen later in the 1970's.) John
Trotter was brought in on trombone (he could also play keyboards and
fiddle) making his debut January 4, 1971. He had also previously
been with the Polka Dots. The moved helped
consolidate the band's new heavy brass sound. In an ad in
Spotlight magazine that same week, the Plattermen announced,
"In '71 We're Goin' Kinda Heavy." The band
continued to move towards heavier rock music. Anyone who heard the
Plattermen for the first time in 1972, would have found it hard to
believe that just a few years earlier, they were backing country
crooner, Brian Coll! An article in Spotlight in August, 1972
mentioned that Frankie McBride had been in the band, and we assume
this was after the departure of Brian Coll, but we cannot pinpoint
the dates Frankie may have been with the Plattermen.
In 1972, the band released it's first album,
Old Devil Wine, a 14 song collection of which only three tracks were
not written by the band. The album was recorded in Trend and
Eamon Andrews studios in Dublin and released in Ireland to great
critical acclaim. It also carried the label "File under Rock" for
those shop owners who may have thought Brian Coll was still with the
band. In 1973 under then manager John McGovern, the
band made an assault on the British charts releasing the song, "Rock
Off," under the name "Hammer," but didn't really get very far.
However, they did appear on the RTE program "The Musicmakers."
A note in the August 16th issue of Spotlight's "Insight" column
mentioned Noel Bridgeman had permanently replaced Gerry McIlduff as
the band's drummer. Noel had just come off a short stint with the
Gentry at the time.
In June of 1972 the band announced a "new"
stage show which would feature a greater variety of music and more
vocals from the rest of the band. "Afro-rock is out," said manager
John McGovern, adding "it was good while it lasted. The article in
Spotlight announced that although Rob Strong and Simon Scott would
remain the main singers in the band, fiddler John Trotter would be
singing country blues and playing the piano, guitarist Alan
McCartney would be handling numbers by bands like the Stones and
Grateful Dead, Gerry McIlduff would be singing some "hard rock" like
Creedence Clearwater Revival.
As 1974 started, things were not going well for
the band, John Trotter was out of action due to illness and Phillip
Donnelly came in on a temporary basis. Within weeks lead guitarist
Alan McCartney quit the band and rather than replace him, they
offered the job to Phillip. Just a few weeks later, in April, Simon
Scott announced he was leaving the band as well to go into cabaret,
however we think he ended up fronting "Indians" knock off band, The
Apaches. Bennie White
joined on lead vocals from Elmer Fudd replacing Simon. Unfortunately for many lovers of the band, by
late 1974 the second phase of
The Plattermen was at an end. For six years, they had been
one of the hardest driving pop and rock influences on the Irish scene.
Plattermen, Stage 3
A note in "Julie's Scene" in the September 19,
1974 issue of Spotlight reported that Rob Strong, Phillip Donnelly
and Noel Bridgeman were
quitting the band. In actual fact, the band was splitting up. Rob Strong left to form a new band,
The Rob Strong Band (he would eventually join Ray Doherty's
Las Vegas, which would feature Kelley, formerly of the
Nevada
and Big Eight.) The new "supergroup" also included Noel
Bridgeman (Skid Row, Plattermen - drums), Pat O'Farrell (Plattermen
- guitar), Phillip Donnelly (Elmer Fudd, Gary Moore, Plattermen
- guitar), and James Delaney (Dave Prim band - keyboards)
As for the rest of the band, Ray Moore joined
Paddy Cole's new
band after Paddy left the Big Eight, and Pat Chesters stepped into Paddy's vacated role with the
Big Eight.
John Trotter joined Sean Gallagher's band, Stampede. Simon
Scott, who had left the band earlier in the year ended up singing as "Big Chief"
with the Apaches, a knock off band of the Indians.
Bennie White would end up fronting the Times along with Maggie Maye.
In the October 24, 1974 issue of Spotlight, the
"New Plattermen" were launched with none of the previous band
members in the lineup. The new lineup included, Michael Corey, Brian
Corey, Anne Corey, Richard Blake, Don McElwaine, Paul Newman and
Davey Wilson. It looks like this incarnation of the band lasted only
a few months as in May, 1975 the band was "relaunched" with lead
singer Willie Loughrey (formerly with the Playboys) along with brothers Jackie (bass), Danny
(drums) and Seamus (guitar) McConnell. The Spotlight article also
reported that most of the band were former members of the well know
Northern group Stack. Apparently, this incarnation of the band also
didn't last very long. In May, 1975, another blurb in Spotlight
announced that the band was planning their first single. More to
come...
Plattermen, Stage 4
In 1977, Willie Loughrey from
Newtownstewart was trying to put a band on the road and approached
the management of the Plattermen to again use the name. Since the band had
been off the road for several years and its members scattered across
the ballroom landscape, they agreed. Willie assumed
the stage name, Rock Stewart, and in the following years, he and the
band have entertained and shocked audiences with some outrageous shows.
Following in the footsteps of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and other
glam rockers, Willie devised a series of
themes in the
form of famous notorious characters such as Dracula, Frankenstein
and Rasputin with costumes that could have come from a Hollywood
studio.
One of his
signature entrances was being carried onstage in a coffin, only to
emerge as Dracula or some other ghoulish character. Legend has it
that his "zany performances" (Willie's words from a 2002 article in
the Derry Journal) weren't always appreciated and stories still
circulate about a night when Willie was pulled from the stage by an
audience that thought his entrance as a skeleton was a poke at the
H-Block hunger strikers. The last advert for the band we found was
in 1990.
So from its
beginning as a showband/country outfit featuring, Brian Coll, one of
Ireland's top stars of the genre, to ten years as a sweaty
rock and blues outfit under the legendary Rob Strong and Simon
Scott, and finally with the name sold to another artist who has
spanned a further twenty five years plus history as a theatrical band
highlighting the sometimes outrageous performances by Rock Stewart,
the name of the Plattermen lives on.
click on thumbnails for full image
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Brian Coll: Brian has
continued to entertain audiences in Ireland and England with
his own special brand of country. He most recently has been
taking part in the "Do You Come Here Often" concerts
sponsored by David Hull Promotions, but can be founding
gigging year round across Ireland and the UK. |
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Arty McGlynn - RIP: After
leaving the Plattermen, Arty started to focus his attention
on the very different world of Irish traditional music. In
1979 he recorded his first solo album, "McGlynn's Fancy,"
which was the first recording ever in which the guitar is
played in an authentic traditional style, and his reputation
was spreading in a new direction. He subsequently became one
of the most sought after musicians in the country, playing
and recording with the likes of Christy Moore and Paul Brady
and played with Planxty, Patrick Street, De Danann and the
Van Morrison Band. |
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Sean Hamilton: RIP
Sean sadly passed away July 19, 2003. |
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Aidan O'Neill: Aidan
left the band after an operation left him deaf in one ear
and never returned to the showband scene. Today he lives
in Omagh and we're told he is still sounding just like Jim
Reeves. Our thanks to Brian McCaul for the info. |
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Johnny Murphy: RIP
Johnny's niece, Sonia Murphy wrote to tell us that Johnny
sadly passed away of a heart attack while on holidays in
Paris on August 16, 2009. After leaving the band scene,
Johnny was involved in the record business, first running
Smyths Records in Portadown and Coleraine before opening his
own shop, M&L Records in Ballymena. He eventually opened a
newsagents and had the franchise for selling tickets for Jim
Aiken Promotions. He retired in the late 1990's. |
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Leo Doran: If
you know more,
please let us know. |
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Ray Moore:
After the Plattermen split up in 1974, Ray joined the Paddy
Cole Superstars. He stayed with them until around 1980 when
formed a duo with Colm Hughes brother, Tony called Patches.
They played as a duo until the mid 90's. In recent years, he
has been heavily involved with production, having produced
the first two "Do You Come Here Often" concerts. Today he
plays often, but mostly keyboards as he gave up playing the
trumpet around 1990. |
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Pat Chesters:
If you know more,
please let us know. |
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Billy McGinty: Arthur
McHugh, his brother-in-law, dropped us an email in May, 2020 to let us know that
Billy has been living in Australia since 1969. He served in
the Royal Australian Air Force for many years and managed a
hotel until he retired. He is still playing music.
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Alan McCartney:
Alan has continued to play around the North of Ireland and
in April 2009, he replaced Johnny Fean in the reformed Miami
Showband which is touring Ireland.
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Rob Strong: After
taking the Plattermen in a totally new direction (pop/rock),
Rob left the band in the mid 70's to form Las Vegas where he
shared the spotlight for a short time with Kelley (formerly
of the Nevada). He also went on to form The Rockets and
eventually the Rob Strong Band. Today, Rob is still touring
Ireland and recently appeared at the Cork Jazz Festival. He
plays all across the country. |
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Gerry McIlduff -
RIP: After leaving the Plattermen, Gerry
played with a wide variety of pop and rock bands in Ireland
and England including Katmandu, The Pretenders and The
Pogues. He was a regular on drums at many blues and jazz
festivals across Ireland. Gerry sadly passed away in 2005. |
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Simon Scott - RIP (aka
Ivan Vaughn ): Simon
went on to sing with the Apaches as Big Chief in the late
70's. More recently, he was singing around the North as a
one man band but was tragically killed in flooding during
Storm Desmond on Dec 7, 2015. |
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Benny White: After
his year long stint with the Plattermen, Benny joined
The Times after
the Swarbriggs left to form their own band around 1976.
Around 1982, The Times called it quits and Benny tells us he
took a break until 1986 when he formed a band with Jimmy
Slevin, Greg Donaghy, and Jack Costello called Male Order
and played for a short while until Jimmy moved to Germany.
Jimmy and Benny had also been part of a recording group
called Steal Moon before Male Order. They made two records,
"The Mainstream" and "The Landlord." In the 1990's, Benny
did a lot of gigging in the United States and Tenerife.
These days he plays the odd gig with Terry Merrick (Others)
and Maxie McEvoy (Strangers) as well as doing some solo
work. |
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John Trotter:
If you know more,
please let us know. |
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Willie Loughrey -
RIP:
Willie carried on as Rock Stewart for many years but sadly
passed away on May 15th, 2022.His antics on stage became
legendary playing roles such as Dracula and Rasputin, even
being carried on stage in a coffin. He was one of the truly
unique characters of the showband era. |
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Ivan Laybourne:
If you know more,
please let us know. |
