1970's - Transition Years: Pop vs. Country          

In 1968, in what was to become the first of the "defections" that rocked the showbands, Tommy Swarbrigg left Joe Dolan and the Drifters and basically took the whole band with him, leaving only Joe and brother Ben to carry on. Tommy formed The Times, and became one of the first of the "new" bands.

Over the next few years, the changes kept coming. Brian Coll left the Plattermen to form The Buckaroos, and Rob Strong took over lead vocals, radically altering the band's direction. The Casino Showband dropped their showband image, donned war paint and renamed themselves The Indians.

Joe McCarthy and Brendan O'Brien left the Dixies to form Stage 2. Half of the Miami Showband left Dickie Rock to form The Sands (Dickie would leave a few years later to form his own band as well). The Premier Aces lost Johnny Carroll, Jimmy O'Neil and Sonny Ward when they left to form The Swallows. Larry Cunningham left the Mighty Avons to form his own band, The Country Blue Boys and shortly after both Ronnie Griffiths had gone to form American Pie and Gene Stuart had left to form The Homesteaders. Sonny Knowles was replaced in the Pacific by the younger Peter Law while Eileen Reid and the Cadets simply packed it in around 1972.        

In his book, Goodnight, God Bless and Safe Home, Finbar O'Keefe quote's a Spotlight Poll of the top twenty bands of 1969. They included The Dixies, Dreams, Drifters, Freshmen, Hoedowners, Miami, Mainliners, Mighty Avons, Royal, Sands, Capitol, Cadets, Nevada, Pacific, Plattermen, Premier Aces, Royal Blues, Sounds, Times, and Victors. Within a matter of three years, almost all these bands had undergone a major change in musical direction, or lost key members to other bands.    

The dawn of the seventies revealed a showband world in turmoil. Crowds had started slipping away, perhaps tiring of the now stale showband format. The bands themselves were starting to "fall apart." However, in many cases, the bands were simply adapting to a new environment and several stars decided it was time to go out on their own. Of course, much of this turmoil was also created by unequal sharing of the riches being generated by the bands, both between the members of bands, between bands and their management and between the bands and dance hall promoters.

Another new form of entertainment in Ireland also beckoned: cabaret. When the lounge bar craze swept the nation in the late 1960's, those pubs had mainly been the home of small groups, singing folk and rebel songs, but as the scene grew, the pubs got larger, singing lounges sprung up all around the country (before the days of the drink driving crack down) and larger venues needed larger stars. Stars also got tired of spending up to 10 hours a day in a cold van, heading from Dublin to Donegal and missing families. A variety of cabaret gigs opened up in Dublin and other major towns, allowing singers to make more money, travel less, and be in charge of their own affairs.   

Perhaps the biggest shock came when Brendan Bowyer and Tom Dunphy announced they were leaving The Royal Showband to form the Big Eight, a band that would spend half the year working in Las Vegas. When the biggest star in the country left to look for greener pastures, the industry was actually pronounced dead by many fans of the era.

However, at the same time, a new breed of band was taking shape. The late sixties and early seventies would see a split in the world of showbands into two distinct categories: pop or country. Although most bands continued to play a variety of musical styles, there was a definite move to identify themselves as one or the other of these two genres.

On the pop side, bands like The Real McCoy, Arrows, Chips, The Memories and Tweed joined overhauled showbands like The Miami, Sands, Nevada, Plattermen and Freshman to form the basis for a new pop culture in Ireland. Eventually, these bands would provide the impetus for the radical changes in Irish pop music in the 1980's and beyond, but more of that later. Even the venerable Spotlight (and then New Spotlight) magazine made another comeback in 1976 as Starlight magazine.

On the country side, showband veterans like Brian Coll, Pat Ely, Larry Cunningham, Gene Stuart and Big Tom McBride, were joined by newcomers like Ian Corrigan, The Cotton Mill Boys, Margo, Susan McCann, Philomena Begley, and many more to form what many critics would come to call the "Country and Irish" set.

This "split" in the entertainment business had some interesting consequences. Venues that had previously played "any and all" bands slowly became either country or pop venues or only played one style of music on certain nights. This effectively reduced the number of gigs available for bands and created more competition. RTE, still at this point with one TV and one radio channel, started to reinforce this split by producing shows which featured one or the other type of music.

Throughout the early seventies, crowds continued to slowly slip away from the ballrooms, but dancing was still more or less a five to six nights a week industry, even during the winter months. A handful of the older ballrooms had closed in the late sixties, but by and large, the mainstays of the industry were still going well, even though the record dance crowds of the mid sixties would never be seen again. Halls that had once set records with crowds of 2,000 dancers or more, were now happy to attract 1,000-1,200.

With competition at an all time high and the growth in the number of dance venues going into decline, the early 70's introduced another major shift on the ballroom circuit: the rise of "gimmick" bands. Sharp suits and smooth performances were no longer enough to draw crowds, a new breed of bands hit the circuit. One of the first (and most successful) gimmicks happened in 1970 when the middle-of-the-road Casino Showband, gave up their jackets and opted to don war paint, buckskins and feathers to become the "Indians." Not only did the change lift them to the top of the circuit, but today, over forty five years later, they are still going strong.

Other bands followed suit: The Clowns (in full grease paint), The Cowboys (of course), Tarzan and the Monkeys (actually wore monkey suits), The Zulus (African natives), Bloody Morgan and the Pirates, the Hollywood Stars and Magic and his light up suit were all attempts to be different and capture the imagination of the dancing public. Perhaps one of the worst conceived ideas happened when the Dixies (long after the departure of Joe Mac and Brendan O'Brien) donned black face, straw hats and became the Black and White Minstrel Show. Of course, none of this enhanced the reputations of the showbands.          

However, the "new" pop bands also brought fresh ideas to the Irish entertainment scene and the ballrooms. They started writing and recording their own material. Although not unheard of, it was a change of pace from the accepted showband practice of re-recording a British or American hit in the hopes of striking gold. Country bands were a little slower to change, scouring the latest Nashville releases for a song that would appeal to the Irish audiences, a practice which, sadly, continues to this day.

An important, and tragic, week in showband history occurred at the end of July, 1975...splitting the decade down the middle. On Tuesday, 29th of July, on a lonely country road in County Leitrim, former Royal Showband and Big 8 singer and bass player, Tom Dunphy, was killed in a car accident. Tom had been the first showband singer to release a record back in the early sixties. Along with Brendan Bowyer, he also represented the "bridge" between the old and new. Not only had they transitioned, very successfully, from the old showband style of the Royal to the newer, more hip Big 8, they also were one of the only Irish bands to keep their success going on both sides of the Atlantic, perhaps heralding a new phase in the showband landscape.

Sadly, Tom's death would be overshadowed two days later (31st July) by an even greater tragedy when three members of the Miami: Fran O'Toole, Brian McCoy and Tony Geraghty, were gunned down in one of the most senseless acts of the Irish "troubles." Like the Royal, the Miami had been one of the lucky bands to successfully transition - first through the loss of half of its members with the formation of the Sands, and again when their lead singer, Dickie Rock left to form his own band. Undaunted, the Miami had carried on, fronted by one of the most talented young musicians Ireland had produced, Fran O'Toole. His boyish good looks, songwriting talents and singing style had won many new fans for the "old" Miami.

These two tragedies, in a way, ended the "innocence" of the showband years. Although this is an all too simplistic view, 1975 culminated a period of change which saw bands breaking up after long periods of success, usually over money and sometimes (although not often) because of artistic differences or changes in musical direction. It also signaled the beginning of the end of the ballroom circuit. Immediately after the Miami killings, almost all Southern based bands refused to travel North. This meant more bands vying for fewer gigs down South. Disco started to creep into the ballrooms (initially as a cost saving alterative to the relief groups which were put out of work). Eventually though, they were able to draw their own crowds to greasy "chicken dinner" bar exemptions which would fill every hotel across the country, further killing the ballrooms. But more of this later.         

Once in a while, lightning would strike, and a band would have a minor hit. A more likely path to success was to write Ireland's entry for Eurovision, then known as the Irish National Song Contest. Most winners would enjoy minor success at home, only to slowly fade away when they didn't win the big one. In fact, between Ireland's win in 1970 with Dana's All Kind of Everything, and Johnny Logan's stunning win in 1980, the best finish for Ireland was the Swarbrigg's third place finish in 1977 with It's Nice To Be In Love Again. 

During this period, the country bands didn't stand still and before long, a definite split was occurring between the "country and Irish" bands, and more mainstream country acts like Ray Lynam and the Hillbillies, Bill Ryan and Buckshot, and the aforementioned Cotton Mill Boys, to name but a few.         

As the seventies came to a close, the industry was shifting once again. In 1977, The film, "Saturday Night Fever" exposed a new craze that had gripped the world--disco music. In Ireland, it took a little while for discos to disrupt the dance scene. The first discos were small and catered mostly to teenagers.

To some extent, the ballrooms and larger halls were off limits to a DJ with a box full of 45's. The only exception to this rule was for "relief." In fact, the first victims of the discos were the local relief bands. "Relief bands" provided an important service to the showband industry on several levels. Most importantly, some of the country's showbands started as relief groups themselves, honing their talents by providing one to two hours of entertainment, sometimes on a nightly basis. In the early days of the ballrooms, resident bands filled a similar role with larger bands sometimes coming in on the weekends.

Additionally, the relief groups were the "training grounds" for future showband musicians. Countless local musicians have stories of being "discovered" by a big band who either needed someone, or knew of another band that was looking to fill a vacant slot in their lineup. If nothing else, many relief musicians enjoyed enough of a "taste" of the big time, that they often went on to pursue a career with the showbands. Finally, the demise of the relief group probably reduced the pool of musicians who were interested in the showband scene. Many local musicians started to turn to either rock or folk music as an outlet for their talents, a fact that would become more evident in the 1980's.

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