Bogey Boys Story (1978-)
Photo Gallery -
Band Lineups -
Discography
- Audio samples -
Where Are They Now?
The Story
In 1970, Jimmy Smyth, who was just eleven years old, had started to
attract attention as a multi-instrumentalist who played and sang
with his mother and father in a musical trio in and around their
hometown of Navan, Co. Meath. He was actually following in the
footsteps of his sister Gloria, who had played with their father's
showband, The Arcadians, when she was just 10 years old as early as
1961. Gloria, would of course, go on to a major career as a singer
starting with her stint with Johnny McEvoy's band in the early 1970s
and eventually having her own major hits including "One Day At A
Time."
A few years later, Jimmy embarked
on his own showband career when he joined Frank Coll and The Big
Valley which hit the road in late 1972. Frank, brother of famous
showband vocalist Brian Coll, didn't stay with the band long and was
soon replaced by Shelley Lynch. At the time Jimmy was still very
young, we think maybe 14 years old or thereabouts.
We're pretty sure Jimmy favoured
rock and pop and it wasn't long before he left the country world and
joined a relatively new band which featured former Dublin cabaret
artist Carl Corcoran, who had changed his name to Jamie Stone. Also
in the band on drums was Paul Moran who had previously featured with
the Celtic rock group Mushroom.
Within a few years Jamie had
returned to the Dublinn cabarey seen relatively short time
In late January, 1981, it
was reported in the Munster Express newspaper that the band
had "gone off the road." Or more precisely that Donal and Paul had
left the band, leaving Jimmy on his own. However within a month,
Donal had rejoined and Paul was replaced by Jimmy's brother Tony.
The band had only recently released their second album, "Jimmy Did
It."
The revived lineup continued to do
well, especially on the local pub rock scene, but never really made
the major crossover top the ballroom scene. By March, 1982 it
appeared the band had decided to call it quits and one of their last
appearances was on RTE 2's "Non Stop Pop" hosted by the late Gerry
Ryan on February 13th.
The "new" Jimmy Smyth Band, rose
"from the ashes" of the Bogeys, but it's actually hard to tell as
they were often advertised as "The Bogey Boys for months after their
"demise." The new band added Iggy Ward from Katmandu/Japs on guitar
and bass player Joe O'Connor on bass, but an article in the Meath
Chronicle in December of 1982 reported that Iggy Ward was now
the bass player in the three piece lineup that played "a selection
of old Bogey Boys tunes."
At the dawn of 1983, the band seemed to have reverted to the "Bogey
Boys" moniker as they were often called that for their gigs which
newspaper adverts featured mostly weekly residencies both in Dublin
and closer to home in Navan.
More to come.....
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