The Johnny Flynn
Showband
(1948 - 1990)
Photo Gallery -
Band Lineups -
Discography
- Audio samples -
Where Are They Now?
The Story
Article by John Baird and Gerry Gallagher
The
town of Tuam in Co. Galway, has earned a reputation as “the Showband
capital of Ireland” because at one time
in the early 60's, no less than six top class showbands called the
well known market town home. The best known of these was the
Johnny Flynn Showband, a musical combination with its roots
firmly in the tradition of the Tuam Brass Band. This is not
surprising as Tuam's bandmaster, Danny Kelly (senior) was a member
of the original Johnny Flynn Dance band.
John Joseph Flynn was born on January 13th,
1929 and by the time he played his first professional gig he was
nineteen years old...a young age to have your own band. The band's story starts
in the late 1940's long before the era of the showbands. The band
hit the road in October, 1948 and the first dance advert we found
was the Halloween Dance in Cummer Ballroom (outside Tuam) featuring
"J. J. Flynn and His Band" (see below).
Early adverts often listed the band by a number of names including
the "J. J. Flynn Orchestra," "Dance Band," and "J. J. Flynn and His
Boys." Johnny's full name was John Joseph Flynn, hence the "J. J."
moniker.
In these early days, the band played mostly
around Tuam and County Galway. It would seem that the line-up may
have been quite fluid with musicians coming and going as a part time
band. By 1951, the band was ready to spread its wings and Johnny
placed ads in the Irish Independent newspaper "dance band"
section looking for gigs further afield. There were also a few
changes in the band as Danny Kelly, Sr. joined the band on piano
along with Francie Flynn who would stay with the band for many
years. Johnny was also managing the band from his home in Tuam.
In
1952, the band was ahead of its time, introducing the "electric
guitar" into the line-up and were now featuring "the beautiful music
of the South Seas" in their programme. In 1953, the band boasted
having the first Hohner "Multi-Monica"
electronic organ in the country. This was a new concept in those
days (a kind of hybrid organ and accordion) which would herald the
start of the synthesizer era way back in the 1950's.
The band's growth from local band to regional
player and beyond would take some time. Even by 1952-53, they were
only playing in Connaught and as far north as Sligo. However, with Johnny
on accordion, the band could play the standard dance tunes of the
day, as well as a wide variety of Ceili, Dixieland and country
music. This is one of the distinctions that allowed them to provide
what dancers wanted, a trait the band
would carry for the rest if its history.
The band's regional reputation was
second to none and it was a natural that when the showband boom hit,
Johnny would be right there in the thick of things. By the mid
1950's Johnny's band was being referred to as an "orchestra" but
they still weren't able to crack the national market which was
normal for the times as most bands were at best semi-pro with full
time day jobs and traveling around the country was an expensive and
time consuming way of life.
Ever the innovator, by the end of 1955, adverts
for the band included the "orchestra" as well as the "Dixieland Five
and the Harmony Quartette." It was becoming obvious that the "show"
was finally being injected into the band which was a major trend in
the mid 1950's as dances would often last from 9 p.m. until 4 in the
morning and bands struggled to provide 7 hours of entertainment.
This was often overcome by using 2 band session or provision of a
"relief group" which would usually be a smaller local band. Sometime
in January or February 1956, the band went from a nine piece to
eight piece line-up (and the harmony quartette was reduced to a
trio), so we know someone left the band.
In
1958, Johnny cast aside the music stands and put together his first
fully fledged "showband." The original lineup was: Johnny Flynn
(organ/accordion), brothers Brendan Flynn (sax/clarinet) and Francie
Flynn (bass), Danny Kelly (Jr.-trombone), Billy Potter (guitar),
Frankie Hannon (drums), Ollie Maloney (trumpet) and Gerry Cronin
(vocals). He also got a professional manager, Tom Costello.
The band was an immediate success and even out
drew the top bands in the West of Ireland. The band became one
of the first five showbands to tour the United States in 1960. They
would visit again in 1962.
In September, 1963, they again toured America
for the third time and while over there recorded a single
featuring Gerry Cronin entitled You Took Her Off My Hands.
("You Took Her Off My
Hands (Now Please Take Her Off My Mind)" / "Hoots Mon Twist"
on Headline records in New York,
catalog number 1016.) On September 14th, it was reported they would
be releasing that single in Ireland, however it was never released
here as it was later reported that the hole in the middle of the
record was too large for a standard Irish record player.
Over the next few years, Johnny and the band
would go on the trip to the States for Dublin impresario Bill
Fuller's Irish-American ballroom circuit every year, each time
staying away for a little longer until they were a month long
affair.
1964 was a somewhat tumultuous year for the
band. Pat Smyth joined giving the band two lead singers. Then a few
months later, Ollie Maloney, Gerry Cronin
and Billy Potter left to form the Ohio Showband. Ray Donnelly
(guitar/vocals) was brought in to replace Gerry and a short time
later Jim Dalton
(guitar), and Billy Kelly (RIP-trumpet) joined the band. In the
meantime, they continued to travel countrywide and had an especially
big following
in the Northwest. More tours of the USA and trips to the UK
were undertaken, and they took part in the New York St. Patrick's Day
parade in 1964.
In 1965, the band recorded its first Irish
single, Who Knows sung by Ray Donnelly, who went by the name
Ray Donn. However, a spelling error at Decca had the label printed
as the Johnny Flynn Band featuring Ray Dunn. Although the record did
not do particularly well, it got valuable airplay and brought the
band into the National limelight as all the bands had been recording
by this time after Tom Dunphy started the ball rolling in 1962 (only
3 years earlier). The band was being managed by Mike Kelly.
Like other bands, there were many personnel
changes but the line up that made the most impression on the
recording scene was : Johnny and Francie Flynn, Frankie Hannon, Jim
Dalton, Danny Kelly, Roy Donnelly, Joe McIntyre, Billy Kelly, Pete Creighton and vocalist Pat Smyth who had a
No. 1 hit with The Black and Tan Gun in 1966. It
would be the band's one and only record to enter the Irish Charts. This fine
line up also recorded many singles and an album entitled The
Magnificent 7 which covered much of the band's varied stage
repertoire and was released in 1972.
In
1966, Roy left the band, lured away by the promise of a solo Decca
recording career in England. He quit and moved to London, but soon
found the contract he was offered was not as promised and returned
to Dublin. Retiring as a fully
professional singer, he took a day job, but was soon singing part
time again with the Tom
O'Brien band, with whom he had been with in 1961 in the Crystal
Ballroom, before joining Johnny Flynn. However they were now the
resident band in Clery's Ballroom in Dublin.
By 1972, Jimmy Harte was no
longer performing and in 1978, he emigrated to the USA and has remained
there since. (He has since returned to the stage and started singing again).
Around the same time (1972) Johnny announced a
partnership with The Fleet Showband (also from Tuam) called
Entertainment Workshop. The idea was to provide all types of
entertainment for a variety of venues including dances and cross
channel events for both bands. We are pretty sure this never got any
place as within a year, we think the band was off the road, but we
will check on that fact. An interesting side note is that by
this time, Jim Dalton, formerly with Johnny Flynn had joined the
Fleet as its leader behind Gerry Fahey.
Like all the Tuam bands, The Flynn Band featured many brass arrangements, this being their trademark and
the varied dancing programme of pop, Dixieland, country, and
ballads was well received by appreciative dancers.
They had in their enigmatic drummer Frankie
“Flash” Hannon, a superb drummer and showman and his renderings of
Fats Domino numbers were showstoppers to say the least.
Around May, 1972 Johnny started using the name, The
Johnny Flynn Sound which he would use on and off for the next
few years. This great showband
left us with a host of memories and will never be forgotten. They
were great musicians all: names like Mickey Eagleton, Mickey Devaney,
Billy McGlinchey, Patsy Haugh, Angelina McDonagh, Martin Murphy,
and others were a part of the band. At this point the band was being
managed by Peter Hannon. It also appeared that by September, Pat had
left the band as it now featured "Angela and John."
Johnny would continue playing throughout the
1980's, but seemed to be limited to playing in Dublin and around
Galway and Mayo. The days as a national showband were over and gigs
were getting harder to find. It seems that band slowly petered out
somewhere between 1990 and 1994, although "Johnny
Flynn and his Band" were still advertised for the odd dance around
Tuam in 1994.
On November 26th,
1996, Johnny Flynn passed away suddenly, aged just 68. He had been
playing up until a week before his unexpected death. Having first
started his band in 1948, he had been playing regularly to audiences
across Ireland and the rest of the world almost 50 years. Johnny had
seen and done it all on the Irish entertainment scene and is still
considered one of Tuam's best loved personalities. Sadly, most of
his former band members from the 50's and 60's have passed away as
Brendan Flynn, Billy Kelly, Frankie Hannon, Mickey Eagleton, Gerry Cronin and Ollie
Maloney, all sadly left us too soon.
Photo
Gallery
Click on thumbnails for full images
 |
Kevin Eagleton - RIP:
We have been told by Marie Hannon, that Kevin sadly passed
away in the United States some years ago. |
 |
Mickey Eagleton - RIP:
We have been told by Marie Hannon, that Kevin sadly passed
away in the United States some years ago. |
 |
Danny Kelly, Sr.-RIP
Sadly passed away |
 |
Mickey Devaney - RIP:
We have been told by Marie Hannon, that Mickey sadly passed
away some years ago. |
 |
Francie Flynn - RIP: Marie
Hannon told us via email in Dec 2013 that Francie was still
in Tuam where he has lived all his life. Francie played with
local bands after his showband days including Rosaleen and
the Ramblers. He was a talented carpenter and for many years
taught woodworking at the
Toghermore Training Centre, Tuam
(An HSE Mental Health Service Vocational Training Centre)
until he retired. He also volunteered
with the Irish Wheelchair Association in Tuam. Sadly,
Francie passed away on January 26th, 2016. He will be sadly
missed by friends and family across Ireland especially in
the Tuam area. |
 |
Frankie Hannon - RIP:
Marie Hannon, Frankie's daughter, emailed us in November,
2013 to tell us when Frankie
quit the Johnny Flynn band in mid 1972, he formed a local
trio called the Big 3 with Pete Creighton and Billy Kelly.
Sadly, Frankie passed away only 3 years later on August 16th,
1975. He was only 41 and left behind a young family of
five. |
 |
Johnny Flynn: RIP
One of the West of Ireland's most beloved musicians, Johnny
Flynn kept his band on the road for over over 30 years from
the 1940's through the 1970's. We sure he also played well
past that time. Johnny sadly passed away in 1996. |
 |
Brendan Flynn:
RIP Sadly passed away |
 |
Danny Kelly, Jr. -
RIP:
Marie Hannon told us via email in Dec 2013 that Danny was
still in Tuam where he had lived all his life. We do not
know whether he was still involved with music. In April,
2022, we received an email from Andy Newman of Tuam
informing us that Danny had sadly passed away on October
13th, 2019. |
 |
Olly Moloney:
RIP Ollie left
the Johnny Flynn Band in the mid 1960's (we not sure if it
was the same time as Gerry Cronin), but we do know he ended
up with the Ohio showband for a short time. He then formed
his own Olly Moloney Band in the 1970's. Sadly, Olly passed
away March 23, 1994. |
 |
Phil Costello - RIP:
Sadly passed away, Phil was Johnny's Costello's wife. |
|
|
Tommy Higgins: If you
know more,
please let us know. |
|
|
Johnny Costello -
RIP:
We understand from Marie Hannon that Johnny has sadly passed
away.
If you know more,
please let us know.
|
|
|
Martin Costello -
RIP:
We understand from Marie Hannon that Martin has sadly passed
away.
If you know more,
please let us know.
|
 |
Roy Donnelly: In
2013, we caught up with Roy and he told us he left the band
in 1966 and ended up singing with the Tom O'Brien band who
were resident in Clery's Ballroom in Dublin. In 1972, he
retired from performing and in 1978 emigrated to the States,
where he has remained. A few years ago, he retired from his
"day job" and started singing again for fun. He
performs regularly with his show, "An Affair to
Remember." He spoke fondly of his days in the showband and
the fans of the era. He said he hopes to do a tour of
Ireland. Then 70, he continues to entertain audiences
across Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. |
 |
Gerry Cronin - RIP:
Gerry left the band sometime in the early to mid 1960's and
formed his own band, The Ohio. The band started as a
showband and eventually went through oth country music and
eventually pop as it became the Cronin Family Band in the
late 70's and early 80's. Sadly Gerry passed away April 3,
1988. |
 |
Pete Creighton -
RIP: We know from Marie Hannon that
Pete left the band at the same time as Frankie Hannon and
formed a trio called the BIg 3. Pete sadly passed away March
20, 2010 |
|
|
Jim Dalton: Marie
Hannon tells us Jim is living in Dublin If
you know more,
please let us know. |
 |
Jimmy Harte: After
leaving the Miami, Jimmy stayed close to home and joined the
Jack Flahive Orchestra. A few years later he moved on to the
Arrans Showband finally ended up living in Tuam and playing
with the Johnny Flynn Showband before emigrating to
Australia. Jimmy
emailed us in 2006 to tell us he was living in Perth
Australia (he emigrated there in 1986) where he was still
playing and singing. He toured extensively in Asia and
South Africa since leaving Ireland and released a CD of
original songs in 2006 as well. He
had a band there for 15 years which finished 7 years ago. He
was playing solo using backing tracks and had recently celebrated
his 70th birthday. |
 |
Billy Kelly - RIP: We
know from Marie Hannon that Billy left the band at the same
time as Frankie Hannon and formed a trio called the BIg 3.
Sadly, Billy was killed in a car crash around 1973 along
with his brother P.J. He left behind a very young family of
six. |
|
|
Joe McIntyre: Marie
Hannon tells us Joe is living in Dublin. If
you know more,
please let us know. |
|
|
Pat Smith (Smyth?): Marie
Hannon sent us an email in December, 2013 to say Pay was
living in Dublin, but still maintains a house in Tuam and
visits regularly. If
you know more,
please let us know. |
 |
Angela McDonagh -
RIP: Sadly passed away in 7th Sept 2021 from
T. Lundy. Originally from Ballaghadereen, Co.
Roscommon, Angelia was living in Perth, Western Australia
when she sadly passed away. |
