Trixons Showband (1966-1969?)
Photo Gallery -
Band Lineups -
Discography
- Audio samples -
Where Are They Now?
The Story
The first mention of the
Trixons we could find was a news article in the Evening
Herald from October 26, 1966 with the headline, "Irish Pop Group
Stranded." The article reported that four members of the band, Brian
Emerson, Shay McCarthy, Mick Goode and Bobby Hastings were stranded
at Madrid airport as they "lacked funds for their tickets home."
Twso days later the paper reported the boys were finally home.
In trying to research the origins
of the band, it seems the Trixons may have been formed in London in
the mid sixties as Donegal born lead singer, Terry Connelly grew up
there, as well as several members of the band being Londoners. The
band was playing some of the tourist destinations in Europe,
including Spain, when they returned "home" to Ireland to try their
luck on the showband scene. They started playing relief to larger,
established showbands like the Royal and Clipper Carlton. The band
was billed as "direct from Spain," which surprised some punters when
the boys spoke perfect English! An article in the October 28th issue of
Spotlight featured them as one of the "Younger generation of
Showbands."
They seemed to be an immediate hit
playing a dates across the country in November and December, 1966.
An article in the Tuam Herald on January 7th, 1967 gave some details
about the band, calling them an "English Showband." The lineup was
reported as Terry Connolly (vocals), Joey Ainscough (sax, we think),
Gina Carim (vocals), Shay McCarthy (guitar), Bobby Hastings (bass),
Mick Goode (drums) and George Hasson (trumpet). Gina Carim's
background is a little difficult to decipher as she was described as
being from both South Africa or Spain in various adverts for the
band.
The band was managed by Peter Sheridan of Granard,
and played a basic pop set becoming very popular in the midlands. In
November, 1967, the band released their first single, Mama, I'm Not The Boy I Used to
Be on the King label (which was then managed by Mick Clerkin)
but it didn't make any impression on the charts. By this time Gina
had left the band to return to London along with Joey Ainscough and
they were replaced by Jim Malone on sax and Ricky McRoberts on
keyboards.
In 1968 the band hits its stride
and although they may not have been one of the top ten bands in the
country, they were doing very good business across Ireland.
In late 1968, they released their
second single, Just Another Song, on the Release label. The
record was produced by John Drummond, who at the time was lead
singer with the Capitol, but would soon turn his attention to record
making full time as one of the top session men in Ireland.
More to come...
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