The Cadets Showband (1961-1970)
Photo Gallery -
Band Lineups -
Discography
- Audio samples -
Where Are They Now?
Please note: some parts of this feature may not
yet be complete...but we are working on it!
The Story
Some
showbands end up attracting a lot of attention and Eileen Reid and her Cadets
are one such band. Eileen, complete with her blonde beehive hairdo and
interesting costumes choices (for the day) was really Ireland's first female
superstar and was actually the only Irish female singer to have a number one hit
in the sixties with "Fallen Star."
Eileen had been playing around Dublin with The Melody
Makers, a local band that was moderately successful locally. In late 1961,
she heard a band was being formed by Tom Costello and she went to the audition.
The Melochords, another popular Dublin band would be used as the nucleus
of the new showband, The Cadets, however Eileen was not a popular choice
with the band members as they wanted to bring back Dickie Rock to front the new
band. Dickie had previously left The Melochords to form his own group,
The Echoes. Despite their protests, Tom knew promoters were looking for
something special and he went with Eileen. The original lineup of the Cadets
was: Eileen Reid (vocals), Patrick
Murphy (harmonica), Jas Fagan (trombone), Paddy Burns (trumpet), Gerry Hayes
(keyboards), Brendan O'Connell (guitar), Jimmy Day (sax/guitar), Noel McGann
(bass), and Willie Devey
(drums). They opened on St. Stephen's night in the Garda Club in Dublin.
Within a year, Eileen started to date the
band's sax player, Jimmy Day, whom she would eventually marry. Like many of the early showbands, The Cadets got their
shot at international stardom and appeared on several TV shows in the U.K. On
July 13, 1963 they became the first Irish showband to appear on the ITV programme,
Thank Your Lucky Stars, sharing the stage with "newcomers" Mick Jagger and
The Rolling Stones. Eileen once recounted that Mick was really taken with
their snappy outfits. They made their Irish TV debut on The Showband Show.
During this period, they also toured America and were even given their own show on
Radio Eireann, called Carnival Time with the Cadets.
The band toured with Johnny and
June Cash when they came to Ireland in October, 1963. The highlight
of the tour was a concert in the National Stadium in Dublin. Eileen
and the Cadets were introduced as a major force in the Irish music
scene to The Beatles when they came to Dublin in November 1963. In
late 1965, Patrick Murphy was replaced with singer,
Paul "Bat" Green, a move which gave the band more range
on stage, as well as a male counter to Eileen.
After the release of Hello Trouble on Decca,
the band switched to Pye Records and were soon number 1 in Ireland with their version of Jim Reeves’
Fallen Star. On May 25, 1964, Eileen became the
first, and only, 60's Showband female vocalist to have a number one hit on the Irish charts, and
the third showband overall, behind only the Royal and Miami to top the
Irish charts.
In late 1964, they charted with their most famous song, I Gave My
Wedding Dress Away. For this melancholy country ballad, Eileen
regularly appeared onstage dressed in a wedding dress, which caused
a minor sensation at the time.
The band's first LP simply named
The Cadets was a capsule version of their stage act and featured
every vocal and instrumental talent that they had. Their next
release Are You Teasin' Me, was a hit in Ireland but did not make
any impression in Britain. The Cadets did however, make it into the British
charts for one week in June 1965 with Jealous Heart.
Even though Eileen was the number
one female vocalist in the country, management decided to replace male vocalist
Paul Green with
Gregory Donaghey, who became the life and soul of the party. The band would
hit number one again in 1966, when Gregory topped the Irish charts with
More Than Yesterday.
The Cadets
were considered one of Ireland's showband royalty, and one of the top ten
showbands of the era, along with such legends as The Capitol, The Royal,
The
Miami, and The Clipper Carlton. The Cadets continued to tour the showband circuit
and notched up an impressive run of hits including Right Or Wrong, If I Had My
Life To Live Over, At The Close Of A Long Day and Land Of
Gingerbread.
In
June, 1968, after a rocky courtship, Jimmy and
Eileen finally got married and the following April, Eileen had her first
child, a daughter. In late 1968, Eileen was pregnant and felt she had enough of the
road and quit to raise a family. The band tried to
continue on without her, but by 1970
The Cadets were beginning to lose musical direction. Jimmy
decided that he had enough of traveling and went into his family's
taxi business and The Cadets were no more. Eventually Jimmy and Eileen decided they would
do cabaret together. Jimmy had been working as a compere in cabaret
lounges around Dublin and had a three night a week residency in the
Central Lounge in Balbriggan.
Through the mid-seventies, Eileen and Jimmy
performed on the Dublin cabaret circuit, but she soon started to
perform in annual pantomimes in Dublin. During
the 1990s, Eileen tried her hand at
acting and had small parts in The Commitments (1991), Against All
Odds, A Man of No Importance (1994), and Moll Flanders (1995). These
days, Eileen has her
own show on RTE radio.
Gregory Donaghey formed a band
called The Gregory Trio after the band split up (our thanks Dave
Fleming for the info) but he eventually emigrated to
Canada in 1974 where he joined The Carlton Showband, a Canadian band
which was started in 1963 by a group of Irish ex-patriots and
enjoyed a career that lasted until 1996 when the band finally
retired after 33 years and 34 albums to their credit. In the 90's he
released a solo album, Through the Eyes of an Irishman and he still lives and performs in Newfoundland.
These days, it seems like songs by
The Cadets
appear on more Irish Showband compilations than almost anyone else from the
era, a testament to their popularity. Unlike many of their
counterparts though, who were able to reinvented themselves and continue
through the seventies and beyond, The Cadets called it quits
after less than a decade and,
much like the Beatles (who they once met), they live on today through
their music only.
*Some information for this article
from Send 'Em Home Sweatin' by Vincent Power.
Photo Gallery
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