All About The Miami Showband (1961 -
1996)
Photo Gallery -
Band Lineups -
Discography
- Audio samples -
Where Are They Now?
The Story
With thanks to Anto Long and
Caroline Allen
Few
bands in Ireland have had as prolific, and tragic, a history as the
Miami. The band was formed in 1961 when The Downbeats changed their
name and expanded their lineup with Jimmy Harte handling lead
vocals. They enjoyed moderate success, but after less than a year,
Jimmy emigrated to the United States and the band brought in
Dickie Rock, a young singer who had
been playing with a Dublin band called the Melochords. Apparently the
missing piece of the puzzle, with Dickie out front, the band became
a smash hit across the country.
Within a short time, Dickie and the Miami were
one of the top two or three bands in the country, competing head to
head with the legendary Royal Showband from
Waterford for top honours on the showband scene. Dickie and the band
hit number one in the Irish charts in 1963 with There's Always Me.
1964
started with a bang as the band's follow-up release, I'm Yours, also
hit the number one spot, firmly establishing the band as a top draw
and Dickie as a major star.
Going from strength to strength, the band appeared at the famed London
Palladium that year and set attendance records where ever they played.
Dickie and the band finished the year with yet another number one,
and one of Dickie's all time classics, From The Candy Store On
The Corner.
Miami mania hit a fever pitch in the mid
1960's. In 1965, they released five singles, three of which went to
number one in the Irish charts. Guitarist Clem Quinn had a hit with
Buck's Polka and the number ones kept coming. In 1966, Dickie was
selected to represent Ireland in the Eurovision song contest with
Come Back to Stay, only the second performer to appear for
Ireland. Placing fourth overall, Dickie returned to Ireland a
national hero.
In 1967, after five years of hit singles (6
number one hits) the unthinkable happened...the Miami broke up.
Murty Quinn felt the band could be more popular with a change of
direction and along with Joe Tyrell, Denis Murray and Marty
Phelan, he left to form The Sands,
recruiting the Vampires' Tony Kenny to front the new band. The Sands
would also go on to become one of the most successful bands of the
era.
The band immediately regrouped with a
new lineup that included two members of one of Ireland's up and
coming beat groups, The Limited Company, Fran O'Toole
(keyboards), and Paul Ashford (bass). Augmented by Des McAlea
(a.k.a. Des Lee) on sax and Danny Ellis on trombone, the new look Miami continued the band's
record of success and in 1968, Dickie and the band had yet another number one hit
with Simon Says. During this entire period, Dickie Rock,
although enjoying success after success, was paid the same wages as
everyone else in the band. This created some pressures within the
band. At this point, the band had always been an eight piece, but
when Danny Ellis left the band around 1971, they went to a seven
piece and eventually would be only six.
Finally, in late 1972, Dickie decided to leave and form his own band,
which he called Dickie's Band. In a little known move, the
Miami drafted two brothers,
Frankie and Johnny Simon from Boyle in
Co. Roscommon to fill Dickie's shoes. Unfortunately though, the
brothers didn't last long and after a St. Stephen's Night debut
(December 26th for those not familiar with the Holiday), the
brothers were replaced by Billy Mac about a month into the new
year.
Billy MacDonald
(a.k.a. Billy Mac) joined the band in a blaze of publicity. They
released a record, That's A Woman, but neither the record nor the
band seemed to get any mileage and Billy left at the end of the
year. In late 1973 Mick Roche, previously of The Arrows, returned from Canada to front the band, but he didn't stay long very
long either. The Miami were having a little problem filling Dickie's
spot until they decided to stick with their existing lineup.
Not missing a beat, Fran O'Toole stepped out
front and the band continued to enjoy success. In 1974, Fran's song
Clap Your Hands and Stomp Your Feet, was a huge hit for the
Miami,
reaching number eight in the Irish Charts, but it was even an bigger
hit on the dance floor.
However, the good times were soon to come to an untimely and tragic
end.
On July 31, 1975, on
a lonely country road outside Newry, the band were making their way
home to Dublin from a gig at the Castle Ballroom in Banbridge, Co.
Down when they were flagged down by men in military dress. Anyone who traveled the
roads of Northern Ireland in those days will remember that it was a
relatively common occurrence as the security forces often
established makeshift check points at all times of the day and night.
However, the band were ordered out of their van and a group of UVF militants
started to
plant a bomb in the van...when it detonated prematurely. In
the ensuing chaos, the remaining terrorists opened fire,
killing Fran O'Toole, Brian McCoy, Tony Geraghty and seriously
wounding Stephen Travers.
The killings shocked the entire country and
changed the showband scene for many years to come as overnight, the
North was avoided by most bands from the South. It would take
years before bands started to make the trek across the border in any
numbers. More importantly, the tragedy struck at the core of the
showband industry, cutting short the lives of three musicians whose
only crime was that they dedicated their lives to entertainment.
Ireland would never be the same.
Devastated, the Miami appeared to be finished.
However, before the end of the year, the three surviving members,
Des McAlea, Stephen Travers, and Ray Millar reformed the band with
Noel Ryan (keyboards), Des Flaherty (guitar), and Norman Clifford
(trumpet) and
hit the road again with Des Lee taking front and center. (Picture at
right)
Fran
O'Toole's record, Love Is, was released posthumously and
reached number eight in the Irish Charts. Once again,
the Miami were on top, demonstrating the hope and resolve of a
nation torn by the troubles in the North. The Miami continued to be
one of the top drawing bands in the country and had succeeded in
adapting to the new trends on the ballroom scene as they occurred,
yet remained true to the original vision of the band.
The rebirth of the band would prove
short-lived. By late 1976, Stephen Travers left, tired
of recognition due to the terrorist incident rather than his music.
Stephen set aside his performing career to take up bass guitar
tutoring. A few months later, in April, 1977
Ray Millar quit and went to work as a car salesman in his native
Antrim. Stephen was replaced by Peter Eades, a young bass player
who, along with Dessie Flaherty, would lead the band through the
next chapter in its long history. Ray was replaced by P.J. Coyne
who had previously been the drummer with Dickie's Band. The
changes would continue as Noel and Norman also left and the Kaye
Twins were drafted to fill the vacant slots.
This
left Des Lee as the only band member with connections to Dickie and
the original band, However, in early 1978, Des left to take a
position as the the entertainments manager/leader of the resident
band in The Stardust Ballroom. However,
Des only stayed in the position for about three months and in June
1978, he launched Starband,
coaxing Stephen and Ray out of "semi-retirement" to join him in the
new venture. They joined with Adrian Mullen of Chips, guitarist Aonghus McNally from Mushroom,
and newcomer Dee McMahon and the band was launched as "The Best
Thing for Dancing since Feet!"
Yet again the Miami was
faced with a total overhaul of its lineup and the newly built Miami
had only Des Flaherty remaining who had been with the band in 1975
and no one who had ever played with Dickie Rock.
The new lineup was much younger and was a hit with
the new generation of dancers coming on the scene in the ballrooms.
The released a single, I like It Like That, which reached
number 10 in the charts.
The band's new lineup was led by Charlie Chapman with P.J. Coyne
adding vocals and playing drums. Peter Eades would also feature
prominently in the early 80's. Around 1980, Peter Eades and P.J.
Coyne left the band and were replaced by Liam Slattery on bass and
Brian O'Reilly on drums. Peter
and Brian would also play together in
Jump The Gun,
the five piece band that represented Ireland in Eurovision 1988 with
Peter's composition,
Take Him Home. The band also added an unknown female
vocalist around this time, however she did not stay for very long.
As the ballroom scene in Ireland continued to dwindle, the boys
decided it was time to leave the country and ended up in Mexico
where they toured for a year as the Europa Show. The band enjoyed
much success, but after a year, they called it quits and went their
own ways.
Back in Ireland, in 1982, the next
chapter in band started when manager Tony Bogan
spotted a band called
Speedway
and recruited them to be the New Miami. The final piece to the
puzzle was added when Caroline Allen was spotted singing in a Dublin
cabaret venue.
Caroline takes
up the story, "I
was only 16 when I was doing a cabaret gig in Molly’s pub in
Tallaght. The compere at that time was Mick Roche (who I believe
also sang with the Miami in the 60’s) and before I went on stage he
told me to “break a leg” as there was someone in the audience who
wanted to hear me sing. After the show I was introduced to Tony
Bogan and Joe Tyrrell who asked me to audition for The New Miami
Showband, the auditions were held in the National Ballroom. Anyway
I went along with my friend and I met up with the new band, Tony and
Joe I sang about 3 or 4 songs and left. My friend and I went for a
drink afterwards to calm my nerves when about half an hour later
Tony and the band came in, we all sat down and chatted for a while
and Tony told me I had the job, I was as you can imagine over the
moon. During the 4 years we did numerous television shows including
SBB (the Irish show) The Brendan Grace Christmas Special, The Late
late, Live at 3 and Good Evening Ulster. We also recorded tracks
including Fly me home, A +B+C, Don’t let it get under your skin
which I sang and You Are Temptation (sang by Colin Goodall). We
entered the Ballina Song Contest and got to the final."
The full line up was Caroline Allen (vocals), Mick McAvenue (vocals), Colin Goodall (keyboards), Michael Connelly
(guitar), Alan Menton (bass), and Brendan Keogh (drums). Mick
McAvenue left after about 3 months and the rest of the line up
stayed together till 1984. At that time, they added two female
dancers/backup vocalists to the lineup: Sharon McGrane was from
Dublin and Denise Hayde was from London and they stayed for 1 year.
In 1985, Colin Goodall left to form his own band and was replaced by
Pat Coldrick (formally of the Memories). Pat played lead guitar so
Michael Connelly switched from lead guitar to playing keyboards. In
1986, Caroline went off the road suffering from nodules on her vocal
chords, but she returned after six months, however, the Miami soon
disbanded.
However, the final chapter in the Miami saga
would not be written until 1996 when a Newsround article by Betty
O'Brien announced the relaunching of the Miami on Easter Sunday,
1996, reportedly thirty four years after the launch of the original
Miami. The article reported
that Gerry Brown, brother of Eurovision winner, Dana was to lead the
new band on stage. Gerry approached band manager Michael Magill with
the idea and the band was formed with a programme that consisted of
"all the Miami hits, 14 songs from Fran O'Toole, 6 from Des Lee and
all Dickie Rock's big hits."
The new lineup was: Gerry Brown
(vocals/keyboards), Michael McGuiness (drums), Paul Beattie
(guitar), Niall O'Connor (keyboards), Stephen Bradley (sax), Noel
Barr (trumpet) and Connie Doherty (bass). We have no idea at this
point how long the last version of the Miami was on the road, but we
will find out as soon as we can.
Although now gone, the Miami
will never be forgotten. After being rebuilt five times (or more), they
continued to provide excitement for dancers and profits for
promoters and remain one of the best loved, and most successful, showbands of the era. One
of the greatest gatherings of ex-showband musicians took place in
July, 2005 at Vicar Street, Dublin for the much celebrated 30 Year
Memorial concert for the Miami. The show was a great success and
featured many of the stars of the era, but also had a great finale
with Des Lee returning from South Africa where he now makes his home
to lead an All Star lineup play several of the band's greatest hits.
The proceeds from the event will help fund the building of a Miami
Memorial in Dublin, a campaign led by Stephen Travers and several of
the late band members' families.
Photo
Gallery
Click on thumbnails for full images
