Royal Showband (1957-1974)
Photo Gallery -
Band Lineups -
Discography
- Audio samples -
Where Are They Now?
The Story
Not
much has been written, shown, or said about the Irish Showband era without
extensive reference to Brendan Bowyer and the Royal Showband. The Royal
followed followed the initial
success of The Clipper Carlton, the band that was credited with starting
the whole music industry upheaval in Ireland. The Clippers transformed the genre from
a conservative, static stage to an exciting display of talent, energy and
entertainment.
However, where the Clippers left off, the Royal took it to a
whole new level, playing to a dancing public that had awakened from the slumber
and drabness of the 50's. The Royal came roaring out of Waterford and took
the entire country by storm, setting many of the records for attendance which
stand to this day.
The band also made the first single by a showband, had the first
Irish showband number one hit on the Irish charts, and captured the imagination of a generation
in the 1960's and beyond. The Royal Showband possibly stands alone as the
most successful showband in Irish history.
However, the band's origins were the same as
any other band. Michael Coppinger and Jim Conlon started playing
together originally. Michael was the "guru" with his accordion and
saxophone and Jim played banjo and guitar. Together they joined up
with the Harry Boland Band,
and soon they wanted to expand.
"We wanted to play pop and rock music," says
Jim Conlon today, "and we roped in Charlie Matthews, Tom Dunphy and Gerry
Cullen." Charlie, Michael and Gerry all lived in Ferrybank (Ard
Mhuire) in the same area, while Jim lived on the Cork Road - all in
Waterford of course. When Harry left Waterford, the final piece of the puzzle came in the form
of Brendan Bowyer, a trombone player who had
previously played with The
Rhythm Kings and the line up was set. Eddie Sullivan also joined
the band a short time later.
Launched in the Fall of 1957,
Jim came up with the name, Royal, from a local theatre, "at the
time, I felt that the band needed a name that would command respect.
So, I used the Royal (from the Theatre Royal) because it suggested
royalty (a stretch of course) and because Ireland had its own
royalty long before our neighbors across the Irish sea. It had no
connotation of the Empire. I reversed the words Band Show (the
Clipper Carlton used it at times) and joined the words into
Showband. Tempo, acknowledged it as a "brainwave". All I can say is
that it looked great on the Stardust Hotel sign on the Strip in Las
Vegas later on. I had to clear the name with the Theatre Royal in
Dublin at the time. They had no objections. Of course, we had our
own one in Waterford as well."
The original lineup included:
Brendan Bowyer (trombone), Michael Coppinger (sax), Jim Conlon
(guitar), Tom Dunphy (bass), Gerry Cullen (keyboards), and Charlie
Matthews (drums). Eddie Sullivan (trumpet) would join the band in
early 1958. However, so uncertain were the band about their future
that Jim Conlon took 18 months off in 1959 and 1960 to study accountancy.
In the meantime Mickey
Gilligan (pictured below who would eventually join The Blue Aces) stepped in on guitar.
Other than this one change, the lineup would remain the same for the next
13 years. Originally, the band had no front man...several members
sang different styles of songs as was the tradition in the early showbands. However, it wasn't long before Brendan's talent took
center stage and he became the band's main attraction, even
though they would be the only showband to have number one singles
recorded with four different band members on lead vocals.
Meanwhile, T.J. Byrne
had been working for Cotts of Kilcock (in Kildare) selling musical
instruments among other things. Jim bought his first guitar from
them on hire-purchase (HP) and T.J. became interested in Jim and his
band. He heard Jim had a group in Waterford and Jim I invited him to
hear the band rehearse. T.J. eventually offered himself up as their
manager, but took no pay until they started to get some dates in
1957.
All the musicians had day jobs and
could only play at the weekends. It wasn't until Easter, 1959, that
the band turned professional, and never looked back. Over the next
few years, the band's talent and showmanship, augmented by Byrne's
astute promotion, coincided with the rise of popularity of the
ballrooms across the country and by 1960, the band was playing for
huge money almost every night of the week. Eventually likened to Ireland's
version of the Beatles, the Royal Showband had arrived.
The lack of
dance dates during Lent in Ireland also helped the band, who used
the time to tour Britain and the United States, creating even more
excitement. The Royal made their first trip to the States in 1960,
invited by Bill Fuller, who brought all the bands to the East Coast
in those days.
In 1961, they won Britain's Carl-Alan Award for
box office achievements as "Most Outstanding Modern Dance Band" of
the year. In 1962, they released the first record ever by an Irish
showband, Come Down the Mountain Katy Daly, sung by the late Tom
Dunphy. However, nothing was to prepare the band for the magic that
was 1963. That year, Brendan recorded Kiss Me Quick, which was to
become the first number one single by a showband. They also starred
in the film, The One Nighters, which was produced by Peter
Collinson and followed the band through their "wholesome" private
lives and onto the stage.
By
the time 1965 rolled around, the band had achieved almost everything
possible. That year, they released a single called I Ran
All The Way Home, the B-side was a little R&B number from the
late 1940's called The Hucklebuck which had been made into a
minor U.S. hit by Chubby Checker in 1960. Once the band realized the
potential for the song, it was made the A-side and reached Number 1
in the Irish charts, staying on the charts for 12 weeks. It even
charted in England as well. The song would chart again in 1976 and
has become the song most associated with the showband era by many
people, due to its enduring popularity even though it came
relatively late in the peak of the showband era.
As the sixties
progressed, so too did the band's popularity and earnings. 1966 was
the first year they went to Las Vegas, a destination that was soon
to become too strong a lure for Brendan and the boys. They played for
four weeks at the Desert Inn. The following year, they would play
the Stardust Hotel on the strip. That same year, 1967, the Irish
entertainment industry was stunned when T.J. Byrne announced he was
giving up managing the band, a shock that was comparable to Big Tom
leaving the Mainliners, Dickie Rock departing from the Miami, or a
few years later when Brendan quit the Royal!
Connie
Lynch, who was already managing Pat Lynch and the Airchords, stepped
in as the new manager and from then on, they divided their time
between Ireland and Las Vegas. In 1967 they signed a five year deal to appear
in the Stardust in Vegas which was reported to be worth in excess
of $250,000 for two eight week stints a year. The band took four
girl dancers with them as well - Rita Holohan, Angela Larney, Jessie
Fagan and Pauline Barry.
Later, they
would generally go to the States
between Christmas and July, missing the Irish Winter. The fact that
they were gone for nearly six months, made them an even hotter commodity
when they returned home to the summer ballroom circuit.
In
1970, the seeds of change were sown when Tribune Records management tried to lure Brendan away from the Royal. In October,
a pair of articles in Spotlight reporting that not only was Brendan
considering leaving the Royal, and apparently Tom Dunphy was also
approached to start a new country band. At one point it was reported
that Brendan had accepted the offer and was leaving the band, but
last minute meetings with the Royal convinced Brendan (and Tom) to
stay. The following week,
it was reported that both Brendan and Tom would be staying. However,
in the January 4th, 1971 issue of Spotlight, the Royal were
in the news again as it was reported that the Tribune Organization
had failed in getting the High Court to issue an injunction which
would prohibit Brendan singing with the Royal. The Tribune group
claimed that he actually had signed a contract, but later changed
his mind. A hearing was scheduled for January 12th. From what we can
gather, Brendan never sang with the Royal in an Irish ballroom again
as they left for Vegas January 4th.
It was only a matter of
seven months before Brendan and
Tom were gone. The original Royal Showband played it's last
gig on July 29, 1971 in the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas. Their fans
in Ireland wouldn't learn of the break up until August 5th. Jim
Conlon, the band's original guitarist (and a Certified Public
Accountant) decided to retire from show business.
Shortly
thereafter, Brendan and Tom announced the formation of
The Big 8, along with former
member of the Capitol, sax player Paddy Cole as bandleader. The band also enlisted Twink
(of Maxi, Dick and Twink) on vocals, Dave Coady of The Real McCoy on trumpet, Mickey
O'Neill of The Times on drums, Johnny McEvoy's Michael Keane on
keyboards and ex-Stranger, Jimmy Conway on guitar. The Big 8
took Las Vegas by storm, playing for five years in the Stardust
until 1975.
Back home, the
shattered Royal had to fill the three gaping holes left by the departure of Bowyer, Dunphy
and Conlon. Several members of the Airchords, Arthur Madden
(keyboards), Billy
Hopkins (brother of drummer Des Hopkins) on bass and Fergie Burke
(guitar) were joined by Lee Lynch on lead vocals. Lee, from
Ballinasloe, had previously been singing in London with his own
group, The Blue Angels. Lee had left Ireland for England in 1959,
returning in 1964, but only stayed a few months before returning to
the UK. Lee and the "New" Royal hit the road at the end of
summer, but by Christmas, they already had to make a change. Lee
Lynch was gone and Elvis impersonator Frank Chisum was the new lead
vocalist, making his debut on St. Stephen's Night, (December 26th)
1971. The New Royal would not last long though as by April, 1972, Frank
had been replaced by Carl Phillips, a Dublin cabaret singer who had
also done some theatre in the city. By this time both Gerry Cullen
and Eddie Sullivan had left the band leaving only Charlie Matthews
and Michael Coppinger from the original lineup.
Within a short
time, they also added Barbara Dickson, better known as Dick from the
girl group Maxi, Dick and Twink. By coincidence, Twink had joined
Brendan and Tom in The Big Eight the year before and Barbara would
also end up with the Big Eight some time later! The "New" New Royal hit the road
in May, 1972 with a short English tour, and then came home to
Ireland in the first week of June, playing their first gig in
Johnstown on June 2nd.
Although the
duo were heralded by new Royal Manager, Greg Hughes, as "tremendous
singing talents...and just what the band needed to get them back to
the big time," it was not to be. Within less than eight months, the
duo were gone and they were replaced by the former front man of The
Sounds, Derrick Mehaffey. In January 1973, Derrick, who had emigrated to Canada
and had been singing with the resident band in Toronto's Maple Leaf
Ballroom,
returned to take over from the front spot, but it was already too
late. In early 1974, the band released the single, Visions,
which was their last record.
The summer of
1973 saw crowds for the Royal steadily dwindling while Brendan and the Big 8
managed to generate continued interest in the new band on their annual
trips home. Following the Christmas/New Year season Charlie and
Michael
decided to call it quits and the Royal performed its last gig on February
9, 1974 in Bantry, Co. Cork. A little more than a decade after the band had set records
in ballrooms across the country and set the standards by which
future showbands would be measured, they were no more.
At
the same time,
The Big 8
continued to build on their success in America and
returned home to Ireland for a tour every summer. It was during one
of their trips home in 1975 that tragedy struck
the Irish entertainment industry.
On July 29th,
1975, 40-year-old Tom Dunphy
died in a car crash at Drumsna, near Carrick-on-Shannon on his way to a gig
in Donegal. His
passing was one of the truly sad days for fans of the Royal,
The Big 8 and the entire showband era. Two days later, the showband world would be rocked
by the Miami massacre, an event that
would dramatically overshadow Tom's tragic passing.
When the band returned to Las Vegas later that year, they moved to
the Alladin Hotel where they stayed until 1980. Frankie Carroll of
the Ranchers replaced Tom Dunphy and The Big 8 finally
relocated to Las Vegas on a permanent basis in 1983.
Obviously, Brendan Bowyer's
fame and longevity far surpassed that of the band that brought him
to the forefront of the Irish Showband era. With his gyrating hips,
and exciting performances, he captured the hearts of a generation of
dancers that packed the ballrooms and dance halls of Ireland all
those years ago. One thing is for certain: together they
played a very big part in the rejuvenation of the
Irish music industry and contributed in their own small way to the
economic revival of the country.
(Some facts for this page
were referenced from "Send 'Em Home Sweatin" by Vincent Power
and also provided by Jim Conlon, Mickey Gilligan and Liam O'Reilly.)
click on thumbnails for full
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