Epic Showband Feature (1964
- 1968)
Photo Gallery -
Band Lineups -
Discography
- Audio samples -
Where Are They Now?
The Story
Editor's note: Every care
has been taken to present only factual information in this story
based on newspaper articles and photographic
archives. If you can add anything or correct info in this story,
please email us and let us know.
The first mention of Newry's Epic Showband we could find was in
June, 1964 when they were playing support to the Vipers from
Belfast. The band was managed by Eber Clarke, who also owned
Clarke's Musical Instruments shop in Lower Mill Street in the town.
Despite the fact that the band's first advert was in June, with
another in September, it would be May, 1965 before they began to
appear regularly in the newspaper adverts for dances. A later
article reported that they had gone on the road at Easter 1965, so
we will assume they started out in 1964 as a local band.
Their lead singer was Peter Cowan and we know that at one point the
line-up was Bob McGauley (guitar - known for playing a right handed
guitar upside down), Seamus Mulligan (bass), Marty Mackey (drums),
Jim Heatley (trombone), Gene Poucher (sax), and Dan Bracken
(trumpet).
As we have stated previously on
the site, many Northern based bands can be hard to research as
several major Northern newspapers have not been digitised and added
to online archives including the Belfast Telegraph. We
apologise for not being able to access these sources. The band built
its reputation slowly but finally did play in Dublin in January
1966.
1966 seemed to be the year the
band hit their stride as they started playing quite regularly, but
still mostly across the North early in the year and finally breaking
through that summer playing gigs from Waterford to Cork. A feature
in the Munster Express newspaper mentioned the boys hilarious act in
which they "gave a hilarious interpretation of the Beach Boys."
Although we have talked about the "show" part of the showband era,
there is rarely any detailed reports of what band's did although
many bands, especially in the 1960's, included comedy routines in
their dancing programme.
Peter Cowan left the band in
October 1966 to join the Hilton Showband, who were also from Newry.
Despite the setback, the band carried on, although we haven't been
able to identify who took over the band's vocal duties.
Unfortunately, the last advert we found for the band was in July,
1968. Based on the number of adverts we found for the band in 1967
and early 1968, they never quite recaptured the momentum they had
enjoyed in 1965/66.
We found very little additional
info about the band in years since, except that they did take part
in David Hull's "Do You Come Here Often" concert series in 1999,
Jim Gorman a former member of the
band according to his obituary, passed away in April, 2011.
We will continue to research the band, if you have any info,
please
let us know.
]More to come.....
click on thumbnails for full image
