Lee Lynch was born in Ballinasloe, County Galway in 1937
and first realised he wanted to spend his life in the music
industry in 1955 after tuning in to Jack Jackson's Record
Round-up on Radio Luxembourg and hearing top British recording
star David Whitfield sing his No.1. hit Cara Mia. Little
did he know that 25 years later he would meet his all time
singing hero and record his own version of the song.
In an article in Spotlight on February 8th, 1969, Lee told
reporter John Kercher that his first break came when he left
Ireland, "I always wanted to entertain people for as long as I
can remember, but the real break came in 1959 when I left
Ireland for London and appeared on the Carol Levis Discoveries
Show."
The appearance caused a bit of a stir for the singer and
he was discovered
performing at the Roebuck pub in Chiswick, London, by singing
star Vince Hill, who got him signed up to The James Tate Agency.
He was immediately thrown in at the deep end and sent on tour
supporting Emile Ford and The Checkmates. While in England, Lee
formed his first band, The Lynchmen and they spent 2 great years
as resident band in the 'Nuffield Centre', an entertainment
venue for members of the armed forces. With their gold
suits and sky blue shoes there was never a dull moment!
Lee returned to Ireland and the Irish Showband scene in 1963
when he answered an ad in Melody Maker for a lead singer
for the Tropical Showband who had just landed a residency
at the 32 Club in Harlesden, West London. For the next 2 years
they built up quite a big fan base and worked with many top
names, the late, great Jim Reeves and Tom Jones amongst many
others.
In 1965 Lee formed 'The Blue Angels' (photo to follow),
a mixture of Irish and English musicians who just seemed to
click with the dancing public of the time. It is The Blue Angels
who can be heard on Lee's first record, Lennon & McCartney's
'You Won't See Me', released on the Decca label. He performed
his second release, 'Answer Me', live on the BBC, backed by the
great Joe Loss Orchestra.
In 1969, Lee signed for Ember Records and his first release
'Stay Awhile' began to get a lot of airplay on the continent.
With this in mind, he was chosen to represent Great Britain in
an International Song Contest in Knokke-Le-Zoute. He returned to
the UK feeling rather dejected having been pipped by a single
point by the Spanish entry, but the dejection didn't last as 2
weeks later he received a telegram to say that 'Stay Awhile;'
had topped the charts in Belgium, Holland and France. He was in
pretty big demand on the continent for TV work for the next
couple of years and had top ten hits with 'Don't Hold On To
Yesterday', 'It's Love', 'Sweet Woman' and 'Joe Poor'. The album
'Stay Awhile With Lee Lynch' also topped the charts.
Lee couldn't refuse the offer to Replace Brendan Boyer as lead
singer of 'The Royal Showband' in the early 70's - Boyer having
left to work in Las Vegas. He enjoyed it for a while, but for a
number of reasons, decided to return to London and reform 'The
Blue Angels'.
In 1973 he had a bit of success on Columbia Records with the Les
Reed song 'Mama Married A Preacher' and was looking for a follow
up song for his next release. He remembered a song he had
started to write during the long treks across Ireland with The
Royal Showband and decided to finish it there and then. Soon,
his favourite recording 'The Love In My Woman's Eyes' was born.
With this song he was invited to represent Ireland later that
year in an International Song Contest in Sofia, Bulgaria. He
regards this period as the most satisfying of his career.
Soon to follow was his worst period. 16th August 1976, being
struck down with an extremely rare illness, Addison's Disease.
It was touch and go for a while, as he lay in a coma for 6 weeks
and was given the last rites twice. In the end, the miracle of
science won through, but it took him almost a year to recover.
Lee has always been a songwriter as well as a performer. Indeed,
one of his compositions was chosen for his first recording in
1965. Since then, a long list of artistes have recorded his
work, including amongst others Daniel O'Donnell, Dickie Rock,
Foster & Allen, Joe Dolan, Brendan Boyer and Margo.
He continued writing and performing until 1994, when he decided
to end his career on strong medical advice following open heart
surgery. Since then, he has completely reversed his lifestyle
and has no contact with the music scene at all, preferring to
relax with his horses and the wildlife deep in the Anglican
countryside. But he treasures his memories and tells me he could
write a book, but says we'd never believe him!
