All About the Pacific (1962?-1971)
Photo Gallery -
Band Lineups -
Discography
- Audio samples -
Where Are They Now?
The Story
The story of the Pacific Showband
mirrors the story of the Showband era in many ways. They were formed
in the early 1960's when several members of the Earl Gill Orchestra
left to form their own "showband." Earl's band had been very much an
"orchestra" in the classic sense, featuring a large brass section
with musician's seated behind music stands "reading the dots."
The Carlton Clipper had already
started the trend towards bands standing up and moving to the music
and the Pacific followed suit. The original band included: Sonny
Knowles (sax), Shay Curran (trombone),
Sean Fagan (vocals), Jimmy Dumpleton (guitar), Marty Fanning
(drums), Freddie Martin (trumpet) and Harry Parker (bass).
Sonny had started his career in
1952 as a member of the Johnny Butler Dance band, playing sax and
clarinet. and ended up with Earl's band. Sean Fagan was the lead vocalist,
but as with all the showbands, most of the members sang as well with
different singers handling different genres with the band. Although
Sonny was mainly the sax player, he also sang and was soon
sharing equal billing and recording chores with Sean.
The band's first hit came in 1964
when they released She Wears My Ring which went to number
three in the Irish charts. In fact, the band's first four singles
all cracked the top ten, making them one of the more successful
recording bands of the era. Vocals chores were shared with Sean
singing the first two releases and Sonny the next two.
In an RTE interview in 2008, Sonny
said the Pacific was "a great Northern Ireland band....but when we
would go down around Cork, we might be emptied very easily by the
local band." This was really the case with most band who seemed to
go down well in certain parts of the country but not in others.
In 1966, the band had its first
lineup charge when guitarist Jimmy Dumpleton was replaced by Paul
Keogh, although this was just the first of several major changes the
band would face in the next 24 months. In mid 1967, several members
of the Miami broke away and formed the Sands with a very young Tony
Kenny taking leads vocals, along with several new young members of
Dublin groups.
The Pacific could see the problem
coming as did most of the early 60's showbands. Musicians who had
started out in the teens and twenties were now reaching their early
to mid thirties. Additionally, the "new" pop of the Beatles and the
Summer of Love (not to mention the hippies) was washing over the
Irish entertainment landscape. Bands like the Clipper Carlton and
Pacific had to change, or risk being passed off as over the hill.
In
the Spotlight magazine dated 16th March, 1968, the announcement came
that the Pacific were breaking up. Sonny joined Dermot O'Brien's
Clubmen, however, by May, the
Clubmen (without Dermot or Sonny) would announce they were revamping themselves as a pop
band.
As for the Pacific, the future of
the rest of the band was unclear and, in fact, no replacement for
Sonny was announced. The band, with Sonny, played their last gig on
St. Patrick's night. The following week (March 23, 1968), Spotlight magazine included a
short feature on the new release from Peter Law (real name Peter Lawlor) called The Long Black Veil along with a two page
feature on the singer's new spot with the Pacific. Sean Fagan, Shay
Curran, Harry Parker, recent addition, Paul Keogh and Marty Fanning
remained and were joined by Jimmy Malone (sax) and Austin Halpin
(trumpet) becoming an eight piece. .
The band hit the road in April
1968 after a month's rehearsal as the "New Pacific" and Peter got a
lot of publicity over the first few months, including the cover of
Spotlight, which was normally reserved for the "big stars" of the
day. For most of the year, the band remained relatively stable,
playing gigs around the country, but not releasing any records.
Finally in late 1968, the band released My Lovely Rose and You
featuring Sean Fagan. The record was Sean's first chart success in
four years and reached number 7 in the Irish charts.
During 1969, the band continued to
play and release records. Their version of Ruby reached number 14 in
the Irish charts. After a flourish of publicity and activity, during
1970, the band's fortunes seemed to slump. They went to Canada
during Lent and an article in Spotlight (April 17, 1970)
reported on their success overseas. Upon their return, lead singer
Peter Law was quoted as saying "We don't want to fall back into a
half hearted band. We don't want to be half dead, half alive."
The tide of new country
bands that rolled on to the scene during late 1969 and 1970 seemed
to push them (and some of the lesser known pop showbands) out of the
top twenty showband ratings. In early 1971 the band made the bold
move of changing their name to The Dublin Corporation and heading
off to Canada for a six month tour.
They recorded a single, Melting
Pot, which was not released in Ireland, but only in Canada. In the
February 6-13, 1971 issue of Spotlight, Peter Law said, "We
never expected Melting Pot to be as successful as this. It wasn't
the first time we had released a record in Canada, but what we
brought out as the Pacific didn't do a thing for us." Hence the name
change.
More to come.....
click on thumbnails for full image
