Royal Earls / Zulus Showband Feature (1966-1976)
Photo Gallery -
Band Lineups -
Discography
- Audio samples -
Where Are They Now?
The Story
(Editor's Note: we could used
some help with this story,
please email us if you can add anything to our research.)
The Royal Earls from Dublin hit the road in late 1966 as far as we
can tell based on newspaper adverts for the band. A the time, they were a pretty typical showband featuring the prerequisite 7
musicians. Based on our online newspaper archives research they were
a "middle of the road" showband with
moderate success and for the first few years they seemed to expand
their circuit and reputation up and down the country. The band's
manager and also trombone player was Pat Blanche from Ballon, Co.
Carlow.
On or before August, 1968, the band added a new female vocalist, Sandie Jones (RIP),
who was just 18 years old at the time. They immediately released a
single featuring Sandie called, "Reflections of You."
Pinpointing the time when Sandie joined the band has been difficult
as we can't find any announcement of her actually joining the band.
In February, 1969, the band appeared on the RTE programme, "Like
Now."
She had started singing (we think) at an early age winning medals at
local feis competitions and she joined the Monaco Showband when she was just
fifteen, although we can't document exactly when she joined or left the
band. It is apparent, she had been a part time musician up until she
joined the Earls. In an interview in Spotlight magazine in 1970,
Sandie said she had "been singing for three years. I've been at it
since I was sixteen." This account would mean Sandie started
singing around
1967, which would have been with the Monaco.
As one of the few female vocalists
on the scene, and with an abundance of talent, Sandie garnered a
fair bit of attention from the media and helped the band continue
their upward trend in popularity, although none of their records
would make the charts, at the time it was airplay on RTE radio that
mattered most and everyone in the country was listening in. They
were now playing all parts of the country.
She would release two more singles with the band, "Keep In Touch" and
"I Don't Want to Play House," neither of which made any impact on
the charts but did continue to build Sandie's reputation as a
quality female vocalist. By 1970 the band was being managed by Tony
Whelan. In June, 1971, Sandie was selected by RTE to represent
Ireland in the Slovene Song Festival held in Yugoslavia.
In January, 1972, the showband
world was rocked when one of the era's top band's,
The Dixies, announced Joe Mac and Brendan
O'Brien were leaving to form a new band, Stage
2. The Dixies management scrambled to replace the two superstars
and brought in Joe O'Toole as their new lead singer along with
enticing Sandie to leave the Royal Earls. During this period Sandie
represented Ireland in Eurovision with the song, "Ceol an Gra,"
bringing even more fame to the Dixies and leaving the Royal Earls
looking for a new lead singer.
At this point, it is fair to say Ireland has had its fair share of
gimmick acts including The Indians,
Cowboys, Magic,
and many others, but few were as outrageous and as (in the modern
vernacular) politically incorrect as what the Royal Earls did in
1972. Not
only did they dress up in African animal skins, but they wore black
wigs and black face and became the Zulus. Looking back, it can be
hard to believe Irish musicians went on stage like this, but it was
a different time.
As was usual back in the day, the
band was advertised as being "direct from Africa." In a article
announcing the band's coming to Ireland and whom Pat Blanche "discovered
while on a tour of Irish clubs in Butoland...they have learned a few
country songs and become "fairly civilised." Pat also added that
there had been some "teething problems" as "one or two of them
had cannibalistic tendencies." Of course, it was all in fun back in
the day and it got them some attention.
The last gig we could find
advertised for the Zulus was in 1976.
More to come.....
click on thumbnails for full image
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