Two bands really were my favourites, Nevada werethe good news band,who always had some great singers and who always enjoyed themselves both on and off the stage.Tina,though for me was their best singer who always had time to chat to her fans ,everyone loved her!    New Blues played country and pop ,had two  brillant young singers in Keith Beattie and Carole Wallace plus some great musicians ,they were a very versatile band who had a loyal following.Keith had a hit with Spanish Disco,while Carole had a hit with her debut single. You Never Can Tell  in1977.She had agreat voice probably better suited to country rather than pop.Offstage   she was a  very friendly lady .

Iagree with you about Chips,they were really good.When I saw Gina and The Champions they were very good, she had a tremendous voice and the band generally were great to dance to.Watching Ray Lynam in action at the Tara Club made me realise what a great voice he had which should have graced the Opry in Nashville,plus many bands had geat individual musicians,one could easily have formed a super band!

For any one who is interested Ray can still be seen on the local lounge scene and I have to agree that he is one of the great talants that we have overlooked, I had seen him perform numerous times over the years, and on a trip home a couple of years ago saw him in the lounge scene with the"Little Japanese Band" it has always amazed how small these Japanese players are.I have to admit it is nice to recall how pure his voice is.

Glad you liked "Chips". I joined the band just before the style changed from Steely Dan, Pink FLoyd, The Mamas and the Papas, Crosby Stills Nash and Young  etc to a more pop oriented band. Sucessful yes but not quite as enjoyable to play. Anyway what about the original Freshmen? Rumour has it that when the Beach Boys played in Belfast with the Freshmen opening the show for them, that, that all the Beach Boys watched the whole set from the side of the stage. And by all accounts when they went onstage they were nowhere as good as the Freshmen.

I agree with you Gina  has a good voice,Peter Hayden  ex Nevada told me that Gina would have been the ideal lady to have fronted the showband with  him playing drums,she was the best in his opinion Shay.

I played with Carole for a while, and still believe she could have sung anything.  A truly great talent, and a really nice lady.

Jimmy Compton

While I agree that most of the bands mentioned in the above posts were very good, you have to go back further to get to the really good showbands. The Capitol, Johnny Quigley,Donie Collins etc. But the best of all were the Royal.

I  agree that Chips and The Memories were two of the best live bands . I would have to add in Tweed to make a Brill trio