The Cruisers Story (1969-1973)

Photo Gallery - Band Lineups - Discography - Audio samples - Where Are They Now?

The Story

(our thanks to Larry Sheeran for some help with the info)

Coming out of Omagh, Co. Tyrone, The Cruisers hit the road in late 1969. The five piece outfit advertised themselves as "one of the only 5 piece bands to make it on the ballroom circuit." Although this wasn't necessarily true, they were part of a rare breed. Larry recently wrote to us to tell us he, along with Oliver Loughran and Denis McDaid had been playing with a Queen's University band called Arabs in the early 1960s and decided to "have a go at it." Denis had been playing with San Mahood and the Big Soul Band which also included guitarist Peter Nemec.

Larry told us the 1969 original lineup included Oliver Loughran (drums), Larry (vocals/guitar), Peter Nemec (guitar). Denis McDaid (keyboards), and Dessie (McConnon) Cannon (bass). Within a short time Denis and Peter left the band and by November, 1970 (article in the Evening Herald) the lineup was Larry (vocals), Shay McIlwaine (guitar), Des Cannon (bass), Oliver Loughran (drums) and Don Casey (keyboards). As ou can see from the advert below (from the same paper) they often called themselves as the "Cruisers Showband" as well as "Larry and the Cruisers." Drummer Oliver Loughran was also the band's manager.

Larry tells us the band played a mix of pop and country, (as most bands did) with Des handling country vocals and Larry the pop side of things. In 1971, it appears they started top hit their stride although from newspaper archives it still appeared most of their gigs were across Ulster with the odd trip across the border to the South. In 1971, Dessie left the band and was replaced by John McKenna on bass. By then, they had dropped their country side and focused on pop, describing themselves as a "progressive showband." At this time they were all still working day jobs, which explains why they were limited in their ability to travel much outside of Ulster.   

They also did release at least one single, "Always Goodbye" on the Hit label in June, 1971. It didn't make the charts but airplay helped extend their reach further south than previously. By mid 1972, they were playing gigs across the northern half of the country. In late 1972 they launched a gimmick where they took a band photo with their eyes closed with a pitch to "wake up to the Cruisers." One way or another, the band called it quits in early 1973.

Researching a band called the Cruisers was not easy as their name was often confused with "cruising the Shannon," "holiday cruises" and "Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien." We did discover than in 1973, Oliver Loughran had given up performing and was managing the Rascals band from Letterkenny. Our thanks to Larry for adding to the story 

If you can add anything to their story, please send us an email.  

More to come.....

Photo Gallery

click on thumbnails for full image

Discography

Always Goodbye / Lovely To See You
Hit Records - HIT.11 - June, 1971

Audio Clips

Coming Soon

Where Are They Now?