Padraig Stevens

www.padraigstevens.com
 
copy of  week one of  Jim Carneys article follows
 

When Tuam had its own Beatles

If music be the food of love, play on ...
Shakespeare (Twelfth Night)

THE passing of time has not caused the magic of the era to fade or die. The 1960s was undoubtedly the most dynamic decade of the last century: they were the halcyon days, an epoch-making time when the cultural revolution of the
world found its voice not only in political and social upheaval, but in the mind-blowing explosion of interest in popular music, and youth having its fling.
You don't even have to be in your forties or fifties to know that while the towering political figures of the '60s were John F. Kennedy,
Martin Luther King, Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro, around the world millions of young people, born in the post-War baby boom, were looking elsewhere for their heroes. "Make Love, Not War" was their mantra, as they
enthusiastically reached out to embrace the new culture and rock to thrilling new sounds of an exciting new time. As the cobwebs of the conservative 1950s were blown away, into the world's consciousness came Bob Dylan,
The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
Ireland - thankfully for those of us old enough to remember it - got in on the act. It may have been three decades before the arrival of the Celtic Tiger, but it was the television age and dancing at the crossroads had long
died out. John McCormack singing When Irish Eyes are Smiling had given way to Brendan Bowyer and The Hucklebuck, and there was no looking back.
Now, The Hucklebuck itself is long gone and almost forgotten, and The Beatles are no more; two of the Fab Four have gone to the great Cavern Club in the sky. But, Bob Dylan and Joe Dolan are still going strong, and so is
Padraig Stevens.
He's our own Dylan, and here in Tuam we're proud of him. Singer, songwriter,musician and free spirit. About ten years ago, when The Saw Doctors were on the high of their I Usedta Love Her hit, Padraig, a founder-member,
deliberately slipped into the background, back to the quiet of his cottage in Clonboo. As much as he liked what the Docs were doing, as he put it himself: when they were going to town, he was going to the country.
Last summer, in a radio interview with me, on Galway Bay fm, he made a clear,unequivocal statement on his musical mission in life: he did not regard himself as a poet, but as a songwriter.
And dedicated follower of Gaelic football. He'd have to be, of course, as a scion of a great Corofin G.A.A. family. Some of his best songs are about Tuam Stars' and Galway footballers and teams.
Which in itself is highly creditable, as on a wider scale it's surely a cultural failure that sports such as Gaelic football and hurling, which play an integral part in the life of this country, have so rarely lent themselves to the creation of good art,though songs, music, drama or painting.
In three weeks' time, on Wednesday, February 9, Padraig Stevens, the man who's usually more content to support other headline acts, has a major show of his own, at the Town Hall, Galway.
To celebrate the event, which is eagerly awaited by his friends and many admirers, this column is taking the
opportunity to look back on his career, with particular interest in the life and times of Padraig's first group, The Problems - Tuam's answer to The Beatles: our own four charismatic, very talented young musicians who, for an
all too brief period, lit up the town and surrounding district in the mid-1960s.
For Padraig, it all started in June 1965. "Having served my sentence in boarding school, I was free," he recalls. He had just finished his Leaving Cert at St. Nathy¹s College, Ballaghadereen,
having spent the first ten years of his life in Co. Sligo.
Back home in Tuam, in Church View, the song which captured his imagination was the Dylan-penned
Mr Tambourine Man, a worldwide hit for The Byrds with its jingly-jangly guitar sounds.
Earlier influences, from listening to the wonderful Radio Luxembourg, were Elvis, the Everly Brothers and Chuck Berry, and later it was The Beatles and all the other rapidly emerging Liverpool bands in the beat boom of the '60s.
Naturally, his father would have preferred if Padraig had concentrated on getting "a real job," as every parent used to put it in those days, but his mother went easier on him and didn't deny him the thrill of buying his first
drum kit - "I wanted one like Ringo's" - from Seán McManus in Shop Street,
across the street from where his shop is nowadays.
A young neighbour, Noel Connolly, was bitten by the music bug too, and they teamed up with Kevin
Keane from nearby Galway Road and Frankie Carroll from Weir Road.
Both Kevin, who now lives in Australia, and Frankie - later a showband star here and in the United States,
in Las Vegas - could sing and play the guitar.
As I remember it, what really made The Problems different was the fact that they weren't a showband.
That, and how good they were; the Beatles aura they radiated, and how cool and hip they looked on stage.
The line-up was: Kevin Keane, lead vocals and rhythm guitar; Frankie Carroll, lead guitar and vocals; Noel Connolly, bass guitar and vocals;
Padraig Stevens, drums and vocals. The average age was 19; Kevin was the eldest, in his early 20s.
Padraig remembers that, while he knew exactly what his favourite type of music was,
he had an appreciation of all music.
He also understood that Dancing was the main social activity and that people thronged to the
ballrooms to "swing and sway to the sounds of the showbands." He also had a grasp of the tradition of oral folk music, which he regards as "a precious jewel in our culture," adding: "
The old tunes and songs are revered, and the act of passing a melody on is sacred.
The giver is acknowledged every time the receiver plays the piece, and it goes on, generation after generation.
The musicians who took to playing pop music kept some of this older culture,aspiring to copy the records from the charts. The measure of a good showband was how well they could recreate the hits of the day."
He acknowledges a debt of gratitude to local musicians who motivated him at the start. Tuam had six or seven top showbands in the late '60s and early '70s, with the town producing many gifted musicians.
Padraig remembers, in particular, the help he and Noel Connolly received from bass player Francie Flynn (R.I.P.), drummer Donal Trautt of The Bandits, Hughie Brogan and Walter Lynch.
This is just one of Padraig's memories of that time: "One day, Waltie and Iwere standing in the doorway of Raymond O'Brien's Chariot Wheel Restaurant in Shop Street, on a rainy afternoon, talking away about drumming.
Waltiewas explaining to me the downbeat and the backbeat, and which was which.
The following Sunday night, we watched Benno Hausmann of The Regal Showband do the backbeat on his snare drum, and the downbeat on his bass drum.
It suddenly clicked and I knew the secret of rock 'n' roll drumming. Thank you
Waltie, much obliged Sham!"
 

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