Brendan O'Brien has a ready place
In any Hall of Fame of Irish Showbands
greats.
In the golden era of the showbands
during the swinging 60s,
Brendan and his colleague Joe McCarthy
and the Dixies were the royalty of Cork.
One of his greatest achievements
was to bring the music of Buddy Holly
to the sixties generation in Ireland
He released a string of Holly covers
which stormed the charts -
two of his biggest hits were ''Rave
On'' and ''It Doesn't Matter Anymore''
Brendan was seriously injured
in an on-stage accident in the
Stardust Ballroom in Cork in 1974
after suffering severe electric shock.
He was lucky to survive the voltage
that night but it took
a huge toll in the years that were
to follow.
Recently Brendan has been concentrating
on his solo career,
Re-mixed versions of some of Brendan
O'Brien's best known hits
are being targeted at a new generation
of music lovers,
as well as older generations who
once danced to Brendan and the Dixies Showband
in the ballrooms of the sixties.
The CD - simply tiled ''A Taste of Honey''
Brendan O'Brien and Joe McCarthy
left The Dixies to form Stage
2.
Brendan O'Brien and The Dixies
(daughters Trisha and Aideen)
Irish Independent
By Ralph Riegel
Friday April 04 2008
TRIBUTES flooded in last night to the family of showband legend Brendan
O'Brien,
who died suddenly at his Cork home.
Mr O'Brien (66) was best known as one of the leading members of
The Dixies.
Just four months ago he joined emotional tributes to Joe Dolan on
his sudden death.
The singer was found dead in his Cork city centre flat.
He had apparently died while in an armchair in his sitting room
reading a newspaper.
He is survived by his five children, Brendan, Conor, Trish, Aideen
and Sinead,
all of whom are now based in Canada.
Mr. O'Brien joined The Dixies -- a Cork-based showband -- in 1961
after a brief period as a stand-in musician.
The Dixies hit the big time in 1963 with their smash-hit single,
'Christmas Time', and they became one of the leading acts on the showband
circuit.
They agreed a contract with PYE Records in 1964 and had two Top
10 hits -- for a period rivalling such showband legends as The Drifters,
The Miami, The Cadets and The Royal Showband.
The highlight of The Dixies recording career was the hit single,
'Little Arrows', which shot to No. 1 in Ireland and stayed there for a
record-breaking 26 weeks.
It charted as well in a dozen European countries.
- Ralph Riegel
Joe McCarthy of the Dixies showband, a youthful looking
Michael Martin (later to become Ireland's health minister),
fellow Fianna Fail politician Batt O'Keefe and chief organiser Kevin
Meaney
pause for a photo during the Carrigaline Charity Day in 1991.
Joe McCarthy
Joe Terence McCarthy was born in Cork on August 6, 1936.
He served his time as an upholsterer in Cash’s (now Brown Thomas),
where he met Ann Maloney.
They married in 1960 and had three children, Aiden, Joseph and Paul,
and adopted their daughter Jennifer in 1968.
The Dixielanders - Joe Mac, Seán Lucey and Theo Cahill -
played their first gig in UCC on Easter Sunday 1954 and shortened the name
to The Dixies.
Band members over the years included pianist Mick Murphy, trumpeter
Larry Neville, bassist Chris O’Mahony, Jimmy Mintem, Steve Lynch, vocalist
Brendan O’Brien, John Sheehan and Finbarr O’Leary.
The band, based at Cork’s Arcadia, played all over the world and
topped the bill at
Carnegie Hall on September 26, 1964.
The Dixies’ biggest hit, Little Arrows, made number one on September
7, 1968.
That same year, they were named Band of the Year and Joe Mac
was named Showman of the Year in Spotlight magazine.
Theo Cahill (Saxophone) of the Dixies Showband.
Collapsed and died on stage at the end of a dance in Achill July
24, 1988
