Joe Dolan
Joe Dolan is the geezer, the guv'nor,
the undisputed heavyweight champion of the Irish pop & roll world
 The man who has entertained thousands of fans since his first hit in 1964!
The Man from Mullingar, who was in at the very beginning of the Showband era, and who
is still going strong - correction, getting stronger - forty years later. You'll
not find Joe Dolan resting on his laurels -he's right out there living his dreams and
entertaining his people.
You won't find Joe Dolan trading on past fame and material - or hear him say,
nostalgically, "I remember the old days..."Joe lives in the present and his fans are
right there with him, looking to the future - what you gonna give us in 2005, Joe??
The Star from Mullingar has been packing them in ever since he first appeared on the scene
as a showband singer in the 60s. with The Drifters Showband
Joe keep's re-inventing himself  Dolan has kept up his hectic touring schedule to a fault.
We can only say: go - if only so you can tell your grandchildren.

Joe Dolan

It wasn't quite an arrival on stage; more of an eruption really. His whites are whiter than anything we'd seen in a Surf ad, and as soon as he opened up those vocal cords on You're Such A Good Lookin' Woman there was no going back. Just as well really, since the 70 per cent female audience expected nothing less than full throttle for this entire two-hour performance that surely qualified as an extravaganza.

Anyone nostalgic for the sweat-laden, breathless falsetto flourishes of three decades ago would have been disappointed. This was no showband revival on a zimmer frame. Nor was it a hackneyed country 'n' Irish hobble down memory lane. Dolan and his seven-piece band, featuring saxophone and trumpet, lost no time in reminding us why he still manages to seduce his audiences as effortlessly as he did long before there were comfort zones such as Vicar Street.

So, his pelvis mightn't quite have the range it had, but then neither does Tom Jones's. Those vocal cords have lost little of their elasticity, and the repertoire is a keen reminder of the sheer volume of original material he introduced to unsuspecting audiences. Dolan's more recent reincarnation as flag-bearer for a new world where The Girl Who Lived In The House With The White Washed Gable consorts with Disco 2000 and The Universal is a lesson in lateral thinking that Jarvis Cocker, Damon Albarn and Robbie Williams would do well to observe closely.

So is this rock 'n' roll? The jury might be out on that one, but for sheer entertainment value, Dolan has few opponents. Unperturbed by the countless knickers flung onstage, with his lapels upturned and his high-heeled boots spit shiny, Joe Dolan unleashed that tremolo and left the pretenders languishing in the shade. Vegas on Thomas Street. That's what it felt like . . . for a little while at least.

Siobhan Long
Irish Times
 

Joe Dolan Home Page

Joe Dolan Unofficial Home Page
 

Sandra Dolan
Sandra is Joe's Niece ! Check Out Her Website

. Dickie Rock
Dicke Rock...a singer we all love and remember with affection. He can still pack them in
. Dickie is still "sending them home sweating" today.
one could only compare him to singers like Tony Bennett,
particularly when he cuts loose with songs like
"I left my heart in San Francisco.
The sight of middle-aged women throwing their knickers at even older men
on stage may be bizarre and slightly unsettling, yet it is somehow very Irish at the same time.
Dickie, when you take us from "The Candy Store on The Corner to The Chapel on the Hill"
we remember all the great entertainment you and your colleagues provided  in the sixties.
Dickie remembers the time with great fondness - "spit on me dickie"
took off in Belfast in the 60's and spread all over the country.
Between 1963 and 1977 Dickie and the Miami Showband had 8 top ten hits.
 

Mr. Music Man Paddy Cole
Paddy Cole is a household name in Ireland, while abroad he is known as Ireland's 'Ambassador of Jazz',
Having played with a number of bands around the country in his youth, Paddy Cole shot to fame as the sax player with the Capitol Showband, which had several No. 1 hits throughout the 60s both at home and abroad. Later he joined the Big 8 Showband, which enjoyed equal success. The band proved a huge hit in Las Vegas where they spent six months each year, earning a world-wide reputation for their nightly performances.
Back in Ireland, Paddy toured the country with his own band, the All Stars which were hugely popular with audiences North and South. During his long career in the music industry, Paddy has led tours of the USA and Canada, as well as frequent appearances on radio, TV and film. Each year, for the past five years, the band has gone to New Orleans, the home of jazz, and, as a result, have been featured in many American Society gigs. They have also been to the Middle Eastern countries of Dubai, Qatar, and Bahrain.
In 1993 Paddy Cole was awarded 'Showbiz Personality of the Year'. In 1995 Paddy hosted his own TV series on RTE for 12 weeks, 'Craic 'n' Cole', which featured top Irish guest acts. Today the Paddy Cole All Stars are renowned for their Dixieland jazz music as well as an outstanding repertoire of sixties Rock 'n Roll standards. They possesse that rare ability of being able to transmit their own enthusiasm for the music they play to their audience. The result is always the same - an enthusiastic response and a spontaneous demand for more
 

Brendan Bowyer

 Brendan first came to prominence in the early 60'a as lead singer with the famous Royal Showband. He is the only Irish singer to have had seven No 1 hits. the Royal Showband had a total of nine including, Tom Dunphy's No. 1 with 'If I didn't have a Dime' and Charlie Matthews with 'Somewhere My Love'. However, the hit that most people associate with Brendan is, of course, 'The Hucklebuck'
Brendan first went to Las Vegas with the Royal Showband in 1967. Back in those days they just went for one month each year but so popular was their show in Las Vegas that by the mid 70's, due to demand Brendan was spending six months a year in Las Vegas and six months in Ireland.
The Royal Showband broke up in 1971 and Brendan, together with Tom Dunphy formed The Big 8 Showband. The Band are still together although Tom Dunphy was tragically killed in a car accident in 1975, on his way to the 'Mary from Dunloe' Festival. Since 1981
His daughter Aisling has followed in her Dad's footsteps. His son Brendan works as a tennis coach in Salt Lake City - he grew up and played tennis with Andre Agassi in Las Vegas and won the Irish Junior Open Tennis Championship at Fitzwilliam here in 1986. His youngest daughter Clodagh is studying acting in one of NYC's most famous acting schools on Broadway

Eileen Reid
Eileen Reid was born in The Liberties in Dublin in 1943 and is best known for singing with The Cadets Showband, which she joined in 1961, although she sang in bands from the age of 15. She married Jimmy Day in 1968 and currently lives in Prosperous, Co Kildare,

Eileen played all over the country to thousands of people with the Cadets in the heyday of the showbands, with their biggest hit The Day I Gave My Wedding Dress Away released in 1964. In 1978, Eileen was up against
Johnny Logan in the National Song Contest with a song called The Saddest Show on Earth. In the 1970s and into the 1980s she toured the cabaret circuit, and in the mid-70s also began to do theatre and panto. She appeared in You Ain't Heard Nothing Yet in The Gaiety Theatre and The Plough and the Stars with Donal McCann and Rosaleen Lenihan. She has featured in four films - The Commitments, A Man of No Importance, Moll Flanders and Against All Odds. Eileen published her autobiography in 1995
Eileen is still gigging with Jimmy and her band The Bees Knees on the wedding and corporate circuit.
 
 

Sonny Knowles

Sonny's career began in the mid 1950's when he learned to blow clarinet and sax in the Dublin School of Music. Bill Haley's "Rock around the Clock" explosion opened doors for Sonny in the extraordinary Irish showband era that followed. First coming to public attention with the Earl Gill Showband, and subsequently as lead singer with the Pacific Showband,
Sonny Knowles soon became a household name around Ireland. With 8 successful albums on the Pye record label and regular primetime radio play, the velvet tones of his soft mellow voice set him up to survive the inevitable 1980's decline of the showband era. That he blossomed and prospered through this period must surely be attributed more than anything to his affable manner and personal appeal. Affectionately known as "the window cleaner" because of his trade-mark hand moving stage mannerism, Sonny is also known as "mister nice guy" of the Irish music industry.

Tommy:
Monarch of all that he surveys

Tommy Drennan helped The Monarchs become one of the biggest crowd pullers in the land.
Brendan Bowyer, Dickie Rock, Tommy Drennan and a few other lead singers had celebrity status.
Tommy is still a professional singer, but these days he works the more mellow cabaret and corporate scene.
Tommy Drennan was born and reared at 21, O'Donoghue Avenue Janesboro
O Holy Night was Tommy Drennan's and The Monarchs single biggest hit.
He received an invitation from UTV in 1962 to appear on a programme called Teatime with Tommy.
"The host was Tommy James and he played the piano. It was a guest request show."
At the time The Freshmen were looking out for a lead singer.
"Their lead singer, Derek Dean had seen me on the UTV show and made contact and asked if I would join the band.  I decided to hit the road with The Freshmen in 1963 and remained with them for about a year. Billy Browne was with them at the time and the others included Sean Mahon, Davey McKnight and Damien McElroy.
In early 1964 joined The Monarchs with Ray Heraty, Bryan Meehan and Frank Hogan.
Tommy Drennan and The Monarchs were one of the top Irish showbands during the next eight years, drawing thousands every night to halls and marquees all over the country.
The band's big hits included O Holy Night, Boolavogue, The Promise and the Dream and Love is a Beautiful Song.
In 1972, Tommy formed his own band, Top League, and four years later he decided to concentrate on the local cabaret scene, where he still presides to this day.

Tommy Drennan Home Page
http://www.tommydrennan.com/

Red Hurley

Red Hurley needs no introduction to music fans worldwide.
This legend of Irish show business has been at the very top for the last thirty years.
Red's achievement's during a glittering career which includes representing Ireland
in the Eurovision Song contest as well as toping the charts on many occasions

 ‘When’ is the song that Red is still remembered for the song when it spent 6 weeks in the chart and reached number 4 for Red. But its not the excitement of the night or the Eurovision buzz that Red remembers with most fondness but the big party that his family and friends threw for him on his return to Milltown.When he pulled up in a taxi and saw the street covered in banners and full of all his friends and family ready to greet him that was when the emotion got the better of him. Red has had 15 top ten hits to date and is still performing both at home and abroad
 
 

Danny Boy

Shaun Conners,Paddy Cole,Joe Dolan & Dickie Rock