The late Great Joe Dolan

  ‘Showband Legend Dies’, the headlines screamed afew weeks ago.  But that’s only partly true, because Joe Dolan was more than that. He was an entertainer of today as well.

They say Elvis never played to an empty seat. Well Joe wasn’t far behind.  His winter tour this year, looked like being sold out, until Joe’s recent illness forced him to cancel. 

But it was as a showband star that Joe made his name.

Those of you younger than, let’s say fifty, didn’t experience the showband era.

It was a time of very little entertainment, compared to today.  There were two, and later three TV channels, and the cinema, and that was about it.  Today we can watch live football almost every day on TV.  Then, if you had a TV, you only saw the ‘English’ cup final, and very little else. Disco’s hadn’t  arrived yet, and computer games weren’t even a dream.

But things were happening outside Ireland. Elvis had America ‘all shook up’, Cliff was starting to ‘move it’ in England, and the Beatles had begun building a ‘yellow submarine’ that would soon conquer the world. 

Here in Ireland, we had showbands.  Hundreds of them.  Every town and village seemed to have a hall or barn of some kind, in which showbands would play every weekend.

The packed houses, even today, for David Hull’s ‘Do You Come Here Often’ shows, is proof of their popularity. 

There were hundreds of showbands, maybe thousands. Not all brilliant musicians of course.

Tales abound of many who carried ‘dummy flutters’. This was needed because the unwritten rule was that showbands had to have seven or eight members. 

This meant that some bands were not great, though many were. There was a ‘top ten’ which included bands like The Cadets, The Plattermen and The Freshmen.   But right at the top were the three biggest attractions. Brendan Bowyer and the Royal, Dickie Rock and the Miami and, of course, Joe Dolan and the Drifters. 

They were ‘our’ Beatles, our Cliff and our Elvis.  Separating them was impossible.

Ask any three people and you’d get three different answers, as to which was number one, but everyone would agree that they were the top three. The trinity at the top. 

All three lead singers, and their bands, gave amazing shows, to constantly packed houses, and the excitement of being in the audience, when they came within travelling distance of your town, is still with me. 

However times changed.  The showband era faded, and while it seemed that Brendan and Dickie, ‘took their foot of the pedal’ a bit, as far as touring Ireland, and recording were concerned. (Brendan was spending a lot of his time in Las Vegas, and doing well there), Joe continued to be based, and perform here at home, mostly in concert situations, as well as touring the world, and ‘putting out’ many records to keep his loyal fans happy. 

These might be some of the reasons why he has sustained his popularity for so long.

Joe was a brilliant singer. His high voice was unmistakable. Even when he ‘covered’ other peoples songs, he gave them a new lease of life.

On stage he ‘sweated blood’ for every audience. The perspiration showing clearly through his shirts every night.

His fans always went home happy. Causing the famous remark “There’s no show like a Joe show”. 

How sad that there will be no more ‘Joe shows’.

When asked how he’d like to be remembered, Joe once said simply,

“I’d like to be remembered as someone who never cheated on an audience.” 

You will Joe, you will.

Davy Kennedy