The Irish showband was a dance band format popular in Ireland from the mid-1950s to mid-1980s. The showband was based on the internationally popular six- or seven-piece dance band. The band's basic repertoire included standard dance numbers and covers of pop music hits. The versatile music ranged from rock and roll and country and western songs to traditional dixieland jazz and even Irish Céilí dance, Newfie stomps, folk music and waltzes. Key to a showband's popular success was the ability to perform songs currently in the record charts. Some bands also did comedy skits onstage.
The line-up usually featured a rhythm section of drums, lead, rhythm and bass guitars, a keyboard instrument, and a brass section of trumpet, saxophone and trombone. The band was fronted by one or two lead singers, who were assisted by other band members on backing vocals. Comedy routines were sometimes featured. The Irish showband, unlike the big band, played standing, and members would often step, dip and bop in the manner of Bill Haley & His Comets or a black soul band, which brought more energy to the performance. Initially, the bands' tours were limited to Irish venues. As the scene progressed, the more successful bands toured Irish clubs in Britain, the United States and Canada. Some later rock- and soul-oriented showbands toured the German nightclub circuit and US Army base clubs in Europe.
History
1940s–50s: Big band era
In the 1940s and 1950s "orchestras" were popular in Ireland. These were dance bands usually with ten to fifteen musicians, and sometimes more. They wore dress suits and dickey bows. Often there would be a brass band based in the town where the orchestra came from and the orchestra members would have learned to play instruments in this brass band. They sat down and read sheet music from stands. Many of them took the format of American big bands from the 1940s, such as the Glenn Miller Orchestra, with instrumental music to the fore providing the backdrop to a long night's dancing which could be up to five hours long (e.g., 9 PM to 2 AM). Popular orchestras from the time were those of Maurice Mulcahy and Jimmy Wiley (both from Mitchelstown) Mick Delahunty (from Clonmel), Brose Walsh (from Castlebar), and Jack Ruane (from Ballina).
Big bands turn into showbands
As singing and singers became more popular and instrumental tunes less popular, the orchestras downsized and morphed into showbands, dropping brass players, going from eight or ten brass down to three or four. The Maurice Mulcahy Orchestra went from fifteen members, five saxophones, four trumpets, one trombone, rhythm section and a singer in the early sixties to ten members in the early seventies, which included two singers but still held five brass, four saxophones and one trumpet, which would have been a large band for the seventies.
Dave Glover renamed his group to the Dave Glover Showband in 1955, pioneering the use of the word "showband"; he chose the name because he wanted to indicate that their act incorporated both music and skits.
Strabane's Clipper Carlton are credited with being the first popular showband. Fronted by Fergie O'Hagan, they were originally a touring big band. They later became popular in Britain and on the U.S. and Canadian Irish club circuit. Brendan Bowyer, Tom Dunphy and the Royal Showband from Waterford toured professionally around 1958, and became a crowd-drawing success. They were managed by the promoter T.J. Byrne and were the first such band to have a record enter the Irish charts: "Come Down From The Mountain, Katie Daly", sung by Dunphy. Later, Brendan Bowyer had a hit with "The Hucklebuck", an American recording from the 1940s.
The Freshmen from Ballymena, Antrim, led by Billy Brown and Derek Dean, combined to produce harmonies on their covers of hits by The Beach Boys and Jan and Dean. Dickie Rock performed mainly big ballads. Starting out with Dublin's Melochords, he became a star with The Miami Showband, and later represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1967.
At its height in the mid-1960s, there were as many as 800 full and part-time bands travelling the country. The business as a whole employed many thousands of musicians, support staff and managers.
Other popular bands in the sixties included those of Michael O'Callaghan (from Buttevant), The Dixies (from Cork), and Donie Collins (from Askeaton).