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When the words
“showband” and “Waterford” are mentioned in the same sentence, one
immediately thinks “Royal”, but Waterford’s Blue Aces hold the
attendance record at the Atlantic Ballroom in Tramore, when they drew a
crowd of 1,191 on a Tuesday night in 1960! The Blue Aces are also unique
among Irish showbands in that they based themselves in London for two
years.
Formed in 1958 and
managed by Billy Mulcahy, like most showbands at that time, they
travelled all over Ireland playing in ballrooms, marquees and
parish-halls. The line-up included Charlie Cheevers (tenor saxophone),
Larry Barry (trumpet), John Cooney (piano), Michael Gilligan (guitar),
Seamus Carew (bass), Tony Dalton (trombone), Jerry O’Shea (drums) and
Michael O’Meara (trombone). In the early years of their existence, Barry
and Gilligan, (who incidentally spent some time with The Royal Showband),
were replaced by Tony Condon and Tony Walsh. Sometime later, Walsh
moved to trombone and Jimmy Phelan came in on guitar. Saxophonist Neil
McMahon also joined around this time and later Condon joined
The Paragon 7 and was replaced by Ron
Carthy.
In 1964 however,
the band made a decision to move to London and base themselves there in
the hope of making a breakthrough into the British charts. Things went
well for them at first, they appeared on a few BBC television shows,
they were featured in pop magazines such as “Fabulous”, “Record Song
Book” and “Boyfriend” and their first single on the Pye label, “Land Of
Love”, featuring Charlie Cheevers on vocals, was played on all the pop
stations. This was followed by some other singles including “You Don’t
Care”, “All I Want” and “That’s Alright”, all original numbers written
by members of the band. During their time in London however, original
members Cooney, Carew and Phelan decided to return to Ireland, but the
band continued with British-based replacements,
Ron Ryan, Geoff Foote, Mike
Kelleher and Keith Field.
While in London,
The Blue Aces played in prestigious venues such as the London Palladium,
the Lyceum, the Marquee Club and the Victoria Palace, and shared the
bill with international stars such as Lulu, Val Doonican, The
Applejacks, Mike Preston, Bob Monkhouse, Ronnie Carroll, Julie Rogers,
Mike Sarne, Roy Castle, Brian Poole & The Tremeloes, Sounds Incorporated
and The Vernons Girls. The band also had a small part in a film about
band-leader Joe Loss, where they performed an Irish ballad, “The Bould
O’Donoghue”.
Unfortunately, the
big breakthrough never came, and in 1966, the band returned to
Waterford, some of them joining other showbands. Tony Condon, Ron Carthy
and Tony Walsh are now deceased while some of the band-members are still
involved in the music business.
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Bands Archive and
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