THE STORY OF THE FRESHMEN by Francis Beirne
Kennedy
Though they featured the classic showband line-up and
they played for dancers in ballrooms throughout Ireland, the
'showband' tag didn’t sit lightly on the shoulders of The
Freshmen from Ballymena.
More than most bands, they epitomised the divide between
urban and rural Ireland, drawing their biggest crowds in
cities like Cork, Galway and Waterford. They wrote and
performed their own original material, and were noted for
their brilliant vocal harmonies. The Freshmen evolved from
two bands in the Ballymena area, the Billy McFarland
Showband and the John Mitchell Showband. Some of the younger
members of both bands were unfulfilled, musically, and were
getting restless. Billy Brown (keyboards/saxophone), Maurice
Henry (saxophone), Torry McGahey (bass) and two others
decided to leave McFarland and start their own band.
However, drummer Johnny Murphy was offered a job with an
established band, The Plattermen, so Davy McKnight, a friend
of Torry McGahey’s, was enlisted on drums. Meanwhile,
guitarist Damien McIlroy and trombonist Sean Mahon had left
the John Mitchell band to join the new outfit. A talented
vocalist from Ballymena, Barney McKeown completed the
line-up and The Freshmen were ready to rock ‘n’ roll! In
August 1962, in the Plaza Ballroom in Larne, The Freshmen
played their first gig on a journey which, within a few
years, would take them to the very top of the showband heap.
McKeown soon left the band however, and was replaced by a
young singer from Limerick, who had a unique voice. Tommy
Drennan, who had been known as a talented boy-soprano,
travelled north and tried to settle in with The Freshmen.
Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, one of which was
loneliness for his hometown, Drennan returned to Limerick
after a short time and carved out a career for himself as
frontman with The Monarchs.
For the third time in as many years, The Freshmen had to
find a lead vocalist. This time they turned to Derek
McMenamin, a young student teacher who looked like he could
turn the girls’ heads! He also happened to have a powerful
deep voice, which can be heard to great effect on the
opening bars of their biggest hit, “Papa Oom Mow Mow”, which
was their interpretation of a song which had been a hit in
the U.S.A. for a black vocal group, The Rivingtons. Having
adopted the stage-name Derek Dean, the new singer’s presence
allowed Brown to concentrate on music and arrangements and
The Freshmen went from strength to strength.
By this time,
Peter Dempsey, “a man from the motor-trade”, had taken
over the reins as the band’s manager. Dempsey had
numerous contacts all over Ireland, and his expertise
opened new doors to The Freshmen. They released a
single in 1964, “She’s The One You Love / I Love My
Little Girl”. The B-side was an original written by
Brown and McElroy. Because of the similarity of their
name to a prominent American group, their record label
Mercury suggested that they should use the name “Six Of
One”. This only succeeded in confusion, and the record
“bombed”.
Appearances on
RTE’s “Showband Show” and UTV’s “Pop Scene”, further
raised the band’s profile and following minor success
with their second single, an original written by Dean,
“I Stand Alone” backed by “Gone Away”, they finally
broke into the charts with the memorable “Papa Oom Mow
Mow” followed by another single, “The Little Old Lady
From Pasadena (Go Granny Go)” which had been a hit for
surfers Jan & Dean in the U.S.A. Because of their vocal
strength, the “surfing-sound” of Jan & Dean and The
Beach Boys suited The Freshmen to a tee. They began to
be known for their note-perfect renditions of Beach Boys
songs more than anything else, and this in fact became a
hindrance, overshadowing their excellent original
numbers. They played support to The Beach Boys at their
Dublin and Belfast concerts in 1967 and released a
ground-breaking L.P. “Movin’ On” in 1968. This
collection included three originals from the pens of
Brown, McElroy and McKnight as well as a song by Danny
Ellis and another by Phil Coulter and Bill Martin.
Always
innovative, The Freshmen staged a “Peace Concert” in
Dublin in 1970, a live performance of their second L.P.
“Peace On Earth” on the CBS label. Narrator on both
projects was the renowned actor Micheál MacLiammóir.
Early in the ‘70s however, cracks began to show in what
up to now had been an incredibly cohesive unit, and
Brown decided to leave and form his own band. He was
replaced by Ivan Laybourne from The Newmen, a young band
managed by Damien McIlroy. The Newmen had recorded one
of McElroy’s songs, “Holiday Girl”, and even today, it
is regarded as one of the best Irish singles of that
decade.
Guitarist Tiger
Taylor, drummer Lindsay Lunney and saxophonist Ray
Donnan joined The Freshmen for their final few years and
Billy Brown returned to the fold. Their third album
"Now And Then" was released during this period.
Musical genius,
environmentalist, artist, writer and arranger Billy
Brown passed away in June 1999, aged just 56. His
legacy, and that of his colleagues is one that Irish
people can be very proud of ~ The Freshmen, a band that
broke the showband mould.
