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THE
FRESHMEN By Francis Kaye © Ireland's Own
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”.
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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 their third album "Now And Then" was
released during this period. Musical genius, environmentalist,
artist, writer and arranger Billy Brown (left) 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.
all text
is strictly copyright of Irish Bands Archive |
