Pat Nolan: Northside, Cork Academy School of Music

Pat Nolan: Northside, Cork Academy School of Music

Interview exploring the ‘showband era’ (late 1950s to early 1970s) in Ireland from the perspective of Cork-based musicians and family members.

Pat is from John Street on the Northside. He was educated at the North Monastery, which was good for general studies but did not teach music. The school environment was harsh. He left school early. His father bought him a second-hand saxophone, and he later learned to play the clarinet. He joined a dance band after he left school, and played around County Cork.

He talks about the beginning of the showband era; and traces the course of its decline, which he says began towards the end of the 1960s. He recalls Rory Gallagher and his connection with the showband scene, and he praises Gallagher’s rhythmic sense.
He later went to University College Cork to get a degree in music. He joined the army band: it was composed of musicians rather than soldiers.
He played at the Boom Boom Room in Belfast, but bands became nervous after the violence began there in 1969. [He misattributes the 1975 Miami Showband Massacre to 1969]. He talks about the atmosphere in Northern dancehalls.
He discusses the extent of the Northside area; he values teaching music with the Cork Academy School of Music in Sunbeam industrial estate.

8 January 1997

CFP_SR00053_nolan_1997

Cork City; Ireland; 1950s-1990s

Showbands Collection Catalogue Numbers:

Accession number for collection [CFP Acc. No. 1997-004];
CFP_SR00051_dixies_1996; CFP_SR00052_rooney_1997;
CFP_SR00054_power_1997; CFP_SR00055_foley_1997; CFP_SR00056_various_1997:

Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive

Cork Folklore Project

English

Sound

1.wav File

27m 48s

Cork Academy School of Music, Sunbeam Industrial Estate, Cork

90-minute cassette tape

16bit / 44.1kHz

The following is a short extract from the interview transcript, copyright of the Cork Folklore Project. If you wish to access further archival material please contact CFP, folklorearchive@gmail.com

S.H: Can you tell me something about your introduction to the show bands era and the people you played with at that time and some of your experiences?

P.N: Well, a lot of my early experiences were basically in and around Cork and Country Cork. My very first band was a little dance band in New Town, Mount Seandrum, and the name of that band was the Viceroy Show Band. At that stage they had just switched from being a céili band to the new idea of having a show band. The leader of that band was a man by the name of Michael O’ Mahony and I played with them for a good number of years, we worked for maybe three or four nights a week. I then went on to play with bands like the Michael O’ Callaghan Show Band, who was all from County Cork. As I went on I moved around as a freelance musician and played with a lot of what were at that time the semi-professionals bands, show bands in Cork. I worked in, from there I went on, played with the Victor Show Band, we worked a lot here in this country and in England, Germany, the American bases in Germany, mm…and broadly speaking these were roughly the bands that I did play with, but my very first band was the Viceroy Show Band, from County Cork.