Liam Foley: Blackpool, Showbands, Arcadia
Title
Liam Foley: Blackpool, Showbands, Arcadia
Subject
Interview exploring the ‘showband era’ (late 1950s to early 1970s) in Ireland from the perspective of Cork-based musicians and family members.
Description
Liam is originally from the Northside, from Great William Street in Blackpool. His whole family were musical, and even though his father worked as a cabinet-maker, he and the rest of the family were very keen on playing music at home. He went to Blackpool National School, Commons Road, where corporal punishment was the norm; the building was later demolished.
Liam talks about his experience of the showband scene. He tells a funny story about a gig where the marquee tent blew down on the band in a storm. He had a natural musical ability and settled first on playing the drums and afterwards the guitar, which became his favoured instrument. Showbands were prohibited from playing during Lent, and travelled to London to play; some of them approached a bishop for aid, but he closed the door in their faces. The bands spent half an hour playing a particular artist’s hits, such as Elvis Presley, The Shadows. The bands were usually given a meal before playing, but sometimes not much of one, and they had to hang around a cold ballroom before playing. Bands were comprised of 8 or 9 instruments, and they could play for 5 hours at a time. The rise of the discos put an end to the showband scene. Audience behaviour and clothing styles at ballrooms. The story of The Devil appearing at ballrooms; of a ghost at the Arcadia Ballroom.
Liam talks about his experience of the showband scene. He tells a funny story about a gig where the marquee tent blew down on the band in a storm. He had a natural musical ability and settled first on playing the drums and afterwards the guitar, which became his favoured instrument. Showbands were prohibited from playing during Lent, and travelled to London to play; some of them approached a bishop for aid, but he closed the door in their faces. The bands spent half an hour playing a particular artist’s hits, such as Elvis Presley, The Shadows. The bands were usually given a meal before playing, but sometimes not much of one, and they had to hang around a cold ballroom before playing. Bands were comprised of 8 or 9 instruments, and they could play for 5 hours at a time. The rise of the discos put an end to the showband scene. Audience behaviour and clothing styles at ballrooms. The story of The Devil appearing at ballrooms; of a ghost at the Arcadia Ballroom.
Date
29 April 1997
Identifier
CFP_SR00055_foley_1997
Coverage
Cork; Ireland; 1940s - 1990s;
Relation
Showbands Collection Catalogue Numbers:
Accession number for collection [CFP Acc. No. 1997-004];
CFP_SR00051_dixies_1996; CFP_SR00052_rooney_1997; CFP_SR00053_nolan_1997; CFP_SR00054_power_1997;
CFP_SR00056_various_1997:
Accession number for collection [CFP Acc. No. 1997-004];
CFP_SR00051_dixies_1996; CFP_SR00052_rooney_1997; CFP_SR00053_nolan_1997; CFP_SR00054_power_1997;
CFP_SR00056_various_1997:
Source
Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive
Rights
Cork Folklore Project
Language
English
Type
Sound
Format
1.wav File
Interviewee
Interviewer
Duration
38 mins 45 sec
Location
Blackpool, Cork, Ireland
Original Format
90 minute cassette tapes
Bit Rate/Frequency
16bit / 44.1kHz
Transcription
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 remember any traditions or stories associated with travelling musicians or street balladeers?
L.F: Ahh, I suppose I should think of the show band scene for these stories right? I remember one time I was with the show band and I had this new guitar, a fender guitar, right? And we were suppose to play this gig in a place called gorly maddens this was only a cross road now, with a petrol pump station and a store.... and the had no ball room. It was tent a marquee , right? And I wanted to play this guitar, brand new guitar, we had all the stuff rigged up.
S.H: Was it a Tele caster?
L.F: Eh, it was a fender .... ahm... let’s see now, ah what was the name of it ? Fender....
S.H: Jaguar.
L.F: Jaguar’ You got it –( Laughs ). Thank you , Steve I couldn’t even remember it, but anyway um,,, This storm was blowing terrible it was really bad you know, and we change in to our band uniforms you know,,,
S.H: What was the name of the band?
L.F: The Donnie Collins show band and, from Limerick. A very popular band in those times, right?
S.H: About what year would this have been?
L.F: This was 1961, maybe 62. And um,,, God the night we had everything rigged up, our suits on, the tent blew down on top of us right, and you must appreciate that there was electricity going in to this right and the water came in as well, we were nearly killed now, right and it blew down on top of us and we had to run for it and get out of that tent and when we ran we had to get across a field , right?
S.H: Carrying your instruments?
L.F: Yes. And up to here in mud, right? and it meant like that all of a sudden we couldn’t play the gig because the whole thing was after blowing down on top of us, I wrapped up my guitar we couldn’t the way on out of the field because of it was sunk in to the mud and it was desperate now. Anyway to make the story brief if I can, the that was the men that after puting up the marquee, they brought us in to his house and we dried out sort of thing, cleaned up a little bit, right? But they came back in after and had put the marquee up again in this gale –force wind managed to get up some where right? Even though it looked terrible , they had put it back up right . ( Chuckles ) And asked us could we go out there again –of course we didn’t we couldn’t play the thing anymore , we were just soaked to the skin , our band uniforms and every thing were destroyed and we just had to pack up and go home , that’s just one of the stories that you’d expect.
S.H Had there been any crowd gathered there?
L.F: No, No, we were lucky . It would have been about half-past-six, seven o’clock in the evening.
S.H: What time of the year would it have been?
L.F: This would have been lets see.... not too cold....it would been around I’d say maybe now.... April, May. You know? But it was just one of those storms , like we got on Sunday now.
S.H: Can you remember any traditions or stories associated with travelling musicians or street balladeers?
L.F: Ahh, I suppose I should think of the show band scene for these stories right? I remember one time I was with the show band and I had this new guitar, a fender guitar, right? And we were suppose to play this gig in a place called gorly maddens this was only a cross road now, with a petrol pump station and a store.... and the had no ball room. It was tent a marquee , right? And I wanted to play this guitar, brand new guitar, we had all the stuff rigged up.
S.H: Was it a Tele caster?
L.F: Eh, it was a fender .... ahm... let’s see now, ah what was the name of it ? Fender....
S.H: Jaguar.
L.F: Jaguar’ You got it –( Laughs ). Thank you , Steve I couldn’t even remember it, but anyway um,,, This storm was blowing terrible it was really bad you know, and we change in to our band uniforms you know,,,
S.H: What was the name of the band?
L.F: The Donnie Collins show band and, from Limerick. A very popular band in those times, right?
S.H: About what year would this have been?
L.F: This was 1961, maybe 62. And um,,, God the night we had everything rigged up, our suits on, the tent blew down on top of us right, and you must appreciate that there was electricity going in to this right and the water came in as well, we were nearly killed now, right and it blew down on top of us and we had to run for it and get out of that tent and when we ran we had to get across a field , right?
S.H: Carrying your instruments?
L.F: Yes. And up to here in mud, right? and it meant like that all of a sudden we couldn’t play the gig because the whole thing was after blowing down on top of us, I wrapped up my guitar we couldn’t the way on out of the field because of it was sunk in to the mud and it was desperate now. Anyway to make the story brief if I can, the that was the men that after puting up the marquee, they brought us in to his house and we dried out sort of thing, cleaned up a little bit, right? But they came back in after and had put the marquee up again in this gale –force wind managed to get up some where right? Even though it looked terrible , they had put it back up right . ( Chuckles ) And asked us could we go out there again –of course we didn’t we couldn’t play the thing anymore , we were just soaked to the skin , our band uniforms and every thing were destroyed and we just had to pack up and go home , that’s just one of the stories that you’d expect.
S.H Had there been any crowd gathered there?
L.F: No, No, we were lucky . It would have been about half-past-six, seven o’clock in the evening.
S.H: What time of the year would it have been?
L.F: This would have been lets see.... not too cold....it would been around I’d say maybe now.... April, May. You know? But it was just one of those storms , like we got on Sunday now.
Collection
Citation
Cork Folklore Project, “Liam Foley: Blackpool, Showbands, Arcadia,” accessed March 29, 2024, https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/60.