Our columnist Frank Brandon on how weekend getaways to see multiple country music concerts compare to the showband culture of the past, the late David Hessayon (author of the Expert Guides gardening books), and how political tensions between the US and Canada have impacted in sports
There is no doubt that the internet and Google and all that kind of stuff has changed our lives, mostly for the better. For the princely sum of €6 a month, I can get the Irish Independent, along with nine or ten other national and provincial papers, sent straight to my phone (that’s if it has service, which recently has been pretty spasmodic) and I can keep up to date with all the happenings in the world without having to even leave the house.
Among the papers that come to me by phone is the Sunday World, but the truth is I much prefer the actual physical experience of having the paper in my hand and reading it that way, and so every week I buy the Sunday World, and I also buy a Daily Mail each day. The reason I buy the Mail is to do the crossword (the simple one, not the cryptic option) because everyone says that as we get older we need to try to keep the old brain cells active (that’s if we have any) – and the reason I buy the Sunday World is to read the entertainments page and see what is happening in the worlds of Mike Denver and Nathan Carter and the few others who are dominating the music scene in this country.
And while there are some venues holding Sunday night and weeknight dances on this week’s paper, it is hard not to conclude that foreign tours are the really lucrative areas for the top Irish artists. All the big names have their own week (or so) away in Portugal or Spain, where apparently the craic is 90 and there is non-stop dancing on sun-kissed beaches. Doesn’t sound too bad to me!
For a few years during and after Covid, there was very little activity on the country music scene. But thankfully things seem to have improved, with the other big attraction being country music weekends in hotels all around the place, where you can have two or three bands playing Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, with hotels offering packages to guests to stay for the entire weekend.
All of this came into my head as I reflected on the recent deaths of Showband legends Dickie Rock and Paddy Cole. I thought to myself that no matter how nice it would be to go to some top hotel like the Shearwater in Ballinasloe to hear an artist (as it happens, Mike Denver was there last night, along with the supporting Jack Keogh, John Molloy and Sabrina Fallon), nothing could ever compare to the days of the local carnivals.
For two weeks in the summer, every village, hamlet, and crossroads had their own moment in the sun when the top showbands came to play in your own little town. The excitement of erecting the marquee and getting the whole place ready really was the highlight of the year.
Paddy Cole was one of the great survivors of the showband era, and even though he never got the adulation that the likes of Brendan Bowyer, Butch Moore, Joe Dolan, or Dickie Rock got, he had an outstanding career and had many years in Las Vegas with both the Capitol and the Big Eight bands. Having come back from Vegas because he wanted to raise his children in Ireland, he eventually formed his own band – the Paddy Cole Superstars – and a friend of Carol’s, Twink, was the singer with them.
Around that time, our neighbour Fr Brian Hanley, a priest with an entrepreneurial touch, was based in Ballinamore Bridge, and on a Friday night many years ago he had the Paddy Cole Band playing in the carnival that he was running for church funds. Myself and Carol went along, and after the dance was over we were invited, along with the band members, back to Fr Brian’s house for a cup of tea.
There must have been something in the tea, because before long the sing-song and the session started, and the local farmers were bringing in the cows to milk them as myself and Carol headed home. I can still hear Paddy playing the sax and Twink and the Hughes brothers singing their hearts out, and to think that it all happened in a house in the very small village of Ballinamore Bridge sums up to me what the showband era meant to rural Ireland.
Paddy Cole only passed away very recently after a hugely successful career, and he joins the long list of showband stars who have departed from life’s stage. There is a page on the internet detailing all those who have passed away, and it’s an education in itself to see the names of all the showbands that were playing around Ireland way back then.
Anyway, rest in peace Paddy. I will never forget the night of Ballinamore Bridge Carnival some time in the early 1980s or maybe even late 1970s.
Gardening by the book
For the last number of years my late wife Carol was very fond of her garden, and during that time she got her hands on quite a number of gardening books.
Among her collection were several Expert Guides – and today I see that the author of all of those books and many more (there are more than 50 books in the Expert series about vegetables, flowers, trees, and shrubs), David Hessayon, has died at the age of 96.
Hessayon earned more that £31 million from his gardening books, and is listed as the best-selling non-fiction author of all time.
Nowadays, every second show on telly is either a cookery, home improvement, or gardening one (there wasn’t a Garden Rescue programme over the last few years that Carol didn’t watch), but I see that the Expert author was critical of that type of show. In his opinion, gardens were being constructed way too quickly, and he reckoned shows like Alan Titchmarsh’s Ground Force did “a bloody lot of harm”.
As the spring is here (although with the weather the way it is, you’d never think it), I think I had better start thinking about trying to keep the garden even close to the way Carol had it. So I’m going to do a bit of a search and see can I find any of her Expert books. Wish me luck!
Titchmarsh himself said that “David Hessayon was a mould-breaker and his work, which started in the 1950s, has stood the test of time”. May he too rest in peace.
And finally…
After President Trump’s recent comments that Canada should become a US State, and his threat of tariffs, an ice hockey game between the two countries on Saturday week last seems to show that the Canadians are very angry at his suggestions.
Apparently the crowd of more than 21,000 fans in Montreal booed the American National Anthem and the American players as they were introduced, and there were three fights among players in the first nine seconds.
We often see fights in games that amount to no more than ‘handbags’, but these fights would have graced any boxing arena and were certainly full on – you can see them all on the internet.
As it happened, the US won the game by 3-1 (I’m not sure who won the fights) but as usual, Trump’s actions seem to have infuriated America’s nearest neighbours and there’s certainly currently no love lost between the two countries.
In the end, both teams qualified for the final of the 4 Nations Face-off tournament, and in that game (played on Thursday last in Boston) the Canadians won 3-2 after extra-time – this time it seems there was no outbreak of fisticuffs.
‘Til next week,
bye for now!
