The Paul Brock Interview – Part 4: Performing in Britain and the U.S.

Athlone Miscellany

By Gearoid O’Brien

The Paul Brock Interview – Part 4: Performing in Britain and the U.S.

Speaking to Paul Brock about his early career reminds me that the late 1950s was a great era for Variety Concerts. Our own Dean Crowe Hall was a regular venue for concerts at that time. All sorts of people came to perform there and the concerts were very well attended and popular with the locals. People such as Joe Lynch, Jack Cruise and Bridie Gallagher were among the big names at that time and Paul Brock played with all of them. He also recalls that another big name on the circuit was Jimmy Shand from Scotland in his kilt with his three-row customised Hohner accordion “Do you know that his recording of ‘The Bluebell Polka’ went into the charts in 1955 and he appeared on Top of the Pops?” he asks me “The recording was produced by a guy called George Martin who subsequently went on to produce records for the Beatles”.

Paul appeared in many Variety Shows and did a lot of concerts in England and Scotland at that time. In 1959 during one of his many visits to Manchester for performances there Paul was a guest of Manchester United F.C. It was the year following the Munich Air Disaster. While there he met Sir Matt Busby, Harry Gregg, Bobby Charlton, Albert Quixall and other famous players who had survived the air disaster. He also met some of the Irish apprentice footballers who were at Manchester United at that time including: Johnnie Giles, Jackie Mooney and Joe Carolan. Paul met Johnnie Giles recently and was able to share with him some of the pictures taken during that visit. On a separate occasion, Paul was a guest performer with the cast of “Cornation Street” at a special concert held in Manchester.

But, of course, this was also the era of the ballrooms. In Britain John Byrne the Kerry-born millionaire property-developer bought sites and built dance halls around the country. “The most notable being the famous Galtymore Ballroom in Cricklewood which was demolished about two years ago. John Byrne built the Galtymore and as he developed his empire he brought over his brothers from Kerry to run the different ballrooms. Byrne had Ballrooms in London, Manchester, Coventry and Birmingham and I used to go over and do his circuit and I would be billed as a guest star during a dance”.

The Galtymore in Cricklewood was one of the legendary London-Irish dance halls. It was built in a time of a big emigration boom, a time when the huge numbers of Irish living in Britain yearned for a taste of home and a time when the Irish in London had an appetite for a social life because for the first time in their lives they had a few pounds coming in. Paul Brock travelled extensively in the U.K. as a solo artist at concerts and clubs and also playing in variety concerts with Jack Cruise, Bridie Gallagher and others. Andthen he was invited to America in 1960.

First U.S. Trip

“I was young, I celebrated my sixteenth birthday in the States, and that trip was an amazing experience… I flew on an Aer Lingus Super Constellation because this was the pre-jet era. The flight took sixteen hours from Shannon to New York with a stop in Gander and a stop in Boston but we stayed on the plane for the sixteen hours”. Paul arrived in New York in the winter as a youngster from Athlone, not yet sixteen years of age, and he was exposed to a truly amazing world different to anything he had ever experienced at home. When he was in New York he was taken to the New York Athletic Club where his host was going to buy him a new state-of-the-art tennis racket. When they went inside there was a boxing-ring and Ernest Hemingway was there sparring with his boxing partner. Paul was introduced to Hemingway but he was just one of the many celebrities he met. He also appeared at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Chicago where he travelled in a car with Mayor Daley. While in New York he was brought to Broadway and taken to meet the great American boxer Jack Dempsey who owned a restaurant on Broadway and Paul remembers him as “magnificently dressed and presented. He was a big man, with a big cigar and he was sitting in a corner of the restaurant” and he adds somewhat wistfully “unfortunately I didn’t get any photographs”.

During his US stay, Paul was honoured by the world-famous Roseland Dance City. He performed with the Glenn Millar Orchestra and was presented with a Special Commemorative plaque to mark the occasion. He was the first-ever overseas musician to receive this award. The plaque is proudly displayed in Paul’s music room at his home in Ennis.

Gael Linn Cabaret

In 1959 the late Donal O’Morain came up with the idea of Cabaret Gael Linn, a touring ensemble to promote Irish music and culture and Paul Brock became a member. This was the first cabaret group to present an Irish music line-up. The group included musicians, singers and dancers – such names as Kathleen Watkins (harpist); Grainne McCormack (dancer) who later married Martin Fay of the Chieftains; Liam Devally and Brendan O’Duill (singers) but one of the most famous people involved in the group, as far as Paul was concerned, was the fiddler Sean McGuire. “It was through the Gael Linn Cabaret that I met him for the first time. He was an extraordinary musician, a real virtuoso, who in any situation whether his audience was Irish or foreign always managed to switch them on. I saw him at close quarters and I played with him many, many times – McGuire was an amazing musician”.

Paul continues “I think that around the late 50s and early 60s attitudes to Irish music started to change because you had Sean O’Riada doing absolutely ground-breaking work while making use of our traditional folk music. His scores for the films ‘Mise Eire’ (1959) and Saoirse?(1960) brought about a considerable change in attitudes. The fact that O’Riada was an academic and that he was making use of traditional music caused people to sit up and take notice. He was putting his stamp of approval on the music. This really was a defining moment and it brought with it a major shift in public opinion. The message permeated through and people began to believe that there really might be something important about Irish music”. These films were shown in schools, and O’Riada had gained even greater credibility when he was appointed as musical director of the Abbey Theatre a post which he held for five years.

In the eyes of Paul Brock Sean O’Riada was hugely influential in managing to sway general opinion in favour of Irish music. During the Dublin Theatre Festival, in September 1960, O’Riada launched his Irish traditional band which he called Ceoltoiri Chualann with musicians Paddy Moloney; Sean Potts; Sony Brogan and John Kelly. Later members included Peadar Mercier and Sean Keane. Ceoltoiri Chualann, with its interesting blend of instruments: harpsichord; bodhrán; fiddle; piano; accordion; whistle; flute and pipes did much to revitalise the works of the blind harpist, Turlough O Carolan. People reacted very favourably to these hand-picked musicians playing music which O’Riada arranged – this was a break from the Ceili Band tradition and people welcomed it with open arms. The material itself had a wider appeal and attracted those who would not otherwise have been turned-on by Irish music to say ‘Wow! There really is something here”. Then out of Ceoltoiri Chualann came The Chieftains and the rest, as they say is history. This was the beginning of groups and bands and of the real internationalisation of Irish music. Paul Brock has performed as a special guest on stage with The Chieftains on many occasions.

Next Week: Paul Brock: his time with Shannon Development.