In the early 1950's, most of Ireland's entertainment was provided by "orchestras," which were really just dance bands with between 10-12 musicians. They usually featured piano, brass, guitar, drums and sometimes two or three vocalists. Musicians sat on chairs and read sheet music. Names like Brose Walsh, Mick Delahunty, and Maurice Mulcahy dominated the scene playing a mix of standard tunes and the popular hits of the day. Adequate, danceable, but less than exciting to watch. 

It wasn't long before someone got the idea (legend says it was the Clipper Carlton) to stand up and move to the music, and the showband was born! Soon, most showbands featured 7 or 8 members, a full complement of brass, and a lead singer out front instead of a band leader. Names like the The Royal Showband featuring Brendan Bowyer, The Miami featuring Dickie Rock, and The Capitol Showband featuring Butch Moore took the country by storm and at it's peak, it is estimated that 700 to 800 showbands toured Ireland continuously (we currently list over 850 on our showband page).

As the turbulent 60's gave way to the swinging seventies, Irish showbands began changing, specializing in pop or country and the original showbands were forced to adapt to the changes. In the 70's and 80's, Ireland's entertainment landscape was divided into four basic types of music: pop, country and western, rock, and folk.

Although bands from all genres coexisted and some even crossed over from one to another, the Irish "dance" scene was divided mainly between the "pop" and "country and western" bands (sometimes called "country and Irish"). Folk groups rarely played the dancehalls, and rock bands generally played to smaller crowds in pubs and colleges. As the 70's progressed, though, several rock bands made the transition to the "showband" circuit and competed for gigs.

The emergence of discos in the mid 1970's gave promoters a new money making opportunity as they could pay a single DJ to play records (as opposed to a six or seven piece band). Hotels started converting ballrooms into "nightclubs" and there were fewer and fewer gigs available to the bands. As competition heated up for an ever dwindling number of venues, lesser known bands started to pack it in, and only bands with the strongest followings could still making a living "on the road."

As the 80's came to a close, the "showband era" was all but over. Even though many of the top names of the era still perform today, the preeminence of the Irish dancehall scene is now just a memory. Most of the remaining bands play regularly in theatres, in cabaret, at weddings and corporate functions and in England as there aren't enough dance venues left in Ireland. Most of the ballrooms have been closed down, or converted into warehouses, furniture stores, garages, or community centers while others were simply demolished to make room for new development.

Since the early 1990's there has been a renewed interest in the showbands, but this has been focused almost exclusively on the big name showbands of the 60's. There has been little written or said about the hundreds of bands that followed the showbands into the ballrooms, dancehalls, hotels, and marquees of Ireland in the 70's and 80's. our goal is to ensure all the bands are recognized for their contributions to Irish entertainment.