My own lifetime in music began in the fifties; my family lived in Bray, county Wicklow a short distance from Dublin. My Dad was a bandleader, drummer and violinist, and my Mother played piano. I followed their footsteps and began drumming in the late fifties, my younger brother Billy began playing a little later.

Influenced by all I saw and heard in “ The Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman Stories” Gene Krupa, Louis Armstrong, ect, I had just formed a school Jazzband when the family, like so many others in Ireland at the time emigrated to England. We settled in Oldham, close to Manchester. At the time I was about eighteen years of age and worked for a short while as an apprentice electrician, I formed a Jazzband in 1958 in the Oldham area, The Panama Jazzband, playing mainly workingmen’s clubs.  The jazz scene in Manchester was thriving at the time, I auditioned for, and got the drum chair with Johnny Tippetts Jazzmen, one of the many popular bands of the time in the Manchester area.

Through the jazz boom years, Johnny Tippetts Band played, as did many jazz bands, The Cavern Liverpool, and I remember well The Beatles playing the interval for us. We toured extensively, in the North of England. most of The Northern English bands were Simi professional, to go pro, as I wanted, one would have to head south for London.                                                                                    

In 1962 I choose to return to Ireland, where a thriving Showband industry was in full swing, with hundreds of professional bands earning excellent money playing the dance halls. I placed an ad in the Irish Independents dance band column and worded it something like this “Irish born drummer, at present with top English Jazzband seeks position with Irish showband” I received quite a few offers. Jack Brierleys Showband Cork, offered £11 per week, The Clefonaires Sligo £12, I settled for Dave Dixon’s Dixonaires Showband Clones at a whooping £14.10 shillings.

I remember the day well, in July 1962, bidding farewell to the family, with packed suitcase and various boxes containing the drum kit, setting off from Manchesters Central Station for the long journey back to Ireland, train boat and bus arriving in, what seemed to me, the middle of nowhere. The following night on my first gig, we traveled to the Silver Slipper Ballroom Sligo. Showbands played every kind of music, so I had to adapt to this quickly, having only played jazz for some years up to this. A few nights later towards the end of a dance in Adamstown Hall in Wexford, I played a lengthy drum solo, something I was quite used to doing on the jazz scene. A large crowd of dancers stopped dancing to gather round the stage, much to the delight of bandleader Dave Dixon. Calling me aside after the dance I was offered a rise of thirty shillings to repeat the performance nightly, this was something akin to winning the lotto, and I readily agreed.

Clones, a town I grew to like, as there were a few good bands based there. The craic on the weekly Monday night off was tremendous.  One of the Bands was “ The Big Four” an excellent and popular quartet-featuring singer Pat McGuigan later to be known as Pat McGeegan, Dad of boxer Barry. Their drummer Doug Steward was down with flu, I was asked to stand in for a week or two. One of their dates was in Castlebar, the supporting band was Pete Brown and his Band of Renown from Kiltimagh. Pete offered me a job so I moved to the Mayo town. Petes band was extremely popular in The Irish halls in England so we spent a good deal of time traveling to and from the UK. Then it was five enjoyable years with The Ohio Showband, based in Tuam, followed by one year with Butch Moore and The Kings, two years with Art Supple and the Victors. I am sure, as with most of us who spent memorable years in the Showbands, I could write a book or two on times spent with each of those bands. But that’s for another day.

In 1973 the cabaret scene was starting to take over from Showbands and together with my Brother Billy (Airchords, and Royal) Arthur O’Neill (Airchords etc) and Jimmy Byrne (Victors) we formed Just Four. This group lasted eleven years with considerable success. I was also booker and manager of this group gaining vast experience in band management.

And so back to my first love, jazz. Since the eighties we have been very successful with The Guinness Jazzband, playing festivals and jazz concerts throughout Europe. Together with my wife Nuala, we also run a very successful entertainment agency  “DH Entertainment” based in Co Kildare, specializing in wedding and corporate entertainment. We have three wonderful children, one whom is following in my own footsteps, Graham, who continues to have tremendous success in the music industry.