Following the success of the hugely popular A Little Bit Country series, RTÉ’s Archive Production Unit has turned its sights this time on Ireland’s Showband era, producing six half-hour programmes celebrating the lives and careers of some of the country’s best known Showband stars, a number of whom are marking 50 years in Showbiz this year.
Ireland’s Showband era of the 1950s, 60s and early 70s was a phenomenon that will never be seen in this country again. At the height of its popularity there were over 800 individual bands playing to packed ballrooms throughout the country. It was an era of Beehive hair styles, sharp suits, Brylcreem and of course ‘boy meets girl’. It was when the ‘Ballroom of Romance’ was played out for real and where ‘Dancing at the Crossroads’ was an actuality.
Narrated by Ronan Collins, A Little Bit Showband takes a nostalgic trip back to this golden period in Irish life and discovers how six of the leading Showband stars were catapulted from their ordinary lives into a world of jiving, electric guitars, adoring fans and life on the road. Each star has their own story to tell and the series reveals how their lives were changed for better or worse by being part of this unique time in the country’s history. The series also uncovers exactly what happened to each of them once the mirror ball stopped spinning and the public turned it’s back on the ballrooms.
Each week a different Showband star is interviewed and along with some previously unseen footage, A Little Bit Showband uses archive film from the 1940s, 50s, 60s and 70s to illustrate the highs and lows of this special group of men and women who kept Ireland entertained for so long.
BRENDAN BOWYER – “Ireland’s answer to Elvis” – was lead singer with the most successful group in the country in the 1960s, The Royal Showband. As our first home-grown pop star, and undisputed king of the showband era he was admired for his high energy on-stage performances and amazing vocal range.
With six No 1 hits including the song that became an anthem for a generation, The Hucklebuck his talent and success seemed unstoppable. But in Brendan’s middle years he encountered some dark times when music played second fiddle to an addiction that threatened to end his dreams forever.