Ballroom Blitz – Part 1
In Ballroom Blitz U2’s Adam Clayton documents the rise and fall of Irish showbands as they inspired a church dominated 1950s Ireland to embrace a new modern world of music, fashion and pop culture of the 1960s. Ireland had its first modern music stars as over 600 showbands packed out over 1000 ballrooms nationwide. As original folk and rock acts performed in licensed hotels halls and cabaret venues, the ballroom industry was on the slide and by the late 1970s, after the Miami massacre and the rise of licensed discos, showbands endured a painful demise as ballrooms faded into rubble, apartment blocks and carpet showrooms.
About:
Adam Clayton embarks on a passionate and personal journey to explore how showbands played an integral role in the development of an Irish music industry that today is a global powerhouse and influenced the future cultural journey and musical careers of many Irish/UK acts including The Beatles, Oasis, Dusty Springfield (Mary O’Brien), The Smiths and many more.
‘Ballroom Blitz’ explores the unique phenomenon of the Irish showband which provided the soundtrack to Ireland as it danced its way through a revolutionary period of growth and prosperity in the 1960s. The bands – normally a 7 or 8 piece with powerful horn sections – interspersed waltzes, Irish music and jazz with the ‘pop’ hits of the day as they entertained young hungry audiences at a time when Ireland had no music radio or television. In a country where contraception was illegal, young men and women viewed the weekly socials as a chance to dance and romance with the most popular acts playing up to seven nights a week.
Guests include Phil Coulter, Eileen Reid, Jim Lockhart, Bob Geldof, Linda Martin, Paddy Cole, Derek Dean, Aonghus McNally, Barry Devlin, plus DJs Tracy Clifford and Ronan Collins, fashion editor Deirdre McQuillan and Charles Hendy (Mary Wallopers).
Sixty years before U2 dominated Las Vegas at the Sphere in 2024, Irish showbands entertained American audiences during sold out residencies in Vegas plus packed out Irish ballrooms in New York, Boston and Chicago. Future icons like Van Morrison and Rory Gallagher plied their trade in Irish showbands. As some critics eyed Irish showbands as merely ‘human jukeboxes’, Adam discovers they were a vital part of a wider social and cultural narrative as ballrooms sprang up in rural parishes across Ireland as the emerging republic celebrated an economic boom, low emigration and investment in further education. At a time the Irish Catholic Church held power over sexual ‘morals’, showbands created an opposite effect as travelling bands packed out ballrooms nationwide offering an opportunity for a repressed young generation to meet up, lose their inhibitions and potentially meet their future spouse.
For many ‘the music died’ in July 1975 when three members of Ireland’s most popular showband The Miami were murdered by a ‘rogue’ British Army patrol in Northern Ireland as they travelled south late at night. A year later, U2 formed and in Ballroom Blitz their bass player Adam Clayton embarks on a passionate and personal journey to explore how showbands played an integral role in the development of an Irish music industry that today is a global powerhouse plus influenced the future cultural journey and musical careers of so many Irish/UK acts including The Beatles, Oasis, Dusty Springfield (Mary O’Brien), The Smiths and many more.
A Sideline Production for RTÉ
‘Ballroom Blitz’ is commissioned by RTE’s Head of Factual Programming Colm O’Callaghan, from Sideline Productions and produced and directed by Billy McGrath – Citizens of Boomtown (BMG Films/BBC); Completely Pogued (Windmill Lane/C4) and Secrets of Great Castles (C5/Netflix) with long-time collaborator DoP Ken O’Mahoney; edited by Brian McCue (U2 Live at Boston DVD – Emmy nominee; George Michael Live in London; Willie Nelson in Nashville) and executive produced by Rockabillmedia’s Michael Murphy (Right Here Right Now, They All Came Out to Montreux, Blitzed).
