In BALLROOM BLITZ U2’s Adam Clayton traces 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 in the 1960s. Ireland had its first modern music stars as over 600 showbands packed out newly built ballrooms nationwide. As original folk and rock acts performed in licensed venues, the ballroom industry was on the slide and by the late 1970s, after the Miami massacre and the rise of disco, showbands endured a painful demise as dance halls and ballrooms faded into rubble, apartment blocks and carpet showrooms.
Ep2 – December 2nd RTE One 9.30 pm
In the prosperous 1960s Irish audiences craved more comfort than a hastily built ballroom, often with no heat, that never served alcohol. The rise of the student movement and the renaissance in trad music in the 1970s, sparked a folk and ballad boom that also coincided with the rise of new rock talent like Rory Gallagher, Horslips and Van Morrison. Whilst country music survived, The Miami massacre of 1976 was often seen as the day the showband industry died and, as discos thrived in licensed premises, Adam Clayton discovers that the days of the ‘pop’ showband were at an end.
A Sideline Production for RTE
