Young Shadows Feature (1962-1969)
Photo Gallery -
Band Lineups -
Discography
- Audio samples -
Where Are They Now?
The Story
Editor's note: Every care
has been taken to present only factual information in our stories
based on first person reports, newspaper articles and photographic
archives. If you can add anything or correct info in this story,
please email us and let us know.
The first references we found about the the Young Shadows were in
July, 1962. In an advert for the Apollo, Dundrum, they were
described as playing "Twist, rock and what have you."
The first mention we found about the Young Shadows from
Dublin was in the July 28, 1962 issue of the Evening Press
(see below). An article about young bands coming on the scene
featured an interview with their manager, John Scanlon. The initial
lineup was: Pat O'Keefe (bass), Pat Murphy (sax), Pat Long (trombone
and vocals), Pat Holgate (drums), Eddie Pollard (guitar) and Tom
Keane (guitar). The band seemed to be playing everywhere around
the Dublin ballrooms at the time often listed playing 3-4 nights a
week which was rare for a new band.
Young Shadows re is little 60's Showband .Originally only four
members, Pat Long, Liam Compelli, Eamon Pollard & Charlie the
drummer. We got our first break from Mr. Downey the proprietor of
the Ritz ballroom in Ballyfermot. We plucked up the courage to ask
him could we play during the interval when the band had their
break.! At first he had a good laugh then he agreed we could the
following Monday night. We had little or n...o equipment, Charlie
only had a pair of drumsticks and a snare drum ! We were
all about 15 years of age. We were a hit with the crowd as we were
all locals. Mr. Downey asked us if we could get a bass player for
the next time. We somehow got the name of Pat O" Keeffe who owned a
home made bass guitar. Pat was a great addition as he was a great
bass player and singer. Soon we were playing Monday nights on our
own, and the rest as they say ........We were devastated when
Charlie left the band to go and find work in England, and now we
were looking for a drummer! That,s where Paddy Holgate comes in. We
were now a five piece and began to spread our wings. We were soon
playing backup band to many of the top Showbands, like The Airchords
,The Blue Clavons, The Royal Showband etc. These bands gave us great
encouragement and we got paid as well! Apart from being a wonderful
drummer, Paddy was elected to be our driver as he was a year or so
older than the rest of us. We met our manager to be Jack Scanlon at
about this time. It was he who named us The Young Shadows because we
played so many of Cliff and the Shadows hits. Jack decided that the
way forward was to become a Showband, so we had to recruit two new
members, a sax player and a trumpet player. So in came Jimmy O;
Neill on trumpet and Joe Goughegan { soon to be replaced by Tommy
Walsh } on sax. We started to travel about the country a lot, so
soon we lost our bass player Pat as he was needed for his fathers
carpet laying business. He was a great loss but then we found Jimmy
Storey. Jimmy was a great find as he could read music better than
any of us. He played bass and keyboards and became our musical
director! That was the line-up that toured all over Ireland and
occasionally England during Lent when work was scarce in Ireland. [
more later ]......
See Mor
More to come.....
click on thumbnails for full image
