Showband Heroes Ep 2: Paddy Cole and Sandy Kelly

Showband Heroes - ‘Remembering when we danced together’

In 2020, TaRP recorded a number of online events in its limited series, ‘Music - A Bridge over Troubled Waters’. The response left the producers in no doubt that music could re-connect, reawaken and re-invigorate the common, cross-community bond that endured even through our darkest days.
For that series, musicians were drawn mainly from the folk/acoustic genre but, this time, the focus is on the Showbands who entertained mixed audiences from the early Sixties through to the late Seventies; many of whom still attract large audiences to dancehalls and concerts.
Ironically, Showbands remained the unsung heroes of their time but, now, their priceless legacy is finally being acknowledged and honoured.

Episode 2 features two of Ireland’s greatest musical emissaries, Paddy Cole of The Capitol Showband, The Big 8 and The Paddy Cole All-Stars, and Sandy Kelly from The Fairways Showband, who had her own TV series and toured and recorded with Johnny Cash.

Presenter - Ken Murray
Producer - Stephen Travers
Executive Producer - Eugene Reavey
Co-Executive Producer - Joe Campbell
Online Producer - Tracy Dempsey

‘Showband Heroes’ is a Truth and Reconciliation Platform project, recorded via The Miami Showband Peace Centre Online and supported by Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs.
For more information about Truth and Reconciliation Platform please visit www.tarp.global