RIGHT NOTE.. Members of the new showband ready to play the Westville Enniskillen are Bob Quick, Eunan McCaffrey and Ray Moore
A new showband that launches this week is aiming to put a modern twist on the showband era.
Formed by well-known Fermanagh musician Eunan McCaffrey, guitar, ‘The North West Showband’ features Bob Quick on trombone, Eddie McCaffrey on bass guitar, Ryan McCaffrey on lead guitar, Marty Jones in charge of percussion and Ray Moore, who cut his teeth playing in the original showbands like The Plattermen on keyboard.
Bob, former deputy head of music at the Western Education and Library Board, has been working on musical arrangements for the band.
“Having played for over 30 years you get a feel for what type of music people respond to on the dance floor,” explained Eunan.
“Having focused on my own band Me and Him over the last eight years we found that the older 60s 70s and 80s music had become the core of our set list and people seemed to really respond to it commenting at the end of the night how it was great to hear that type of music.”
He went on: “As I’m getting on in age now I felt the time was right for me to try and put a proper dance band back together and do what the origninal showbands appeared to do which was to use the best material available to them at the time and utilise the best musician available to acheive this.
While he was reluctant to give too much away in terms of the setlist for the band’s launch night – Eugene did promise the likes of Brendan Bowyer, Fran O’Toole, Dickie Rock, Chubby Checker, Bill Hayley – as well as The Drifters, Elvis and Tom Jones.
“We try to take the showband into the 21st century. With our own unique style putting a slant on some more modern classics. It’s been frantic practice for the last few months but now that it has come together and is a reality rather than a vision I can’t wait to get on the stage with a very talented bunch of musicians.”
Joining the band are four brass players, principals with the Strabane Concert Brass. They can be heard, for free, on Friday September 12 at the Westville Hotel in Enniskillen. It promises to be a great night.