From Aces to Angels

The Opry Beckons 
Click Images to View Details

   Considering what I've just told you about my musical shortcomings, I suppose it would be understandable if you came to the conclusion that I got the boot from Paddy's band. Surprisingly I didn't. There was a specific reason for my demise and it came in the shape of a man called Pat Mc Crossan (sen.).
  The first thing I noticed about Pat was that he smoked a heeluva lot of American cigarettes (Camels, I think...or maybe it was Chesterfields). Because it was the macho thing to do, I smoked myself at the time (I had just started and was a Woodbine man in those days) but not to the same extent as he did, for while we were talking, it was through a white cloud.
  Pat informed me that he had a country and western group and asked if I'd like to join as a rhythm guitarist. At first I wasn't interested until he mentioned that he had a T.V. show and a couple of radio shows in the pipeline. Then my ears perked up. T.V.! radio! stardom! Shucks, I thought. I didn't relish the idea of giving Paddy my notice but the thought of becoming a star was too hard to resist, so I slapped my thigh and told him I was in.
  When I told Paddy that I was leaving he wasn't very happy. When I told him why I was leaving he almost freaked out, for it was clear from the outset that he and Pat didn't see eye to eye. From what I could gather, the reason for Paddy's antagonism was that he considered Pat anti-union. Anyway, that was none of my business and Pat more or less convinced me that it was a good career move to join his group, so that was that.
  The following week I was practising with Pat's group,   'The Mainliners' I think they were called (nothing to do with Big Tom's lot of later years). The line up then was Pat (sen.) on fiddle and mandolin, Pat (jun.) on lead guitar (and still playing 'Turkey in the Straw'), Frankie Mc Cay on bass, with Seamus 'China Doll' Liddy and Greta Elkin doing the yodelling.

                      
  Musically it was a bit simpler than playing with Paddy's band, as I was only required to strum a few simple chords but I didn't mind too much. We rehearsed for the forthcoming T.V. show for a couple of weeks in the Lourdes hall and a little schoolroom up in the Henrietta Street area. We didn't do any gigs in that time which was a bit disappointing, and although it wasn't my priority at the time, I noticed that my tank was beginning to run a bit low. Pat often said that his ambition was to appear on the Grand Ole Opry (and I don't think he was joking) and thought the group had what it took to go the whole way.
  He wasn't happy about the guitar I was using and made no bones about saying so either. My pride and joy at this stage was a Hagstrom solid body type electric guitar. This instrument had a magnificent mother of pearl fingerboardand and again purchased with the assistance of my parents. He reckoned it wasn't suitable for country and western, so he 'suggested' that I try and get one that was more in keeping with the music. Looking back now I realise that he was right, although in modern country music (which I dislike intensely being a bit of a traditionalist) all sorts of electronic gadgetry is used. Anyway I subsequently sashayed up to Derry Vision in Ferryquay Street where I hired a Levin 'jumbo' accoustic.
  The rehearsing finally came to an end, and in late December we hit the trail for the B.B.C. in Belfast to rehearse for the show. We stayed over the first night, (which was another new experience for me), and the following night we appeared live on the 'Half Door Club.' As far as I can recall, the clobber we wore that night was tartan jackets and straw Stetsons.
  The star of the show that night was the famous Belfast singer, Ruby Murray who had a string of top ten hits during the fifties. Just as a matter of interest, at the time of writing Ruby, who died a couple of years ago, is now enjoying a posthumous revival in the form of a play which is doing the rounds of the theatres. There were a couple of other big celebrities appearing on that show, but their names now escape me. I was star struck as we all sat in the Green Room afterwards talking and drinking. 
  Oddly enough, Greta Elkin didn't appear on the show with us, apparently because of an altercation with the producer who considered one female star on the show to be enough. I only discovered this many years later and if true it certainly seemed very unfair to Greta. Not surprisingly, feeling jusifiably hard done by, she left the group a short time later.
  Not many working class people had T.V.s in those days, so it's hard to estimate how many actually saw the show. Unfortunately, too, as far as I can ascertain, no recording of that show exists. Meanwhile back at the ranch.
  After the T.V. show things become a little hazy. I remember practising a few times more up in Pat's house in Creggan Broadway, but I can only recall actually playing one gig though I'm sure we must have played more. I think that was in the American base at Clooney in the Waterside. I can't remember what happened to the radio shows.
  Playing or not, by that time I had come to the conclusion that I wasn't cut out to be a C&W star and I was eager to get back on the old electric guitar and play some good old Rock 'n' Roll. But regardless of your views on C&W music, I have to admit That Pat Mc Crossan was a dedicated man and lived only to play the old Bluegrass on the fiddle. As far as I was concerned, the Grand Ole Opry would have to wait. Jimmy Liddy died in August '98 and Pat himself died in May '99.

<<Back ---- Next>>