The Dubliners
The band comprised Barney MacKenna (b. 16 December 1939, Donnycarney, Dublin, Eire), Luke Kelly (b. 16 November 1940), Ciaran Bourke (b. 18 February 1936, Dublin, Eire) and former teacher Ronnie Drew (b. 18 September 1935, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, Eire). They formed in 1962, in the back of O'Donoghues’ bar in Merron Row, Dublin, Eire, and were originally named the Ronnie Drew Group. The members were known faces in the city's post-skiffle folk haunts before pooling their assorted singing and fretboard skills in 1962. In 1964 Kelly left the unit and went to England where he continued to play on the folk scene. Two other members joined shortly after Kelly had left; Bob Lynch (b. Dublin, Eire) and ex-draughtsman John Shehan (b. 19 May 1939, Dublin, Eire). DUBLINERS IN CONCERT was the result of a live recording on 4 December 1964 in the concert hall at Cecil Sharp House in London. The band played various theatre bars, made several albums for Transatlantic and gained a strong following on the Irish folk circuit. After an introduction by Dominic Behan, they were signed by manager Phil Solomon and placed on his label, Major Minor. In 1965, the group took the desicion to turn professional, and Kelly wanted to return. He replaced Lynch who had wished to stay semi-professional. Throughout their collective career, each member pursued outside projects— among them Kelly's stints as an actor and MacKenna's The Great Comic Genius, a solo single issued after the Irishmen transferred from Transatlantic to the Major Minor label in 1966. During this time they received incessant plugging on the Radio Caroline pirate radio station. Bigoted folk purists were unable to regard them with the same respect as the similarly motivated Clancy Brothers And Tommy Makem after the Dubliners were seen on TOP OF THE POPS promoting 1967's censored Seven Drunken Nights and, next, Black Velvet Band. Never Wed An Old Man was only a minor hit, but high placings for A DROP OF THE HARD STUFF and three of its successors in the album list were a firm foundation for the outfit's present standing as a thoroughly diverting international concert attraction. A brain haemorrhage forced Bourke's retirement in 1974, and Drew's return to the ranks—after a brief replacement by Jim McCann (b. 26 October 1944, Dublin, Eire)—was delayed by injuries sustained in a road accident. Nevertheless, Drew's trademark vocal, ‘like coke being crushed under a door’, was heard on the group's 25th anniversary single, The Irish Rover, a merger with the Pogues that signalled another sojourn in the Top 10.