Cole is a highly accomplished saxophonist and clarinetist, as well as being a spellbinding raconteur. With a history as colourful and eventful as a prime time soap, he s earned his stripes over 5 decades of almost constant gigging. He smiles as he recalls the early days on stage in Castleblayney.
I remember when we were still in school in Castleblayney, he laughs, and there was Sally McKenna, her cousin Kevin McKenna and myself. We used to have a three piece Sally on accordion, Kevin on drums and me on saxophone. We were very presumptuous, called ourselves The Jazz Trio . And we used to play at dances for 6 hours non-stop! 9pm-3am. I dread to think what it sounded like, mind you! We used to take the battery out of the car that drove us there to drive the amp, so when we came out after the gig, we had to push the car to get it started!
I remember we did a huge gig in the London Lyceum, he recalls, and Van Morrison was the support act. And Van still uses a showband line-up now: sax, trumpet and so on.
My father was a musician and all his family were too, he explains. My father worked in the post office and played with the Regal Dance Orchestra, and later with Maurice Lynch s Band. We ended up doing tours of England and Scotland together in Maurice Lynch s band.
From there it was a long and winding road that took Cole to virtually every high profile showband that ever toured at home and abroad. From Cole s Band (with his uncle Harry, cousin, and his father Paddy), to The Royal Showband, (including a 5 year stint in Las Vegas), The Clipper Carlton, The Big 8 and more recently, The Paddy Cole Superstars, his resumi is as long as a bank holiday traffic jam in Kildare.
Cole s memories of music in his home county as a boy are peppered with stories of local musicians, many of whom may not have made a name outside of Monaghan, but nonetheless buoyed the local music scene.
I remember a guy called Dave Dixon from Clones who had a band, he notes, and then there was McMahon s Band. In Castleblaney there was a very popular band, The Emmet CeilL Band.
Then there s Ronnie O Flynn, who s now playing bass with Donal Lunny, and Mickey McCarthy who went on to play guitar with Johnny Logan after he won the Eurovision first time round.
There are a lot of guys from Monaghan who never got the recognition they deserved, Cole avers. And of course there was Big Tom and The Mainliners whose drummer, Ronnie Duffy is now my drummer, and he s married to my sister! Nepotism!
Monaghan has its share of fine session musicians too, such as Gerry Muldoon and Frankie Lynch. But Castleblayney will always be associated with the showband era, with Philomena Begley, Margo and all those stalwarts of the time. This is due largely to one man, Tony Loughman of Top Rank Promotions, who managed many of those bands and musicians.
Tony is still heavily involved in music promotion, but his current role as regional co-ordinator of The People in Need telethon kept him well outside the reach of us here in The Great Record.
One of the best known (and biggest) dancehalls in the country was/is the Oasis in Carrickmacross. A venue without pretensions, Paddy Cole remembers that it got its name simply and solely because it was out in the middle of nowhere.
It used to be packed, he smiles. and there was another ballroom in Castleblaney called The Embassy Ballroom and that was a huge hit on a Wednesday night when there d be anything from 1500-2000 people there. Mid-week!
Another of Monaghan s more recent exports is Castleblayney s Eamon Toal who will be representing Ireland in this year s Eurovision. Eamon s father, Tommy was a disc jockey (with the ineffably cool name of Fat Sam ) and he started a local radio station. Toal isn t the first Euro songster to come out of the county either. The late Pat McGuigan, father of Barry, from Clones, represented Ireland back in the 60s, and played with many of the local bands when he was younger.
Sally McKenna, a fine accordion player from Castleblaney, used to play with the likes of Gilbert O Sullivan in his heyday.
These days, there are few live venues apart from lounges where covers bands gather. Punters come from Louth, Armagh and Meath, but it s largely to small venues where they hear old favourites belted out by latter-day Byrds and Beatles.
Traditional music has had a chequered history in Monaghan. Not a county with a distinctive style, it s witnessed a healthy growth in popularity in recent years, with a thriving Comhaltas scene and many fine younger musicians who ve shown a confidence in their playing that was previously lacking.
Mackie Rooney is a fount of information on the local traditional music scene, being an active member of Comhaltas for many years.
I suppose, as a county, Monaghan wouldn t rate as strongly in traditional music as counties like Clare and Donegal and Kerry, he avers modestly, but in the last 25 years or so, a number of families have established themselves as fine musicians.
Eamon S MuirL, from Scotstown, was the first president of Comhaltas CeolteoirL Iireann in 1952 and the first All Ireland Fleadh Ceoil was held in Monaghan that year.
There have been a handful of highly influential musicians in the county who presaged the current revival. These include: Pat McCabe, James Walsh of Corduff, and Brian McCabe of Magheracloon.
More recently, musicians of note include the Meehans of Monaghan town, the McKennas of Ballinode and the aforementioned Rooneys. Michael Rooney is a fine harpist who s now based in Dublin and is heavily involved in the partnership between Comhaltas and the Royal Irish Academy which has seen the inclusion of Irish music in the examination syllabus of the RIAI in the last year.
There s also a strong tradition of singing (in Irish and English) in Emmyvale, led largely by Gerard McQuaid who was an All Ireland sean nss champion. More recent successes included the father and son partnership of Mick and Donal Kavanagh, who recently won the senior and under-12 All Ireland sean nss singing competition. Lucia Cole, sister of Paddy, has also been active in the promotion of folk singing in particular. Pat Beagan of Drumcinney is another fine promoter of trad music, as is Nellie Fisher in Carrickmacross and Mary Kirk in Clones.
Monaghan can t lay claim to a leading role in trad, but if its burgeoning supply of younger musicians is anything to go by, the future looks bright indeed.
Junebug are a rare find in Monaghan the only rock n rollers that we managed to unearth in the entire county. They re a 5-piece who got together about a year ago, with Stephen Mulligan, on lead vocals, David McAree and Don Mulligan on guitars, Gavin McGuinness on bass and Finbar OmConnor on drums. According to Finbar, Junebug s music crosses all divides , but when pressed he hints at some genetic inheritance from the likes of Supergrass and Stereophonics. The band have just recorded a 4-track EP, TV King, which theymre currently distributing to record companies and radio stations. Not content to confine themselves to the gig circuit, Junebug have been known to dive headlong into the murky depths of Battle of the Bands competitions. They re still reeling from making it to the finals of the Trinity College Battle of the Bands competition, and they lay claim to silencing the multitudes when they strutted their proverbials in Isaac Butt s recently.
Rumour has it that Writhe are a metal band on the prowl in the county, but so far nobody s been able to unearth them for the Great Record.
With little sign of rock n roll to be found anywhere amid the hills and towns of the county, it looks like trad and jazz are the primary forces defining the music of the county these days.