Joe Dolan ?Ireland?s Elvis? wowed the crowds

“The most generous-spirited man you could ever meet,” is how singer Tommy Swarbrigg - who got his first big break through “The Drifters” - remembers Joe Dolan. Tommy - who with brother Jimmy represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest on two occasions in the 1970s - came from Cootehill to Mullingar to play with Joe`s band after Ben Dolan and Seamus Casey auditioned him at his home in Cootehill.

The young trumpeter became the band`s musical director, and rearranged hits of the day for the Drifters, and recalls that he would often bring a song up a tone or two - but that taking it higher was no problem to Joe Dolan because of his incredible vocal range. “He had a phenomenal range.  People forget just how good a singer he was,” says Tommy, saying that Joe`s vocal ability was “amazing”. “He had an enormous range; great breath control.”

Every Christmas night for years, Joe and The Drifters played at The Ulster Hall in Belfast, and Tommy recalls how, on one occasion, Joe gave his usual unaccompanied rendition of Silent Night - but had to repeat it twice over, such was the reaction to his performance.

“You could have heard a pin drop,” he says. But Joe`s success lay not just in his incredible singing talent, but in his fantastic personality as well.

“Joe was amazing. He was the most generous spirited man you could ever meet,” he says, recalling how he got his first song-writing breaks when Joe performed some of his songs as B-sides.

A perfectionist, Joe wouldn`t accept second best from his band members, nor from himself. “Everything had to be absolutely right. Everything, from our dress, to our punctuality; our arrangements; how we played and all the rest of it.”

Eventually, Tommy  left The Drifters, and with brother Jimmy - who was then living in London - formed The Times, but there was never any rancour or bad feeling with Joe.

“The whole lot of us were staying in this massive hotel in Torremolinos.  And when we were leaving, the entire staff, and the management, came out and stood on the steps - five deep -waving goodbye to us.  But it wasn`t really for `us`: it was for Joe.”

Although not there to perform, Joe sang occasionally at the hotel bar - and made friends left right and centre. “He was Ireland`s Elvis,” says Tommy.