Henry Wymbs chats to Dec Cluskey of The Bachelors, Ireland’s first ‘boy band’ and the first Irish group to top the UK charts back in the 1960s, who went on to achieve international stardom.

 

The Bachelors – Con and Dec Cluskey and John Stokes – first came together as The Harmonichords and were the first of the Irish ‘boy bands’ to invade the UK in 1962.
They took on the might of the top British groups and ruled supreme in the face of the musical revolution emanating from Merseyside.

I have been fortunate enough to catch up with founding member Dec Cluskey, and he takes up the story:

“I was born in Dublin, into a family of five children and was quite privileged to receive a private education at The O’Connell School, (the same school as nine of the signatories of the 1916 Rising). It was then the ‘Eton’ of Ireland. My father was a successful actor, although in those days he had to have a day job.

“I suppose love of show business was second nature to Con and myself. Without sounding big-headed, the family were academically bright and I got the highest marks in Ireland for maths in my intermediate certificate exam at school. I was not allowed to speak English at school until I was 17 years old. After graduating I was lucky to be appointed to a position in the Chief Civil Engineer’s Department in the C.I.E (the national rail company) – in fact I designed quite a few railway bridges in Ireland”

At the age of fifteen the boys were appearing regularly on national radio, and started to make professional appearances at Dublin’s Theatre Royal and then a twenty-six-week booking on the peak time Eamonn Andrews radio show.

“I was in a harmonica band and Con and I also played piano and guitar. John Stokes, whom we knew from school, also joined us in the band. We played all over Ireland and made a huge name for ourselves”, says Dec.

“We were all combining daytime work schedules and playing gigs in the evenings and weekends so it was tough going at times. Con was an electrical engineer and John Stokes a carpenter. I was the lucky one, with the cushy position in C.I.E. – 10am to 5pm with a one-and-a-half-hour lunch break.

“It would be fair to say we were mainly an instrumental act, and after some advice from Irish singer Patrick O’Hagan, we added vocals. We started off singing Irish folk songs and as a result bookings started to flood in. I was playing the mouth organ since I was twelve.”

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own