Live music review: Reeling in the Showband Years

University Concert Hall, Limerick

They say there’s no show like a Joe Show… well there is now and it comes in the form of Ronan Collins and a cast of showband legends, including Paddy Cole, Roly Daniels, Tommy and Jimmy Swarbrigg, Joe Mac and Eileen Reid.

What a line-up at the Limerick venue in what turned out to be a blockbuster, value-for-money, concert of hits, laughter and fabulous nostalgia.

Collins kicked off the sixth year of this show with, “We’ll provide the songs and stars, you bring the memories”, before launching into the 1960s hit ‘Pretty Woman’. Great voice, great start.

Multi-instrumentalist Lorraine McDonald, whose dad Frankie played with the Joe Dolan Band for 40 years, then stepped up to the plate with a medley of ‘Please, Mr Postman’, ‘Puppet on a String’ and ‘I Only Want to be with You’.

The Swarbriggs performed some of their 20 hit records before Collins launched into Joe Dolan classics, ‘The Answer To Everything’ and ‘Pretty Brown Eyes’.

Joe Mac gave us ‘Little Arrows’, a hilarious series of jokes and then a magical medley of classic tunes.

Then, out stepped 75-year-old Paddy Cole, whose fabulous set, with outstanding control on the clarinet, demonstrated his wonderful talent.

The queue for the toilets at the interval was like being at a Munster final (may have been something to do with the age profile) but, just like many of those humdinger games, the second-half delivered the goods here also, with Collins upping the pace with ‘Such a Good Looking Woman’ and ‘Every Step of the Way’.

Eileen Reid was a bit over the top, but delivered all her hits, including ‘Are You Teasing Me’ and ‘I Gave My Wedding Dress Away’, but it was the tinted glasses and white-suited Roly Daniels who finished us off, literally, with a pulsating medley that included an excellent version of the ballad ‘Noreen Bawn’, a selection of Neil Diamond hits and ‘Can’t Stop Loving You’.

The show’s finale is an all-cast medley, a salute to the showband era, which provided a perfect ending to a perfect night, a night the silver screamers showed us what they can do... and I don’t mean those on stage.

Reeling In the Showband Years is at Cork Opera House on Saturday and Sunday