Limerick’s Beat & Rock Culture in the 1960s

 

Electric Echoes

Limerick’s Beat & Rock Culture in the 1960s

 

By Kieran Beville

 

By the mid-1960s, something was shifting in the air above Limerick. It was more than the static crackle of the pirate radio ship, ‘Radio Caroline’ or the low rumble of amps being pushed to their limits in sheds and garages. This was the sound of rebellion – the fuzz box and wa-wa-pedals of guitars, treble-soaked vocals, and a youth culture refusing to settle for the showband scene.

While many in Ireland were waltzing and jiving to neatly dressed showbands a small but dedicated group of teenagers in Limerick were carving out their own corner of the sonic landscape. These were groups influenced by the Beat movement, Rock n Roll and Motown. Their sound was raw, a British/American inspired departure from country music, yet defiantly home-grown. Their stages weren’t big hotel ballrooms but anywhere someone could plug in a Vox amp without getting the plug pulled.

The Beat sound emerged from Liverpool in the early 1960s and reshaped the soundscape of youth culture on both sides of the Irish Sea. Drawing inspiration from the raw energy of American Rock n Roll and the soulful grooves of rhythm and blues, bands began to develop in Limerick. The Beat/Rock scene sparked a cultural shift. More than just a musical trend, it became a driving force behind the era’s growing counterculture, setting the stage for a seismic evolution or revolution in both sound and attitude.

Out With the Old, In With the New Beat

Limerick was a city long defined by tradition but the Beat/Rock scene offered something thrillingly new. By 1964 Irish youths, many still in school uniforms by day, were forming bands. Many of the bands that played in Limerick initially were not home-grown Limerick groups. They came from Dublin and Belfast but struck the keynote for a new generation of Limerick bands.

One group in particular that had a big influence on the Limerick scene was the The Interns from Northern Ireland. By 1965 local bands began to emerge, such as The Colours (Willie Browne, Joe Mulcahy, Noel Casey) and Granny’s Intentions (Johny Hockedy, who replaced Joe Heelan, Johnny Duhan, Cha Haran, Guido Divito, Jack Costello) as well as the excellent three piece Jeremiah Henry (Johnny Fean, Jack Costello, Guido Divito)

Young bands were birthed, armed with cheap guitars, hand-me-down drums, and a deep affection for everything pouring out of the UK – The Beatles, The Kinks, The Stones, Them. This wasn’t about polished harmony or brass sections – it was about electricity. It was about finding a groove and giving it a go! The Beat/Rock bands gave Limerick teenagers a reason to dance to rhythms that felt like theirs.

The Venues

Later on Limerick became an important venue for touring bands like Skid Row and a host of home-grown talent. Church-owned spaces like The Franciscan Hall and the Redemptorist Hall became unlikely cradles of rock ’n’ roll rebellion along with sports clubs. The Jetland Ballroom, better known for its showband affairs, cautiously opened its doors to these youths when the crowd started asking for something edgier. Smaller, more intimate clubs sprang up that didn’t just tolerate the ‘noise’, but embraced it. Of course the Bigger bands of the seventies (Rory Gallagher, Thin Lizzy, Horslips…) played the Savoy.

Among the most beloved haunts were The Cavalier Club in The Mechanics Institute on Hartstonge Street and Club A-Go-Go in Post Office Lane, where a band called The People played the opening night. The lead guitarist with that band was Henry McCullough from Northern Ireland. He was the only Irishman to play at the 1969 iconic Woodstock festival.

The story goes that when the lads from Granny’s Intentions lived in London they played regularly in The Marquee. This venue is where many legendary bands of the 1960s were discovered. The boys from Limerick shared a house with Joe Cocker and one day Cocker, whose guitarist was leaving his band, asked Jack Costello if they could recommend a competent and versatile guitarist. He recommended McCullough, who stood in with the Intentions in a kind of audition. Six weeks later Henry was playing with Cocker at Woodstock. McCullough went on to play with Paul McCartney in Wings and it is his guitar we hear in the theme music to the James Bond movie, Live and Let Die.

The Cavalier became known for its sessions where the city's youths gathered to hear the latest riffs blasting through Marshall stacks. Club A-Go-Go (later known as Club Tabu) was a pulsating hive of fuzz-toned anthems, sweaty dancefloors, and cigarette haze – a true underground hotspot that lived up to its name.

These weren’t glitzy spaces. They were scuffed floors, fogged windows, and overloaded extension leads. But they were electric. Local promoters pitted bands against one another in friendly rivalry while gaggles of mods and rocker teens crammed in to hear their peers cover ‘You Really Got Me’ or launch into extended Clapton/Cream-style jams.

The Bands – Forgotten Names, Lasting Influence

Few of these bands left recordings – maybe a rehearsal tape here, a demo acetate there but they left an imprint – on peers, on future musicians, and on the shape of Limerick’s music scene long after the amps went silent. One notable exception was Granny’s Intentions who produced an exceptionally good album titled ‘Honest Injun’ (1970). Many of the 1970s Rock/Blues bands were conceived to the Beat of the 1960s.

No Labels, No Future—Just the Moment

Unlike their UK idols most Limerick’s Beat and early Rock groups didn’t have record deals or tour buses. What they had was talent and passion. Youth culture was still tightly policed by clergy, teachers, and cautious parents. Some gigs were shut down mid-set others never got off the ground. Venues could be yanked with little warning. The very term ‘Beat’ or ‘Rock’ carried undertones of danger in some quarters.

Still, they played. They borrowed gear. They wrote songs in bedrooms and basements. They played anywhere that would have them – if only for the chance to feel, even for a moment, like part of a bigger movement.

The Quiet Fade and Loud Legacy

By the early 1970s, the fragile Beat scene in Limerick had largely faded. Some musicians joined the ranks of the more professionalised showbands. Others gave up music altogether. But the spirit they embodied didn’t vanish – it resurfaced in the city’s bands like Jeremiah Henry. They were undoubtedly one of the greatest bands to emerge from Limerick. Long before The Cranberries ascended as a bright star in the music firmament it was bands like Granny’s Intentions (initially a Beat/Rock/Blues band they later developed a Motown sound) featuring Limerick legends Johnny Duhan (R.I.P.), Cha Haran, Johnny Hockedy, Guido Divito, Joe O’Donnell and Joe Heelan who carved out the first modern sound of the city, making history in their own way – one backbeat at a time.

Before Granny’s Intentions there were very few bands of note (apart from showbands) in Ireland. The Bachelors were a popular music group from Dublin but based primarily in the UK. They had several hits during the 1960s, including eight top-ten singles in the UK between 1963 and 1966. Then there was Van Morrison’s band, Them, formed in Belfast in 1964. So, Granny’s Intentions was really the first Limerick band to rock not only the clubs of Limerick but the clubs of London.