Mayo memories: Demise of the local record shop

By Tom Gillespie

SADLY there is no dedicated record shop remaining in Castlebar anymore. You can purchase music CDs and DVDs in all the multinational stores and stream music online on sites such as Spotify.

The county town has a proud musical history with such prominent musicians and singers as Stephen Garvey, Margaret Bourke-Sheridan, Eddie Cannon, Phil Hoban, T.J. Armstrong, Willie Downes, Tommie Gavin, Ray Jackson, Irene Gillespie, Gretta Hayden, Angela Corcoran, J.J. Collins, Brose Walsh, Nan Monaghan, Jimmy Feeney, Kevin Bourke, Dick Gillespie, Jimmy Deacy, Madame Bourke, Sean Bourke, Dan Doyle, Tommie Devaney, Padraig McDonnell, Larry Burke and Mick Cuffe.

My earliest recollection of a musical input to my life was my father, Dick, purchasing sheet music from Collins’ on Castle Street and practicing the new tunes on the trumpet in our home at Marian Row.

He had been taught to play the instrument and read sheet music by Sonny Comer, who lived at Staball and manoeuvred around on his hands as his legs were deformed.

Dick played with many of the local bands, including Brose Walsh, and had several of his own musical outfits over the years, including the Maryland Swingtette.

Likewise, along with other local musicians they would provide the orchestral accompaniment at pantomimes and variety shows in the town hall.

On a Sunday, Dick and his fellow musicians played at the Pavilion at an afternoon session.

Later, in the 1960s, he became the drummer with the resident band at the Travellers Friend Hotel in the town along with Nan Monaghan, Dan Doyle and Madame Bourke.

In those days all the musicians sat behind band stands on which the sheet music was placed.

With the advent of the showbands this all changed when the musicians cast aside the band stands and chairs and stood on stage. This revolution was led by the Clipper Carlton Showband from Strabane in Northern Ireland.

In mid-1962, the band introduced a special feature to their act called ‘Jukebox Saturday Night’ in which members of the band dressed up, impersonating the stars of the day.

They were one of the first to include a ‘show’ in their act, but it was the late Dave Glover, another Northern band, who claims to have actually coined the term ‘showband’, and the rest is history.

However, it was not for another 12 years that Castlebar was to see its first record shop.

Three years earlier, in 1971, a young Sligo native, Henry McGlade, started his career working for the famous Richie Fitzgerald Ceile Band who had their flagship record shop in Bundoran. Initially he got a summer job with them.

The record and souvenir shop was a huge tourist attraction and was going so well as the Irish record scene was just starting.

They were doing such business in Bundoran they decided to open in Sligo and Henry was asked to run that shop. He remained there a couple of years and then he moved to Castlebar where they opened in a premises, now vacant, next door to Supermac’s on Main Street.

Shortly after he opened, I became friends with Henry, and it wasn’t long until he was writing a weekly music column for The Connaught Telegraph.

Some years later Henry left Fitzgerald’s and opened his own Downtown Records store on Main Street. Later he moved to Market Square when the Flynn’s took over Downtown Records.

During this time The Connaught Telegraph staged their annual Entertainments Awards, which were organised by Henry, where readers voted for their favourite artists.

The recipient of his first ever accolade was Daniel O’Donnell and in later years the Saw Doctors were honoured for the first time.

Some of the hall of fame recipients were Jack Ruane, Mattie McDonagh, Brose Walsh and Tony Chambers.

Henry retired from that sector a few years ago and is now the promoter of TV Ireland, featuring weekly programmes on SKY TV on the latest happenings in the west of Ireland.

Eventually Downtown Records closed, leaving the county town without a dedicated record shop.

Another major musical event was the Castlebar International Song Contest which ran from 1966 to 1988.

The first director of the contest was my editor at The Connaught Telegraph, John McHale. I served as secretary for 10 years during which time I invited Henry McGlade to join the organising committee. He rose to the position of director in 1982, the same year as the contest won the prestigious Mayo Association Meithal award.

Bord Fáilte was one of the sponsors of the contest that year and its director general at the time was Joe Malone, a native of Breaffy, Castlebar.

He made funding available for Henry, accompanied by Pat Jennings, to travel to the US to promote the contest.

While in Las Vegas they met Neil Sedaka and Paul Anka who became patrons of the contest.

The music industry has changed dramatically since Fitzgerald’s opened in Castlebar in 1974, and many would say not for the best.