Mueseum salutes showband era

Today starts the shuffle back to the Hucklebuck in Waterford city.

National Museum of Ireland director Dr Pat Wallace and Royal Showband singer Brendan Bowyer last night opened Hucklebuck Time - A Celebration of the Generation that Danced Their Way into History at the Waterford Museum of Treasures at the Granary.

The exhibition, which runs until August 20th, focuses on the special contribution made by Waterford bands to the showband scene. It will showcase "the phenomenon that was the showband era in the 1950s up to the 1970s". Dr Wallace said it was particularly satisfying that the exhibition came in time to be enjoyed by many of those with first-hand memories of the showband era.

Last night a group of students from Waterford's de Braam School of Dance & Theatre Arts "waddled like snakes" and "danced like ducks" in a series of routines choreographed by modern dance and drama teacher Deirdre Dempsey.

Hundreds of contemporary photographs of the showband performers on stage and other memorabilia are on show. The exhibition includes a 1960s Royal Showband jacket and the saxophone used by band leader Michael Coppinger in the 1965 recording of The Hucklebuck.

Bowyer's recordings with the Royal yielded seven number one hits, while in 1962 the Waterford band were supported on one British tour date by an up-and-coming Liverpool band, the Beatles.

Other nationally acclaimed Waterford bands included the Blue Aces, the Savoy, the Derek Joys and The Woodchoppers, featuring actress Anna Manahan's brother Joe on piano.

Museum curator Eamonn McEneaney said: "In an era blighted by mass emigration, the showbands brought a touch of glamour and their success was one of the great catalysts for change in modern Ireland."