Showband Heroes Episode 5 Jimmy Harte

Showband Heroes - ‘Remembering when we danced together’

Episode 5 features Jimmy Harte, the original lead singer with The Miami Showband who left that iconic band to finish his studies and to concentrate on securing a ‘steady job’ in Dublin just as the band was breaking big. Jimmy eventually went back to the music business and played with many of Ireland’s greatest musicians before emigrating to Australia where he continues to perform and to present his own twice-weekly radio show. Here, Jimmy presents a unique insight into the creation of a band that is now studied and written about at home and around the world while also speaking candidly about his regret mixed with relief for a heart-breaking decision that may well have saved his life.

In 2020, TaRP recorded a number of online events in its limited series, ‘Music - A Bridge over Troubled Waters’. The response left the producers in no doubt that music could re-connect, reawaken and re-invigorate the common, cross-community bond that endured even through our darkest days. For that series, musicians were drawn mainly from the folk/acoustic genre but, this time, the focus is on the Showbands who entertained mixed audiences from the early Sixties through to the late Seventies; many of whom still attract large audiences to dancehalls and concerts. Ironically, Showbands remained the unsung heroes of their time but, now, their priceless legacy is finally being acknowledged and honoured.

Produced and presented by Stephen Travers
Online Producer: Tracy Dempsey
Executive Producer: Eugene Reavey
Co-Executive Producer: Joe Campbell
‘Showband Heroes’ is a Truth and Reconciliation Platform project, recorded via The Miami Showband Peace Centre Online, and supported by Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs. For more information about Truth and Reconciliation Platform please visit www.tarp.global