A longtime stalwart of Irish music radio, and fierce advocate of Irish artists, KCLR’s Roddie Cleere still keeps the home-fires burning every Sunday night.
Last week saw him put up a quick spiel about his beginnings in the 1980s scene, and it’s a bit of a time-capsule…
I was still very young, about 13/14 years old. I was never a fan of the whole showband scene that was so popular in Ireland. Me and my friends would spend our evenings listening to Radio Luxembourg or, if we were lucky, Radio Caroline.
Here, we would get to listen to bands like Cream, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones or anything that would take us away from the drone that was the showbands and their feeble attempts at the songs of the day.
When Thin Lizzy arrived we finally found a band we could call our own – they were Irish!
More at the link below…
I’m proud to count Roddie amongst my friends. A real gent and a radio legend in Waterford and beyond.
Something quite depressing about the showband scene in Ireland going for so, so long.