Only Castlebar song to make pop charts

By Tom Gillespie

THOSE with fond memories of the Castlebar International Song Contest, which ran from 1967 to 1988, may not remember the winning song of the 1973 event.

In its 21-year history, that song, ‘I’m Gonna Make It’, was the only composition to enter the Irish top 10 charts, getting to number two.

However, it did not happen for several months, towards the end of 1974, after Dublin singer the late Joe Cuddy was the overall winner of the October ’73 contest.

One of the co-composers of the hit was Vincent ‘Vince’ Hill, an English traditional pop music singer and songwriter who is best known for his recording of the Rodgers and Hammerstein show tune ‘Edelweiss' in 1967, which reached number two on the UK Singles Chart, staying there for 17 weeks. The co-writer was Vince’s pianist, Ernie Dunstall, an eminent composer and Eurovision Song Contest conductor.

In Paddy McGuinness’s history of the Castlebar Song Contest, he wrote that Joe, from Raheny, had been specially chosen by the writers to present the song in Castlebar.

Paddy quoted from an article from the Evening Press of October 6, which I probably wrote, that the composers had heard Joe’s long playing (LP) record ‘Joe Cuddy’ and immediately contacted him to sing their entry.

That album, believe it or not, I still have in my collection, but sadly I no longer possess an old fashioned record player, something I must rectify.

Unusually, Joe Cuddy also wrote the sleeve notes on the LP in which he stated: "I am not so rash to think that this is tantamount to instant success, but I do hope that somewhere I will strike a cord with people who have never heard me in person.

"Music is my life and in this record I try to reflect the type of songs I know people enjoy."

Included in the 12-track vinyl, recorded by REX, are such songs as ‘Diary Of A Woman In Love’, ‘Red Sails In The Sunset’, and ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’.

‘I’m Gonna Make It’ was entered in the Wednesday, October 3, ’73, country and western section of the contest, and along with two other songs, ‘Only One More Road’, which was sung and composed by Roger Dervill from England, and ‘Don’t Leave Me Today’, written and sung by Joe O’Toole from Ireland, were selected to compete in the final.

And in the Friday night final, which was compered by Mike Murphy and featured the Wolfe Tones as special guests, there were 13 finalists from such countries as Ireland, England, Japan, Malta, Hungary and Bulgaria.

Joe’s winning song got adequate air play on RTÉ radio, particularly from Val Joyce on his Saturday afternoon show Airs and Races. Val, who compered at Castlebar for several years, was one of the very few RTÉ DJs of the day to promote Irish artists, as did the late Larry Gogan, another regular on the stage in Castlebar.

When ‘I’m Gonna Make It’ charted, Limerick’s Tommy Drennan of the Monarchs Showband held the number one spot in the charts with his version of ‘Beautiful Peace’. Gene Stuart was at number three with ’Christmas in My Home Town’, followed by ‘Pal Of My Cradle Days’, by Sean Dunphy.

The Wolfe Tones were at number five with ‘Helicopter Song’, Sonny Knowles at six with ‘Music Across The Way’. The Memories with ‘Don’t Pretend Anymore’ reached number seven.

Dana William’s version of ‘Sunday Morning’ was at number eight while Brendan Grace’s ‘Liberty Boy’ was at nine and Dickie Rock was at 10 with ‘Super Maxi Single’.

The Castlebar Song Contest was an outstanding success in its day, though financially it did not come up to the mark.

However, it was credited as being the richest song contest internationally, outside of Tokyo. The huge prize fund of £1,000 attracted worldwide entries, particularly from the then Iron Curtain countries. Likewise, the attraction of having their flights to Ireland and accommodation paid for by the organising committee was a huge incentive to attract the world’s top songwriters. Such a concession, however, over the years, added greatly to the financial woes of the organisers, despite the support of Bord Fáilte and Ireland West Tourism.

All of the three preliminary qualifying shows - Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - as well as the Friday night finals resulted in ‘house-full’ signs at the Royal Ballroom where the contest was staged for all but one year, when it moved to the Beaten Path, Brize.