Denver dances

DANCING as it was during the showband era in Ireland may have long since died but not so when young Galway singer Mike Denver and his band are playing and as they continue to pack in the crowds everywhere it is appropriate that the new DVD by Mike and the band should be titled Let's Dance. The DVD is a live recording made at a dance in The Glencairn Hotel, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan and it will be released on Friday August 24. 'We felt it was an ideal time to release a DVD that reflected Mike and the band at their best in a live dancing situation and we are happy with the way the cameras captured the action and the atmosphere,' says Mike's manager, Willie Carty. Willie, a former musician with the Conquerors, has been instrumental in Mike's rise to success on the Irish music scene. Both men live in Portumna. Apart from recording the DVD Mike also had another big event in his life in recent months when he married his long-time girlfriend Liz Gannon at Keadue Church, Co Roscommon followed by a reception afterwards in Kilronan Castle and they ended up in Las Vegas during their honeymoon. 'We spent some of the honeymoon in the island of St Lucia in the Caribbean, Miami and then we went to Vegas. 'As I proposed to Liz while we were in Las Vegas on holidays last year we decided that some of the honeymoon should also be spent there,' says Mike. Fr Brian D'Arcy married them and among those performing at the wedding reception were The Camembert Quartet from The Late Late Show, singer Ray Lynam and comedian Conal Gallan. Their wedding was given a 10-page spread in the popular VIP magazine and according to Mike the reaction to that from the fans has been very positive. Mike says that he and Liz are enjoying married life and as she has been his partner for almost nine years she understands his lifestyle very well which means that he is away from home on tour both here and abroad for much of the time. A few months ago his latest album Vintage Country was released to critical acclaim and it has been a steady seller ever since. 'When planning the new DVD we opted to include the most popular songs from Mike's live dance programme and the ideal way to do this was to record it in a dancing setting,' says Mike. 'We will also be back in the studio recording tracks for the next album and for a new single in the next month or so,' he added. He is one of the few new young Country artists in Ireland who can still break into the Pop charts with his albums. It is all a far cry from the days when the teenage Mike Fallon (that is his surname) started out singing in the pubs around South Galway, Tipperary and Offaly with his mother Roisin Fallon who was a popular cabaret artist. Even though he trained to be a plumber, his dad Sean has been a builder for many years, Mike's heart was always in the music business and he worked with several bands before Willie Carty took him into his management stable and launched him to success. After a stint with the zany Trad-Rock group Bog the Donkey, Mike's colleague and drummer, Sean (Bozo) Moran from Roscommon, a nephew of the well-known musician the late Mickey Devaney from Clonberne, convinced Willie Cary that young Mike had the potential to become a big star. Sean is still the drummer with the Mike Denver band. But Willie Carty decided that there was a need for a different stage name and also for a carefully selected programme of Country music, both modern and classic, in order to make this young singer into a successful commercial artist on a scene that has mostly established singers of more mature years. The new stage name as well as the musical mix worked very well and since then Mike has broadened his dancing programme to include songs of a Trad-Rock style such as The Day of My Return and Paddy which were both hit records for him. 'The video for Paddy used on the new DVD is one that we did a special filming session for last year and we had my father and a few others to act out the parts of Irish construction workers from times past in London. Apart from being so successful on the dancing scene Mike has also established himself as a major act on the concert scene, with an annual tour of venues around Ireland during which he includes stars such as Philomena Begley and Ray Lynam as guests on his show. 'While the in concert DVD was very successful for us a few years ago our aim this time was to capture some of the magic from a live dancing gig. 'We hope that the new DVD will be a hit with the fans and that it will also be a nice memory for many of being at one of our live gigs. It's something that they can stick on the DVD player at any time and dance around the kitchen to,' concluded Mike with a laugh. Photos: Singer Mike Denver in typical promotional pose and the second photo shows the new Mrs Denver, Liz, on their wedding day earlier this year