A memorial service is to be held in Waterford on Wednesday for showband singer Brendan Bowyer, who is to be laid to rest alongside his parents in Dunmore East two years after his death in Las Vegas.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, his wife, Stella; and children were unable to bring his remains back home for burial.
Mr Bowyer’s ashes will be interred in the grave of his parents after a memorial Mass on Wednesday in the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity Within in Waterford city.
The interment of ashes will take place privately but members of the public are welcome to attend the service.
Mr Bowyer, who was formerly of the Royal Showband and the Big Eight, died at the age of 81 on May 28th, 2020. His recordings with the Royal Showband included six No 1 hits in Ireland with the most successful being a 1964 cover of “The Hucklebuck” that went platinum.
On April 14th, 1962, the band were supported at the Liverpool Empire Theatre by the Beatles, who were paid £20 for their performance. The Royal Showband were at the peak of their success having won the “Top Modern Dance Band” award a year earlier.
In an interview with Ireland’s Own magazine, Mr Bowyer said when the Beatles played support for his band he had a chat with a very young Paul McCartney.
“I can recall his baby face. He had a bag of chips in his hand. He was looking at our Mercedes bus and our roadies, and he was very impressed. I know I gave him some encouraging words and said that if they stuck together they would do very well. And of course they did do very well.”
Elvis Presley came to see Bowyer in Las Vegas during the 1970s. Elvis was reportedly so impressed with his performance of You Gave Me a Mountain that he later recorded it himself. In turn of one Bowyer’s most beloved performances was the Elvis-associated The Wonder of You.
During that period his second band, The Big Eight, spent the summers playing the ballroom circuit in Ireland and six months of the year in Las Vegas.
Mr Bowyer subsequently performed residencies in Las Vegas hotels for 25 years. In the course of his career the entertainer played Carnegie Hall in New York three times and headlined at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Bowyer called his gigs in Ireland “paid holidays”.
His singing career lasted more than 60 years.
Following his death Stephen Travers, a former member of the Miami Showband, tweeted: “The King is dead: Brendan Bowyer was, and always will be, king of the showband era, when more Irish musicians were in full-time employment than ever before or since and could draw crowds of two to three thousand a night.”
The memorial Mass for Mr Bowyer can be viewed online at noon on Wednesday at irishlivestream.com/brendanbowyer Bowyer is survived by his wife, Stella; children Brendan jnr, Aisling and Clodagh; grandchildren Liam and Nora; and sisters Olive, Pat and Alison.
