FRIENDS AND colleagues from the music and entertainment world came together for the funeral in Cork yesterday of Brendan O'Brien, one of the leading stars of the showband era.
The church of St Patrick's in Cork city was filled with resounding applause after the performer's best known hit, Little Arrows,was played. The Dixies' frontman died suddenly at his home at Gerald Griffin Street last Thursday, aged 66.
Showband comrades from yesteryear including Brendan Boyer, Steve Travers (who survived the Miami Showband massacre), Declan Ryan of the Regals, Joe Dolan's brother Ben, Steve McDonald (trumpet player with Joe Dolan's band), promoter Oliver Barry and country and western singer Paddy O'Brien turned out to pay their respects.
Fr John Cotter, parish priest at St Patrick's, said Brendan had left his job in 1961 to join the Dixies as singer and guitarist and the band went on to become Cork's premier showband. In 1969, Little Arrowswent to number 1 in the Irish charts and stayed there for a record-breaking 26 weeks.
Fr Cotter referred to the heading on the singer's obituary in The Irish Timeslast Saturday which described him as an "iconic figure of the showband era".
He said Brendan was one of the collectors at St Patrick's Church at the Lower Glanmire Road and a regular attender at Mass there - in fact, he had been there the Saturday prior to his death.
"The showband business was challenging and exciting but it also brought hardship and its crosses with it . . . Brendan had talent, he shared this with others," said Fr Cotter.
Addressing the packed church yesterday, the late singer's eldest son, Brendan, told of how his father had lived for music and his family and of his delight when one of his grandchildren was born on the birthday of Elvis Presley.
"Dad had a hard fight with alcoholism, but his love for our family and music always gave him the strength to try again."
Two of Mr O'Brien's daughters, Aideen and Trish, who clearly inherited their father's singing talent, sang during the Mass and his old bandmate Joe McCarthy said a prayer of the faithful for the musicians, entertainers and comedians at the funeral service.