Van Winkle

Van Winkle from; Drogheda area Active; 1977 – April 78
Style; tbc
Line up;
Lead Vocals; Padge Reynolds
Lead Guitar; Hughie McCormack
Bass; Tommy McCann later in Wicked Chicken & Rabbi
Drums; Alan Barton
Sax; Kevin O’Brien

Play Friday Night Club, The Gem, Drogheda Jan ’78, this is a Blues/Rock session, the last Friday of every month. During January ’78 they played a 2 hour Sunday lunchtime session at the Village Inn.

The Break up

I sadly must enlarge on the snippet I gave you last week regarding the breakup of Van Winkle.
It seems that although attracting huge appreciative audiences at some gigs in the Gem, other venues were not as anxious to take them.
The reasons? One that I heard was that managers felt they weren’t producing a commercial enough sound and it was also suggested that they were attracting the wrong “element”.
It appears in fact that the group had been booked to play at some local venues but were told latter that they were being cancelled.

The Gem

So being left only with nights in the Gem and the odd gig down the country they felt, financially, that they couldn’t survive – and so split.
Tommy McCann was later in Wicked Chicken and Rabbi