Eire Apparent

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Name =Eire Apparent


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Origin =Belfast, Northern Ireland
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Label =Track Records
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Current_members =Henry McCullough
Chris Stewart
Ernie Graham
Dave Lutton
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Eire Apparent was a band from Northern Ireland.

In early 1967 guitarist Henry McCullough (formerly of The Sky Rockets Showband and Gene & The Gents) from Portstewart in Northern Ireland made his way to Belfast where he teamed up with bassist Chris Stewart (born Eric Christopher Stuart), singer Ernie Graham (born Ernest Harold Graham, 14 June 1946, in Belfast) and drummer Dave Lutton (born William David Lutton) to form the psychedelic outfit The People. Later that year the band moved to London and were signed by ex-Animal Chas Chandler for Track Records who changed the band's name to "Eire Apparent".

With only one single released Chandler sent them on tour with headliners Jimi Hendrix Experience, Soft Machine and The Animals. Things went quite well during 1968 when, in Canada McCullough was sent back to Ireland due to visa problems with Mick Cox taking his place in the band.

McCullough joined Sweeney's Men and, later on, became The Grease Band's lead guitarist. In 1973 he enrolled with Paul McCartney and Wings for a short period of time. He has also released several solo albums.

The new Eire Apparent cut the album "Sunrise" in 1969 with Jimi Hendrix producing, who had already produced for Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys before with their album The Street Giveth and the Street Taketh Away released in 1969. Jimi had tried to combine traces of Rock, Pop and Psychedelia. Several sources claim the existence of a second Eire Apparent album (reportedly produced by Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt) but most likely it never saw the light of day.

In May 1970, hardly noticed by the public, the band broke up. Ernie Graham recorded one solo album in 1971, was a short-time member of Help Yourself in 1972 and then co-founded pub rock combo Clancy. Mick Cox (born Michael Charles Cox) formed his eponymous band in 1973 (one album on capitol records) and can be heard of on Van Morrison's classic album Common One in 1983. Dave Lutton played with Heavy Jelly in 1970, Ellis (1972-73), Marc Bolan (1974-76) and assisted Chris Spedding on his 1979 Guitar Graffiti album. Chris Stewart became one of Rock's most exciting bass players and an ever-faithful partner for Frankie Miller (1975-78). Further jobs include Spooky Tooth, Joe Cocker, Jim Capaldi, Eric Burdon, Graham Bonnet, Terry Reid, among many others.

External links

*http://www.irishshowbands.net/bgeire.htm

* For further details see Pete Frame's 'Rock Family Trees'