Joe Dolan was born in Mullingar, County Westmeath on 16th October 194? (he's not telling and I'm not asking ;-) Joe was the youngest of 8 children..
By the age of 14 Joe and his brother Ben (who plays saxophone in the band) were orphaned and living pretty much alone. There is a close bond and a lot of respect between the brothers as you can hear from these RealAudio clips (Joe on Ben: Ben on Joe). On leaving school Ben began training as a carpenter and Joe joined the staff of the Westmeath Examiner as an apprentice compositor.
"My relationship with Ben is probably the best relationship in the world between two brothers."
Music had always been a feature of the Dolan family - their mother played the fiddle and Joe's sisters belonged to a choral society in Mullingar. As teenagers Ben and Joe got together with friends and sang, played instruments - made them if necessary! - and before long they were playing at a talent contest in County Hall, Mullingar. Needless to say, they won!
Joe Dolan and the Drifters' first chart success came with "The Answer to Everything" in 1964 when it reached number 4 in the Irish Charts
International success came in July 1969 when they reached no. 3 in the UK charts with "Make Me an Island".
During the Seventies, Joe Dolan continued to have hits in Ireland, Europe, South Africa and Australia. There was a world tour in which he played, amongst others, Las Vegas, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Spain, France, Germany and more.
"International success" is not confined to Europe by any means as this record sleeve shows!
In private Joe is "one of the boys", full of bonhomie and jokes. In public he is ever aware of his "high profile" and discourages his group from rowdiness or anything that could bring himself or his "lads" adverse publicity. He can be firm when necessary and has a touching respect for women, toning down his language and jokes when in their company.
Joe Dolan keeps up what seems to be a punishing workload - shows 4 nights a week for something like 40 weeks of the year. Occasionally he'll do two or three shows in the same town but the travelling he does is phenomenal.
Discography (including sound files)
"Spare time" is spent playing golf and he manages to fit in a visit to a course most days, wherever he happens to be. For the initiated, he has a handicap of 14 and, for the computer buffs amongst us, he was singularly unimpressed when I showed him a computerised golf game!
© Helen Croom 2000
