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Big Tom - off to the big gig in the sky

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    #32
    Pac1Man
    Registered Users Posts: 4,394 ✭✭✭Pac1Man


    2016 strikes again. Relentless so it is.


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    #33
    Summer wind
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,285 ✭✭✭Summer wind


    Lovely man that left very happy memories. May he Rest In Peace.


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    #34
    bodhrandude
    Registered Users Posts: 12,401 ✭✭✭✭bodhrandude


    My parents were big fans and he was popular up North West of the country, I'm not a fan myself more into pure drop trad, electronica, rock and other stuff. But I'll always remember this story from his gig in New York, where folk misinterpreted the title of his group The Mainliner's, it always gives me a laugh. RIP to an era of my folk's time. http://connachttribune.ie/when-it-comes-to-talk-its-all-in-the-way-you-tell-em-987/

    If you want to get into it, you got to get out of it. (Hawkwind 1982)



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    #35
    NAGDEFI
    Closed Accounts Posts: 755 ✭✭✭NAGDEFI


    freshpopcorn wrote: »
    RIP Big Tom.

    He was meant to have being a nice man.

    I wonder will The Late Late Country music special go ahead?

    My mam and dad met dancing to Big Tom in some dancehall exoticly called 'The Ritz' in Carlow. I mightn't be here only for him..whether that's a good or a bad thing:)

    RIP Big Tom McBride.


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    #36
    NAGDEFI
    Closed Accounts Posts: 755 ✭✭✭NAGDEFI


    Pac1Man wrote: »
    2016 strikes again. Relentless so it is.

    I think it's the older we become, the more we know entering their twilight years. Though in 2016 a lot like George Michael and Prince were in their 50s and Bowie, Alan Rickman 69 etc. A lot relatively young alright.


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    #37
    NAGDEFI
    Closed Accounts Posts: 755 ✭✭✭NAGDEFI


    Joanna Donney did the weather on 6 one. Wonder will she be on the 9 O'clock weather.

    She of the many tributes to stars.. 'no rain, purple or otherwise' for Prince. Doubt she's into Big Tom's music :)


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    #38
    TheRiverman
    Registered Users Posts: 6,065 ✭✭✭TheRiverman


    I hate the awful Irish Country music that he performed,but he had a lot of fans and by all accounts he was a very nice man.May he and his wife who died in January rest in peace.


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    #39
    Jim Bob Scratcher
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,231 ✭✭✭Jim Bob Scratcher


    Not a fan of his music by any means, but the stories I heard about him going out of his way to visit ill fans, you have to really admire that. Very humble man too I believe

    RIP


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    #40
    Mysterypunter
    Registered Users Posts: 2,806 ✭✭✭Mysterypunter


    RIP. 81 is a good age, lost the wife recently, Up Monaghan.


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    #41
    DEFTLEFTHAND
    Registered Users Posts: 16,500 ✭✭✭✭DEFTLEFTHAND


    aziz wrote: »
    A story I heard years ago that I would love it to be true is that when big Tom got one of his first gigs in New York.
    Tom and his band,the Mainliners were booked to play a huge gig in somewhere like the radio city music hall.
    "Mainlining" is a term for shooting up heroin so the place was jammed with people expecting to see a grateful dead type band,apparently there was a riot when a bunch of guys wearing pale blue suits walked out on stage and started singing "four roads to glenamaddy"
    I'd say it's an urban myth as I've heard multiple different versions of this.

    The versions I hear usually involve an outdoor concert and members of the Hells Angels.


    Gentle Mother is the opener . Poor old Big Tom and co end up having to flee for their lives.


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    #42
    DEFTLEFTHAND
    Registered Users Posts: 16,500 ✭✭✭✭DEFTLEFTHAND


    Mysterypunter wrote: »
    RIP. 81 is a good age, lost the wife recently, Up Monaghan.
    I would have thought he was even older tbh.

    Didn't he get his start in the 1950s


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    #43
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    I dont get why they call him "Big" Tom. He was only 5'8.











    Oh..


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    #44
    Spanish Eyes
    Registered Users Posts: 15,884 ✭✭✭✭Spanish Eyes


    Four Roads to Glenamaddy was a song my lovely and late younger sister used to sing every time she visited us. That's because the OH is from up country and she loved slagging him.

    Great memories. I got so many messages today too about her slagging. But hey that song is just something people will sing and never forget.

    May they all rest in peace.


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    #45
    randy hickey
    Registered Users Posts: 1,935 ✭✭✭randy hickey


    Big Tom's voice provided the backing track to a big chunk of my childhood, with my father leaning on one of those huge old record player-cum-radio monstrosities, listening intently, almost studiously, to the lyrics and singing along with Big Tom every weekend.
    My father was a fan, and knew Tom, but being of that generation, would never have felt comfortable telling him how highly he regarded him.

    Well, they're both gone now, and I want to pay tribute to Tom McBride on my father's behalf.

    Tom, you were bigger than the music that brought joy to thousands of people down the decades.
    You were a man of dignity, honour and respect, both in public and in private.
    You had a heart the size of Muckno.
    A true gentle giant.
    A true gentleman.
    A true Blayney man.

    Ni bheidh do leithéid ann arís.

    R.I.P. Big Tom McBride


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    #46
    discobeaker
    Registered Users Posts: 1,243 ✭✭✭discobeaker


    My ex used to live next door to his house. I remember her saying that every couple of months the cops would call to all the houses in the area to see if they noticed any unusual activity in the area. Turns out that people kept robbing Big Tom's gates. They had a big BT in gold on them.

    He also did alot for the old folks home in castleblayney. My grandad was there for afew years and Tom was always in to say hello to everyone.

    He was a sound lad according to all I know who met him.


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    #47
    aidan24326
    Registered Users Posts: 5,925 ✭✭✭aidan24326


    Needless to say his music wouldn't be to the taste of most people on here, myself included, but fair play to him all the same. Made a career out of music at a time when your options were basically farmer/carpenter/unemployed, and by all accounts he was a decent guy. Can't say RIP as that ridiculous phrase needs to die like the deaths it references, there is no other way to be dead other than 'at peace'. i.e dead.


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    #48
    dublinman1990
    Registered Users Posts: 8,302 ✭✭✭dublinman1990


    Greybottle wrote: »
    I alos liked his cameo as Tucker McElroy lead singer of The Good 'Ole Boys and driver of the Winnebago in The Blues Brothers.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdCc-IEKaD0

    :confused:

    Charles Napier.


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    #49
    Grayson
    Registered Users Posts: 16,127 ✭✭✭✭Grayson


    Not a fan of the guy but he was sound. I used to do summer holidays with the wheelchair association. There was a special needs guy who was on the holiday every year for a week who was a massive fan. Every year Big Tom would call around to the holiday to visit him.It made the guys year.


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