Big Tom - off to the big gig in the sky

AndyBoBandy · 17-04-2018 8:45am #1

Big Tom - Irish Country Singer has died at 81

Not my cup of tea, but was quite popular nonetheless.

http://www.thejournal.ie/big-tom-death-3961868-Apr2018/

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Having seen some of his story on RTE (Stetsons I think), he appears to have led a great life in the music industry, and has a huge family.

McMurphy · 17-04-2018 8:51am

Seen him on the late late show a while back, he looked pretty frail then, and unfortunately my initial thoughts turn have been proven right.

He lived a fairly long and successful life, seems to have been pretty much regarded as legendary by his peers in his particular music industry.

Rip.

Effects · 17-04-2018 8:55am

His music was mediocre. I only say him once though, back in the early nineties. He was playing on the back of a truck in Tobercurry.
Lovely dude though, as was the rest of his band.

Greybottle · 17-04-2018 8:55am

Absolute Gent. R.I.P.

Not my style of music, my mother was a big fan of him, she often met him working as a barmaid in the 1960's in London, didn't see him for over 30 years and he came up to her one day in Howth harbour and said he recognised her. Seemed to be a very decent skin by all accounts,.

buried · 17-04-2018 9:04am

R.I.P. Big Tom

Wasn't a fan myself but my Mam is huge fan. Always upsetting when a music artist you like goes one step beyond but at least you still have the tunes.

super_furry · 17-04-2018 9:05am

What'll the Mainliners do now?

Noveight · 17-04-2018 9:05am

A gentle giant by all accounts, will be remembered for years to come.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 17-04-2018 9:06am

He pulled a decent pint but I couldn't stand his music. A nice man to chat to in the bar.

Outlaw Pete · 17-04-2018 9:07am

Remember my Dad playing this one in the house a lot when I was a kid and singing it to himself a lot to of course.

Which I hated, I won't lie.

RIP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdUCtKTkOXA

Pelvis · 17-04-2018 9:08am

Johnny Dogs wrote: »

Seen him on the late late show a while back, he looked pretty frail then, and unfortunately my initial thoughts turn have been proven right.

Well done on predicting an octogenarian would die soon. Got the lotto numbers there by any chance?

aziz · 17-04-2018 9:14am

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"

Beechwoodspark · 17-04-2018 9:17am

Great voice and stage presence. Ruled the airwaves in the 70s country boom. He was the main man with the main liners.

RIP Big Tom.

freshpopcorn · 17-04-2018 9:25am

RIP Big Tom.

He was meant to have being a nice man.

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

deandean · 17-04-2018 9:33am

R.I.P.
He's on that road to the churchyard where his mom and daddy lie.

physioman · 17-04-2018 9:35am

Met him once. Giant of a man . He couldn't sing but apparently his music had great timing. Caught for tax evasion but generally loved. Could be the biggest funeral up north since Bobby sands.

Trigger Happy · 17-04-2018 9:39am

Four country roads was a bit of a sound track on our local radio for a few years in the 80s.

RIP Big Tom, he will be walking the 'one country road to the churchyard where my Mum and Daddy lie'

C__MC · 17-04-2018 9:40am

“Your going with out the same way you came in”

No truer words and a great tune

RIP

C__MC · 17-04-2018 9:41am

physioman wrote: »

Met him once. Giant of a man . He couldn't sing but apparently his music had great timing. Caught for tax evasion but generally loved. Could be the biggest funeral up north since Bobby sands.

Last time I checked Monaghan was part of the republic

GBX · 17-04-2018 9:42am

Not a country music fan, a very friendly and nice man. RIP

Birneybau · 17-04-2018 9:43am

Greybottle wrote: »

Absolute Gent. R.I.P.

Not my style of music, my mother was a big fan of him, she often met him working as a barmaid in the 1960's in London, didn't see him for over 30 years and he came up to her one day in Howth harbour and said he recognised her. Seemed to be a very decent skin by all accounts,.

Can't picture Big Tom as a barmaid but I suppose they were different times

Birneybau · 17-04-2018 9:45am

C__MC wrote: »

“Your going with out the same way you came in”

No truer words and a great tune

RIP

He'll be buried through a vagina?

physioman · 17-04-2018 10:07am

C__MC wrote: »

Last time I checked Monaghan was part of the republic

Did I say northern Ireland? North includes all 9 Ulster counties

Standard Toaster · 17-04-2018 10:15am

RIP Big Tom.

I can't believe his mother is still alive.

branie2 · 17-04-2018 10:59am

Four roads to Heaven

JP Liz V1 · 17-04-2018 12:32pm

His wife died recent enough too

RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYwRXeBdHhs

Greybottle · 17-04-2018 12:39pm

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

kneemos · 17-04-2018 12:43pm

super_furry wrote: »

What'll the Mainliners do now?

Wonder who Big Tom is at this stage probably.

blueser · 17-04-2018 12:48pm

Seemingly a decent fella, going by some of the comments on here. I can't stand that whole "Country and Irish" genre, so I'll keep my comments on his music to myself. The local radio station down here will be in mourning for a week.

ELM327 · 17-04-2018 12:56pm

RIP..
Still got the greatest hits CD in the car. Ain't no man found a way, of beating father time.

Panthro · 17-04-2018 6:28pm

He put Glenamaddy on the map. Parents were big fans.
Another fallen giant.
RIP Big Tom

dublinman1990 · 17-04-2018 6:45pm

I only heard about this on the 6.1 news earlier. A lot of my many older relatives are big fans of him and his music. They probably be very sad to hear of his passing today. I'm not a big fan of his music though and I never met the man in person to know what he was like. But he has left a great legacy of country music behind him for all of his fans to enjoy throughout his long career. R.I.P. Big Tom.

Pac1Man · 17-04-2018 6:54pm

2016 strikes again. Relentless so it is.

Summer wind · 17-04-2018 6:57pm

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

bodhrandude · 17-04-2018 7:30pm

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/

NAGDEFI · 17-04-2018 9:21pm

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.

NAGDEFI · 17-04-2018 9:24pm

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.

NAGDEFI · 17-04-2018 9:28pm

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

TheRiverman · 17-04-2018 9:30pm

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.

Jim Bob Scratcher · 17-04-2018 9:41pm

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

Mysterypunter · 17-04-2018 10:00pm

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

DEFTLEFTHAND · 17-04-2018 10:27pm

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.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 17-04-2018 10:33pm

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

17-04-2018 10:37pm

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

Oh..

Spanish Eyes · 17-04-2018 10:46pm

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.

randy hickey · 18-04-2018 12:47am

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

discobeaker · 18-04-2018 1:06am

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.

aidan24326 · 18-04-2018 1:18am

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.

dublinman1990 · 19-04-2018 9:58pm

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

Charles Napier.

Grayson · 19-04-2018 10:02pm

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.

Big Tom - off to the big gig in the sky

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