By Gerry Gallagher

The history of the band, Feedback (a name also used by world famous rock band U2, but 4 years later), actually starts near the end of 1970. I had been at Summerhill College (an Irish high school) in Sligo for almost a year and a good friend of mine, Tom Phillips, was the drummer in a band of students who played the typical student gigs.

For some reason, I still can’t remember why, they asked me to join them one night as I think I was hanging around them a lot. I remember the members of the band were: Paul Hogan (originally from England, but settled in Sligo) on vocals and guitar, John Curran (RIP), a local lad on guitar, and Tom Phillips from Beltra, Co. Sligo on drums. For some reason, I feel the band had another member, but I can’t recall who it was or what instrument he played. For whatever reason, I remember playing along with the band one night and Paul must have been impressed because the next thing I knew, he, Tom and I were a band.  

Paul named the band Every Mother's Child and we made our debut on May 13, 1971 at a concert in the Girl's Club of Sligo. The following Saturday, May 15th, we played at our first dance: the Summerhill College Graduation Dance, but by then, we had already changed our name to Blue Glass. We played "relief" to local disc jockey, Mike Cullen. Blue Glass didn't really play much after that and Paul moved back to England during the summer of 1971. As far as I know, he ended up joining the RAF.

When school started again, Tom and I still wanted to carry on the band...but we needed more musicians. Fate dealt a hand in September when I found out I would be sharing St. Thomas’ Dorm with six other lads: Fergus Burke from Killybegs, Tony Gilhawley from Ballymote, Cilian Rogers from Dromore West, Gerry Kilfeather from Donegal, Aidan Conlon from Geevagh, and Felim McNeela from Easkey (I think). A few weeks later, Anthony “Magoo” McGoldrick from Collooney joined the dorm and the stage was set.

Tony had taken piano lessons and knew how to play, and Magoo had his own guitar and could play a lot more chords than I could. Fergus, who had never played an instrument in his life, was very much into electronics and amplifiers and soon took up the bass guitar. Cilian was an art fanatic and very much a part of the band’s formation.

On October 1, Fr. John McGowan (RIP), a priest who had taught at the College the year before and was then made a Parish Priest, convinced me to play at a charity concert being held in Grange, a village about 15 miles north of Sligo. Also at the concert were Sligo’s Duggan Brothers, who would play a very important role in the band’s fate over the coming year. I hit it off immediately with their guitarist, also named Gerry (RIP), and we became fast friends. Whatever happened that night, I wrote in my diary that “Blue Glass” was practicing the next night. At that point, the band was Tony, Magoo, Fergus, Tom and myself. Cilian was our unofficial road manager, even though we didn’t own any equipment, except Magoo’s acoustic guitar.

These were heady times on the music scene and almost all of us were “into” it at the time. Magoo and I “dossed” out (snuck out of school) to go see the movie Woodstock on October 8^th, Led Zeppelin had appeared in Dublin and Fergus had made a bootleg tape, which sounded terrible, but it was Jimmy Page! A little over a month later, we were practicing in the Music Room (a small room about 10 x 10 with an old piano) when we recorded our first song, an original composition about a fellow student, Charlie Farrell. The tune was appropriately named, “Charlie.” Unfortunately, I don’t think the recording has survived, which may be as well. The rest of the year, we would practice, but didn’t play.

It was early 1972 when we returned to school and we were hard at work practicing again. Neil Young’s “Southern Man” was a favorite jam at the time. Being together most of the time, we practiced a lot but didn't get very far. On February 29^th, another entry in the diary read, “Great idea! Duggan’s are giving a concert here soon, Blue Glass shall live again!” Now we just had to convince the Duggans to let us play. Tom and I went to see Ian Duggan, the oldest brother and leader of the group, and he said maybe we could. We now had to figure out how to get permission from the school's President, Fr. Finnegan (who became Bishop of Killala but recently passed away).

By the next day, everything was in place and we even picked our songs, “Jeepster,” (T-Rex), “Roll Over Beethoven,” (Beatles’ version) and “Day After Day” (Badfinger). I think I recall Tony feeling none of the numbers featured piano, so we also included a blues number. The next 10 days were a blur of activity: practice, canceled practice, finding guitars, etc.  

Finally, on March 5th, 1972, we made our debut at a concert held in Summerhill's Fr. Flanagan Hall (gym). Pictured at left. We ended up performing: Coz I Love You, Roll Over Beethoven, Smile Away, Day After Day, and Jeepster; and then it was over. Although I wrote in my diary that Smile was “ecch!” and Day After Day was “not good,” I also noted it was a “Great Night!”

Our next big break came when Fergus convinced the Denver Showband from Letterkenny to allow us to play relief to them at an upcoming gig. Lucky for us, they agreed, but unfortunately, we would now have to play more than four or five songs. Our practicing went into high gear and we actually spent two twelve hour days rehearsing just prior to the gig. The gig would be in Lahey, Co. Donegal.

The morning of April 7^th, we were ready, but there was bad news. Tony wouldn’t be coming with us. I quickly drafted my close friend from Foxford, Senan Turnbull, who had also had piano lessons, to stand in on keyboards. He agreed and my Dad gave us a lift to Killybegs, picking up Cilian and Magoo on the way. In Killybegs, we picked up Fergus and borrowed two guitars and we were ready to go.

We played (very badly) for about ninety minutes, and although we were terrible, I remember it vividly. It was the first time we played to people who didn’t know who we were. Fortunately, the hall remain relatively empty throughout our performance, and few heard how bad we really were. Fortunately, Cilian taped the whole event, complete with running commentary and it is available for listening below. Warning: listening may cause brain damage! In the end, The Denver, who eventually changed their name to The Rascals and had a very successful run for the next fifteen years, were very kind and I will always appreciate their support. I became friends with their leader Ted Ponsonby over the next few years.  

A few weeks later, things really started to happen for the band. I was told the convent in Ballyshannon wanted to book us for a concert on Friday, May 5^th, and was willing to pay us £10. This would have been our first paying gig. Unfortunately, though we had no equipment or transportation, as usual. Father Gilmartin, a physics teacher, was our only real option. We asked if he would consider driving us to Ballyshannon in the college’s minibus and he agreed. He even said he would approach Father Finnegan on our behalf, and we were all set, except for equipment. On Friday, everything fell apart. We couldn't get our hands on any amps, or guitars, and after a day of frustration, we gave up our first professional gig. I’m not sure whether the concert was canceled or we just didn’t show up, but in the end, we didn’t get there.

However, we still had hope as the Mercy Convent in Sligo had asked us to play at their Graduation Dinner Dance. My diary entry said, “We might get paid, and we might not, but I really don’t care.” We continued to practice feverishly, including endless problems with the T-Rex hit, “Get It On.” We had also agreed to play relief to the Duggan’s yet again at the Summerhill College graduation party to be held, May 9^th in the college gym. The night before the party, Gerry Duggan called to ask if we would play at the upcoming Marist Past Pupils Union Concert in the Gaiety Cinema. Now we had three gigs!

The day before the party, Tom came with me down to the Ursuline Convent in Sligo where my sister Andrea was a fifth year student. I needed to borrow her blue jeans for our upcoming performance...I was all set! The night of the party, we played from 10-11 p.m. and included an original composition in our  program, "Leaving Cert Blues," specially written for the occasion. In fact, I recorded in my diary that “the last three songs were great! We were really pretty good.” A first for the band, I think.

For some reason, at this point, we got involved with “the girls” as I described them in my diary. They were Maura Higgins and Mary O’Rourke, but to this day, I cannot remember any girls being involved with the band. However, as the concert approached, we rehearsed with them. We arrived at the theatre at 9:45 p.m., but had to wait a long time to perform and when we did, we were “rushed on and didn’t even get tuned up right.” To add insult to injury, as the M.C. introduced us to the crowd, he said, “And now boys and girls, The Feedbacks.” I remember being mortified as the curtain went up, but we got through it. The girls didn’t play with us again though.  

The next gig was the Mercy dinner dance. It took place in the Imperial Hotel and we were once again playing relief to the Duggans. Before the gig, Tom, Fergus and I went down to O’Neill’s (an equipment company associated with Marmac electronics) and rented a speaker for Magoo, who had been forced to share an amp with the organ, since there were only four Duggans and five of us. Although we were ready to play for an hour, the Duggans didn’t arrive until 10:45 and then played for an hour. We played for about 20 minutes and then they finished off the night. We played seven songs and I wrote in my diary that I “thoroughly enjoyed the entire night including the dinner.”  

During the dance, Magoo said that his uncle, Tom Mulligan, wanted us to play in The Great Southern Hotel the following night from 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.! We jumped at the chance, but had no equipment of our own. So, we asked Magoo's uncle if we could have £12 in advance to rent equipment, and he agreed. For that money we rented: 1 Marshall 100 W amp with 4 x 12 speaker cab, 1 Marmac Super 60W amp and a set of 2 x 12 speakers, 1 Marmac 60 Watt PA Amp with 2 - 12" speaker cabs, a Shure mic and stand, and an organ! We were ready for our first “solo” gig! No relief status, just us…all night. We were terrified. We got to the ballroom at about 9:00 p.m. and were ready to go at 10:45 p.m. (we knew very little about setting up equipment I guess). We pulled every song we even thought we knew out of the hat and finished the night (although I didn’t make any comments about our actual performance in my diary).

For the next few weeks, we turned our attention to The Leaving Certificate exams and then school ended. Everyone went back home and the band scattered. The next date we played was a dance in Bohola, Co. Mayo with only myself, Tom and Tony, who played bass for the first time in his life. The band played again about a year later in Dublin with Tony, Tom and Gerry providing the entertainment for a Terenure Tennis Club social, we also played with the name Feedback in the Marine Hotel in Bundoran in June of 1973, but we were advertised as “Seedback.” It was time to drop the name!

However, in the end, the classmates all went their separate ways and only I remained in Sligo. Feedback was over, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted. My sincere thanks to Tony, Fergus, Magoo, Tom, and Cilian! In many ways, those twelve months between 1971 and 1972 were the “best year of my life.”

Feedback Live!

Caution: Listening to these songs could cause brain damage, or severe ego damage.

Venue: Laghey Parish Hall, Co. Donegal, relief to Denver Showband, April 7, 1972
Musicians: Gerry Gallagher (Gtr), Anthony McGoldrick (Gtr), Tom Phillips (Drums), Fergus Burke (Bass) and Senan Turnbull (Keyboards)
Commentary From The Balcony: Cilian Rogers