The Special Years

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a b c Heather Saul, "Val Doonican: Irish singer and entertainer dies aged 88", The Independent, 2 July 2015. Doonican officially retired in 1990 [21] but was still performing in 2009. He had a second home in Spain, [22] and was a keen golfer and a talented watercolour painter. [5] Another hobby he enjoyed was cooking. [23] In June 2011, he was recognised by the Mayor of Waterford, who bestowed on him "The Freedom of the City". [24] Death and tributes [ edit ]

Born Michael Valentine Doonican, but known as Val, to distinguish him from the many other Michaels in his childhood, he was brought up by poor parents, Agnes and John, in Waterford, Ireland. Val was the youngest of eight children, who slept in one partitioned room. His father was a man with a drink problem but also a great deal of wisdom who, on his deathbed, told the 14-year-old Val that he was not the hero his son thought him to be, and that he would prefer to tell the boy so himself. At six, Val played in the school band, and later his brother John taught him to play the mandolin. Although his education at De La Salle college, Waterford, ended when his father died, and Val had to go to work in an orange box factory, he was sustained by his musical interests, by the determination of his older siblings and by a belief that life would hold more for him. Michael Valentine Doonican [1] (3 February 1927– 1 July 2015) was an Irish singer of traditional pop, easy listening and novelty songs, who was noted for his warm and relaxed vocal style. His time with the Four Ramblers introduced Val to the joys of golf, honed his professional singing skills and arrangements, and led to the tour that was to revolutionise his life…

Val’s Love of Music

Doonican's 1965 song, "I'm Gonna Get There Somehow", has been used in adverts for Irish toy store Smyths. The same song was used in a Boots Christmas advert in 2023. Programming" (PDF). Broadcasting. 29 March 1971. p.76 . Retrieved 24 July 2014. [ permanent dead link] ( PDF) Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19thed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p.166. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. He started performing in his home town, was featured on Irish radio and appeared in Waterford’s first-ever television broadcast. In 1951 he moved to England to join the Irish quartet The Four Ramblers, who toured and performed on BBC Radio. The group also supported the late Anthony Newley on tour, who persuaded Doonican to launch his solo career. Whilst on that particular tour, Anthony Newley held a birthday party. All the acts had to perform, but not in their usual roles. Thus, singers did impressions and comedy turns, with Lynn regaling the audience as an impressionist. The Four Ramblers did not have another ‘turn’ and Val stepped forward, guitar in hand, and perched on a stool and singing a couple of ballads and ‘Paddy McGinty’s Goat.’ At the end of his performance, Anthony Newley suggested that his solo spot was more commercially marketable than the Ramblers act and urged Val to ‘go solo’.

Since 2006, his name has also been used by the Barnsley comedy-folk band The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican, who celebrate Val's image, wearing loud-knitwear as part of their larger-than-life stage personas. [28] [29] Val had bought himself an amplifier for his guitar, into which had gone most of his savings. Making a case to protect the amplifier, he used an old theatre poster advertising one Lynnette Rae, at the time more famous than Val, who was re-building her career after an operation for throat cancer (ironically, the disease that had killed his father). Having used her as his amp’s guardian angel, Val finally met Lynnette when both she and the Ramblers supported the late Anthony Newley on tour. For the first time in his life, Val fell in love. He and Lynn married in the early 1960s, and are the parents to two grown-up daughters, Sarah and Fiona. In 1951, still touring Ireland with Bruce Clarke’s band, Val was approached by representatives of the Four Ramblers and invited to join them in England, where they are best remembered for ‘Riders of the Range’ on BBC Radio. They also presented Workers’ Playtime, their salaries augmented by gifts from the factories whence the broadcast was being made. Looking forward to his first free products, he found that his ‘Playtime’ debut was in a corset factory! It is not recorded whether he made use of the proffered samples on this occasion!!Doonican appeared in a summer season at Courtown Harbour, County Wexford. He was soon featured on Irish radio, sometimes with Clarke, and appeared in Waterford's first-ever television broadcast. [4] Career in Britain [ edit ] The likes of Val Doonican is unlikely to be seen again' ". Irishpost.co.uk. Archived from the original on 4 July 2015 . Retrieved 4 July 2015. Webber, Richard (21 December 2013). "Val Doonican, Irish singer and TV favourite retired, had two daughters". Daily Express. London, UK . Retrieved 4 July 2015. The Blue And The Grey – Songs From The American Civil War (with the George Mitchell Singers, World Record Club, 1970)

As his were variety shows, his TV programmes gave a number of other performers, such as Dave Allen, early exposure. [2] Regular guests included Bernard Cribbins, Bob Todd, the Norman Maen Dancers, the Mike Sammes Singers, and the Kenny Woodman Orchestra. At its height The Val Doonican Show, which featured both American and British acts, had 20million viewers. [15] In the United States, The Val Doonican Show aired on ABC on Saturday evenings at 8:30p.m. (7:30p.m. Central) from 5 June to 14 August 1971. [16]The Bar-Stewards Sons Of Val Doonican at The Acoustic Festival of Britain". Acousticfestival.co.uk. 1 June 2014 . Retrieved 2 July 2015.

Martin Roach (ed.), The Virgin Book of British Hit Albums, Virgin Books, 2009, ISBN 9780753517000, p.94 In a statement, his family said: “He leaves behind his wife, Lynn, daughters Sarah and Fiona and grandchildren Bethany and Scott. He was a wonderful husband, father and grandfather and will be greatly missed by family, friends and his many fans.” Freedom of Waterford". Valdoonican.com. 17 June 2011. Archived from the original on 23 May 2015 . Retrieved 4 July 2015. A crooner, he found popular success, especially in the United Kingdom where he had five successive Top 10 albums in the 1960s as well as several hits on the UK Singles Chart, includingIn the late 1950s, Doonican became one of the artists managed by Eve Taylor, the self-described "Queen Bee" of show business, who remained his manager until her death. [10] Val often talks about the great happiness of his childhood – his ‘Special Years’. However, his family were poor and he shared a room with his three brothers: his four sisters slept on the other side of a partition wall and his parents in the living room. When he was still young, one of his sisters contracted TB, forcing her to move into their parents’ room, and his father to move into a shed at the end of the garden. This eccentric arrangement continued until Val was fourteen, when his father died, but enabled him to spend a great deal of ‘quality time’ with his dad. A frequent performer at US air force bases, on one visit he found his appearance was advertised as the Val Doonican Show. Initially alarmed, he grew to enjoy this star billing. At the end of the 1950s, he wanted another change and joined a concert tour with Anthony Newley, opening in Manchester, where he met his future wife, the cabaret artist Lynnette Rae. They married in 1962 and had two daughters. It was on the Newley tour that his solo act emerged. At one cast party, everyone had to do a turn, and Doonican borrowed a Spanish guitar, perched on a stool and sang an Irish song. Newley asked him if he had ever considered something of the sort on radio or TV. He appears as himself in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's " The Intro and the Outro", saying "hello there" over the general hubbub. [27] a b c "Val Doonican Biography". Valdoonican.com. Archived from the original on 7 February 2013 . Retrieved 5 February 2013.