The Last Dance (el. knyga) (skaityta knyga) | Paul Charles | knygos.lt

Aprašymas

The Irish Showbands—with their high musicianmanship and ability to perform note-perfect the current hits from England and America—were a genuine phenomenon. They were so named in the late 1950s when the Clipper Carlton became the first band of travelling musicians to dump their seats and their music stands and start to move around the stage putting on a show. At one point in the early 1960's at the peak of the showband phenomenon, there were as many as 760 such bands criss-crossing the length and breadth of the land, putting on shows for the new generation.

The perfect timing of this phenomenally successful trend could have had something to do with the fact that it was started by the first post-Second World War generation—encouraged perhaps by the new infectious sounds they were hearing on the wireless. Equally, the dancing craze might have lifted off because the teenagers who came of age after WW2 sensed that The Troubles were just around the corner. Anyway it didn't really matter what the reason was; no, not even in the slightest. This particular generation just wanted to get out of their houses, let their hair down and dance. They worked hard, were paid little and so they needed to enjoy themselves. And enjoy themselves they did!

Ostensibly The Last Dance is the story of The Playboys of Castlemartin—a now forgotten big band from the heyday of the showband era in the late 1950s and early 1960s—and the band members. The Last Dance is, at its core, a love story. Written in the style of a band biography that explores the rise and dramatic demise of The Playboys, The Last Dance focuses on the journey of Martin Dean (McClelland) from small town boy to song writer and lead singer of the Playboys. Along the way it tells the complicated story of his love affair with Hanna Hutchinson, his friend from childhood who grew to be much more.