Prince show as easy as ABC for Declan!

January 1994

Like most people, Wexfordman Delcan Lowney doesnt’ welcome phone calls shocking him from sleep in the middle of the night. Unless, of course, it’s a call asking him to fly over to the US to take the helm of a TV special on His Majesty of Rock, Prince.

Such was the request last month from television giants ABC for the London-based Wexford townie, who’s come a long way from his days with RTE, where he directed the likes of ‘Anything Goes’, ‘Megamix’, ‘TV Ga Ga’ and that memorable Eurovision Song Contest.

Nowadays, Declan works freelance, and is much in demand. And while his ambition is to work on more drama productions, music is still his top earner.

The Prince call from ABC marked the end of an eventful year, and as often happens, came right out of the blue.

‘It literally came out of nowhere, a phone call in the middle of the night. This guy said: ‘You wanna do Prince? Give me a call in the morning’. I wondered if it was just a dream.’

It wasn’t. The next week, the young Wexford film-maker was in Minneapolis, in the director’s chair at Paisley Park, with Prince at his side, putting together a one-hour TV special called ‘The Ryde Dyvine’.

So what was it like, working with a true megastar?

‘Prince was very involved in the production, and the whole experience was brilliant…very inspirational. To work with someone so focussed really was an education,’ says Declan.

The Prince special, which will also be sold to European networks over the next few months, was Lowney’s icing on the cake for ‘93 - a year which also saw him work on Eamonn Morrissey’s ‘The Brother’, now out on RTE video; a Lou Reed conceret in London; a Tom Jones series for Central Television, and a number of commercials. He also directed ‘Under Milkwood’ with Anthony Hopkins, a stage play for television.