Is there a Dr in the house?
Music with Eddie Rowley
SEVENTIES band Dr Hook has had a resurgence in the last couple of years with original singer Dennis Locorriere at the helm.
Locorriere and his cohorts were among the highlights of the recent Punchestown Music Festival and will return to play Dublin’s Olympia Theatre on December 4.
His six-piece band has none of the original members. Backing singer Ray Sawyer left in 1983 to pursue a solo career, but Locorriere retained ownership of the name.
Today, he feels his voice is really all you need to get the Dr Hook experience. And, judging by the warm and enthusiastic reaction of the audience in Punchestown the other week, when he delivered hits ‘Sylvia’s Mother’, ‘The Cover of Rolling Stone’ and ‘A Little Bit More’, the fans agree.
Dr Hook’s greatest hits album, Timeless, continues to travel up and down global charts, so Dennis decided to hit the road again after taking a break to concentrate on his personal life and several projects, including solo records and a book of poetry.
“I shied away from Dr Hook for a while because there’s something unsavoury about being congratulated over and over for something that you did years and years ago,” he says.
“But now that I’ve done other things, I don’t just feel that I’m just the guy from Dr Hook. I’m back because I was the lead singer, four of the guys in Dr Hook are no longer with us and it seems to be in my hands.
“I can’t bring people back from the afterlife, and I can’t make people want to do it any more, but I can put together a band that plays the songs brilliantly, just like people remember them.”
Fans in Punchestown rolled back the years with hits that also included ‘When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman’ and ‘Sexy Eyes’.