Sonny Knowles
Singer who scored a double ‘nul points’ in a Eurovision qualifier
SONNY KNOWLES, the crooner, who has died aged 86, was one of Ireland’s best loved singers over some six decades, fondly remembered by many fans for his double entry in the
1966 Irish National Song Contest (the qualifier for Eurovision) in which he scored nul points with The Menace from Ennis and Chuaigh Mé Suas Don Chluiche Mór, and finished – triumphantly – in equal 10th and last place with himself.
Known in his early days as “the Window Cleaner” due to the way he waved his hands from side to side during performances, Knowles began his career in the 1950s as a clarinettist and saxophone player in showbands of the era before taking to the stage with a microphone with the Johnny Butler Dance Band.
Debonair in smart suits and shiny shoes, Knowles, a regular performer at Butlin’s Holiday Camp in Mosney, County Meath, in the early part of his career, was as likely to tell a joke against himself as break into song, and his gentle, laid-back style proved a huge hit with audiences.
He spent the best part of the 1960s travelling the high roads and by-roads of Ireland playing to packed ballrooms with his group, the Pacific Showband. He also sang with the Earl Gill’s Band and Dermot O’brien’s showband before going solo and becoming a popular performer on the cabaret circuit. He made regular appearances on light variety shows on Ireland’s national public service broadcaster, RTÉ, including presenting the popular television show Cabaret for three years in the 1970s.
Knowles performed regularly with the Irish National Concert Orchestra, touring Europe and the US, and continued to tread the boards until as recently as 2013, when he was part of the line-up for “A magical night of Showband nostalgia and music” at concerts in Belfast and Dublin, backed by the “fabulous Galaxy Showband”. He also took to the stage for occasional fundraisers.
Sonny Knowles was born in the working-class Liberties area of central Dublin on November 2 1932 and started out working as a tailor before learning the clarinet and saxophone at the Dublin School of Music.
After going solo he recorded eight albums on the Pye label and several more on Irish labels which continued to sell in high numbers. He made numerous concert and television appearances throughout Europe. In 1973 he performed at the Split International Song Festival in Yugoslavia. He also made several US tours with the Paddy Noonan Show.
His rankings in song competitions, however, continued to disappoint. As well as coming last in the 1966 Irish National Song Contest, he again scored nul points in the same contest in 1971, finishing eighth and last with his song An fhaid a mhairim. In 2012, however, he was featured in a photograph in the Irish Times peering into an ancient top-loader washing machine as one of the prize-winners in the Oldest Servis Washing Machine in Ireland competition.
Knowles was well-liked by fellow performers and was always generous with his time and advice, especially to young hopefuls. “Everything is a turning point, chicken,” one recalled him as saying. “It’s just a turning point, just keep going ... Learn something else, there’s always something out there. It’s a crazy business, that’s what you sign up for.”
In 1989 Knowles received the Man of the Year Award from the Dublin Society of New York, and in 1999 he received the Hall of Fame Award at the National Entertainment Awards show in Ireland.
Sonny Knowles married Sheila O’shea in 1957, whom he had met at a dance in the Dublin suburb of Drimnagh in the early 1950s. She survives him with their two daughters and a son.