Even Robbie knows there no show like a Joe Show
The superstar’s dad talks life on the road with an Irish singing legend...
IT’S a day Pete Conway remembers well — having to move his son’s cot to make room in his house for the genial Irishman who was trying to make a name for himself as a singer. Little did he know then his friendship with Joe Dolan would span decades, thanks to the kindness Pete showed to the Mullingar man during his time on the cabaret circuit.
He also had no idea his own son Robbie would outshine both of them to become one of the biggest stars of his generation.
Today, Pete Conway stands in the atrium of the Herbert Park Hotel in Dublin and shimmies over to a table and low chairs.
He’s a tall man of stout build with an infectious laugh and a warm handshake. When he turns and smiles, his eyes light up and for a brief second you can see a startling resemblance to his superstar son Robbie Williams. But really it’s when he opens his mouth and begins to charm you with his soft northern lilt, that the resemblance fully hits home.
Originally born Pete Williams, he was forced to change his name to Conway when he first turned his hand to stand-up comedy, moonlighting on the cabaret circuit, after his boss from his day job spotted his name in the local paper. It was a change that served him well but one that he did not pass on to his son Robbie.
In 1974, Pete became a household name when he won the popular television talent show New Faces. Back then, his son spent a lot of time convincing his classmates that he had a famous dad. Pete now laughs that it’s the other way round today.
‘Robbie was always Robbie Williams,’ he says. ‘When he was a young kid at school and I had been on TV and made a name for myself, I was divorced from Rob’s mum. The kids at school used to tease him and say he can’t be my son because he was Williams. He used to have to fight his corner and defend himself.’
But the tables soon turned after Robbie’s meteoric rise.
‘When Take That took off, girls were saying to me “you can’t be Robbie Williams’s dad because you are Conway”,’ Pete explains. ‘So we both had to fight our corners to prove we were son and father.’
Today, Pete is not in town to talk about his son. He’s here for the launch of Joe Dolan: Orchestrated Vol.2, the follow up to 2016’s hugely successful, platinum selling album Orchestrated Vol.1.
One of the highlights of the album is a duet with Pete on You’re Such a Good Looking Woman. The pair struck up a close friendship back in the 1970s and early 1980s when Joe performed on the British cabaret scene. Joe regularly stayed with the Williams family — who then ran a pub and guesthouse — while he was on tour in England.
‘Joe and I worked together in the early 1970s when he first became well known in the cabaret circuit in England,’ Pete recalls. ‘He only had two hits on our side of the water, Make Me An Island and Good Looking Woman. So he wasn’t all that well-known. I was doing stand-up comedy and I could sing a bit — so I was this comic who went on before singers and did the half an hour warm-up before the top of the bill came on.
‘I worked with Joe quite often in Manchester, where there was a big Irish community. We ended up working together for weeks off and on in different cabaret venues. We both loved golf so we would play together when we were off and we got really pally. Then he came to stay with me in Stoke on Trent, which is south of Manchester.’
One night, when they’d lost track of time, Pete offered Joe a bed for the night. It was then that Robbie met Joe for the first — and only — time. Not that the pin-up would remember it — he was just a bouncing bundle of joy in Joe’s arms.
‘It was 42 years ago, and Rob met him but he was in his cot. Joe came to stay and the spare room had Rob’s cot as he was a baby. So we moved the cot into our bedroom and Joe took the bed.’
Pete says Robbie grew up with tales of the night Joe Dolan nursed him but he was too small to remember. ‘He did meet him and Joe cradled him in his arms,’ Pete says. ‘That was about the strength of the meeting.’
To this day Pete has some very fond memories of the Mullingar music legend. He admits that when they first became close he had no
‘Joe died on my birthday — it was crushing’
Oh me, oh my: Joe Dolan (above) introduced Pete Conway (left) to poitin at his boozy backstage parties. idea of Joe’s celebrity stardom back home in Ireland. But after a visit to a Manchester club predominantly frequented by Irish revellers, he soon realised the singer’s iconic status. ‘One evening Joe took me to the Carousel club in Manchester,’ Pete says. ‘It was an Irish club and it wasn’t until then I realised how famous he actually was. The second we walked through the door we were pinned to the wall. And they weren’t taking selfies in those days — he was just signing autographs. Everyone was there with a pen and paper and from walking in the door to getting into the club it took over lf an hour. I knew that moment that I was with a jor Irish act.’ ete always knew his pal had that ra special something that drew diences to him. ‘He was a star, he had that thing they call the X Factor these days,’ Pete says. ‘He was so charismatic those days and such a pleasure to watch. I used to enjoy getting changed quickly so I could get out and just watch him at the side of the stage.’
‘Ben, his brother, was playing trumpet for him as well and I haven’t seen him since the early 1970s so to perform with him on the Late Late Show will be special,’ Pete says ahead of his appearance on RTÉ last night. ‘I think he is in his 80s and that is a really emotional thing for me, to reunite with him after all this time.
‘It’s so wonderful that we can still get out there and perform and do this tribute to Joe. To be honest at my age, waking up is wonderful!’
When Pete starts to reminisce about his time with Joe, he leans back in the chair and rubs his hands. He has a giant ruby signet ring on one finger which he plays with as he thinks back to the day Joe passed away.
‘Joe died on my birthday,’ he says. ‘My birthday is Boxing Day. I was in America when he died and I had a lot of messages letting me know from friends in the business and my friends in Dublin. It was crushing.
‘It is such a coincidence that it happened on my birthday — that’s amazing — and it will be ten years this Christmas.
‘In one way it means that I will never ever forget my friend Joe because every birthday I will be reminded of his terrible passing, but also be able to celebrate his life and his talent.
‘I feel very privileged to have known the guy and to be able to do what I am doing now in his honour.’
Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, Pete will duet with Joe on one of his most famous tunes.
‘I have to pinch myself to realise that I am doing this piece for the record,’ he says.
‘I have sung this song with him — it’s surreal. If you had gone to see a fortune teller and they told you this would be happening ten years after Joe’s death, I would have laughed at her and said she was crazy. It was wonderful the technology that allows me to sing with Joe and the orchestra. This technology is beyond my comprehension but it has given me the opportunity to sing this duet with my friend. I am extremely honoured and privileged to be able to do this on this album.’
Pete remembers those cabaret days with pure fondness and says that while there was no show like a Joe show, there was no after party like one the man threw himself. Not least because he would smuggle poitin with him and the band into their dressing room.
‘There is no show like a Joe show, it is a great quote and it was right as well,’ Pete laughs. ‘Yes, there was also no show like a Joe after-show. He was well able to look after himself. He used to come up to me after and go, “Pete, I have some poitin in the back”, and we went from there.
‘I don’t think I have ever said this to anyone but he introduced me to the wonderful thing that is poitin. Come to think of it, I think I only ever drank it was with him.
‘Yeah, he knew how to let his hair down and he was a very private person so he did that when he was among friends and family. It was nice to be in that company.’
While Pete has few regrets, he admits that he would like to have had a bit more contact in the later years of their friendship. He became a father and was working the holiday camp scenes and the cabaret clubs, while Joe continued to make records and tour. The last time they spoke was during a live link up on the Gerry Kelly show when Joe invited him to Mullingar one last time. It was an invitation he regretfully never took up. ‘Oh God I never went to Mullingar to visit the family home,’ Pete says. ‘I got invited so many times and I never went. That is a big regret. The last time I spoke to Joe was on the Gerry Kelly show in Belfast and we had a link-up with the Red Cow Hotel where Joe was performing. ‘I was up on this big screen talking to Joe and I mentioned that I had been invited so many times and I promised I would come and I didn’t. And then he passed away. That was 12 years ago and that was the last time I spoke to him and he was the same old Joe. But I wish I had gone. He was an icon, is an icon and he was just my mate and I’m very lucky.’ While Robbie never truly met Joe, he was exposed to his music and legend from an early day. Showbusiness was in his blood and while he tried to put him off jumping head first into the showbiz world, Pete concedes that Robbie was always going to be a superstar. ‘We always had a feeling that he would go that way because he did amateur dramatics when he was young,’ Pete says. ‘He used to come away on summers with me wherever I was doing stand-up. He would sit in the wings and watch all the other entertainers perform with me. From the age of 12 onwards Robbie used to tell me he was going to entertain.’
Knowing the harsh nature of the business, Pete would try and discourage Robbie. ‘I tried to put him off because father knows best always eh? Wrong,’ Pete admits.
‘The truth is that what happens to him just doesn’t happen. It is a lottery ticket and I have got to the point now where I don’t worry about him too much.’
He admits his son has had trying times due to the extent of his fame. ‘Robbie has had his troubles and they are very well documented,’ he says. ‘And yes of course that is a worry. But once again I have great belief in my boy. Those wilderness years as I like to call them — which they were — he came through those and was determined to do that. He has a great resolve and he does pretty well for himself.’
Pete smiles as he remembers the similarity between his son and his good friend.
‘He has that thing that Joe had — that stage presence, and he has it in buckets,’ Pete says. ‘You can teach a lot of things but you can’t teach that showmanship and style.
‘You either have stage presence or you don’t. Rob has it and Joe had it as well. Wouldn’t it have been great to have seen the two of them together on stage?’
O ORCHESTRATED Vol.2 is available on CD, download and stream now
‘I didn’t realise how famous Joe was’ ‘Joe was an icon but he was my mate’