No run of the Mill’ venue...
QUESTION Millstreet in Co. Cork held a number of high-profile concerts and events during the 1990s. What has since become of the venue?
THE Green Glens Arena in Millstreet, where Eurovision was staged in 1993, is still used today, but mainly for equestrian events.
The arena had been built 20 years previously by a noted businessman in the north Co. Cork town, Noel C. Duggan, whose firm specialising in structural engineering and fabrication was started back in 1875.
Duggan had built the Green Glens Arena to cater for horse riding and similar events.
He named the venue after one of his favourite songs, The Green Glens of Antrim.
When Ireland won Eurovision in 1992, staged in Malmo, Sweden, with Linda Martin singing a Johnny Logan composition, Why Me?, Duggan immediately started lobbying for the 1993 contest to be staged in Millstreet.
Eventually, after many months of non-stop efforts trying to persuade RTÉ that the Green Glens Arena would be the ideal venue, the decision was eventually made in favour of Millstreet, the smallest place ever to host Eurovision.
The equestrian centre in Millstreet was transformed for the event, with a gigantic stage built that measured just over 230 square metres, emblazoned with 6,000 lighting strips.
Televising the 1993 Eurovision from Millstreet was the biggest outside broadcast undertaken until then by RTÉ.
The orchestra was conducted by Noel Kelehan. He conducted a total of 29 appearances for Ireland in Eurovision and died in 2012. The interval act was performed by Linda Martin and Johnny Logan. The presenter was Fionnuala Sweeney, who eventually went to work for CNN in the US.
Niamh Kavanagh won the 1993 contest for Ireland, with the song In Your Eyes, which was the work of Jimmy Walsh.
Such were the preparations in Miillstreet for the 1993 Eurovision contest that even the platforms at the local railway station had to be lengthened to cater for the longer trains that brought all the celebrities there from Dublin. A BBC journalist, Nicholas Witchell, said that Eurovision was being staged in a cowshed in Ireland; subsequently, he had to apologise for the remark. During the 1990s, the Green Glens Arena was host to other newsworthy events, such as the 1995 world super middleweight boxing championship fight between Steve Collins and Chris Eubank. Dubliner Collins won.
But the tradition of equestrian events being staged at the Green Glens Arena stretches back to 1973, when the arena was opened, and it continues to this day.
Many other events have also taken place there, and these include everything from book launches to exhibitions, such as the Self Build and Improve Your Home Show.
The arena, with its incomparable facilities, continues as a major venue for equestrian and other events, but even after all this time, the high point in its history undoubtedly remains the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest.
Carol Murphy, Bray, Co. Wicklow.
QUESTION Has a song with yodelling made the charts?
THE most famous yodelling pop singer was Frank Ifield. Often described as an Australian singer, he was actually born in Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England, in 1937, to parents from Down Under. When Frank was 11, the family moved back to Australia.
In the mid to late 1950s, he became well-known in Australia as a country singer with a penchant for yodelling songs. He returned to England in 1959 and secured a contract with EMI Records subsidiary Columbia.
After achieving minor success with Lucky Devil, he topped the UK charts with I Remember You for seven successive weeks in 1962. It was the first record to sell a million copies in Britain alone.
It was followed by an excellent cover of the Hank Williams classic Lovesick Blues, which featured Ifield gently yodelling along with the harmony.
But it was the B-side, She Taught Me How To Yodel, that showcased his extraordinary vocal talent. Each side of the record featured in a separate position simultaneously in the UK Top 20.
Later that year, Ifield headlined the Royal Variety Show, which was attended by the Queen Mother.
Worried that he would be typecast as something of a novelty act, his manager decided he should not record or perform any more yodelling songs.
But She Taught Me How To Yodel was a favourite of the Queen Mum and she sent down a request to Ifield asking him to sing it – which, of course, he did.
Ifield’s revival of Gogi Grant’s The Wayward Wind prevented The Beatles from reaching the top of the UK charts with Please Please Me and led to the singer becoming the first British artist to have three consecutive No 1 singles.
Ifield still tours occasionally and his two-hour show features his many hits and a question-andanswer session with the audience.
He always acknowledges – albeit with a wry smile – that he is mostly remembered for She Taught Me How To Yodel. It’s certainly had enduring appeal. Re-released as The Yodelling Song in 1991 as a dance remix featuring Frank with
The Backroom Boys, it reached No 40 in the UK charts.
Michael Brooks, Kendal, Cumbria.
THE Dutch prog rock band Focus, fronted by keyboard player Thijs van Leer, had a huge international hit in 1973 with the instrumental/ yodel/whistling track Hocus Pocus. The track was the result of a jam session in the Netherlands.
When guitarist Jan Akkerman came up with a heavy riff and drummer Pierre van der Linden created a ferocious drum solo, van Leer, a flautist and keyboard player, felt the only way he could compete was to ‘start yodelling for the first time in my life’.
Pleasingly, it turned out that he was pretty good at it.
Simon Reeves, Worcester.
BRING Me Edelweiss, by Austrian outfit Edelweiss, was a comical ‘scratch’ pastiche of Abba’s SOS and Indeep’s Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, which reached No 5 in Britain and topped the charts in several countries.
Other tracks incorporating yodelling include The Smiths’ The Boy With The Thorn In His Side, which peaked at No23 in the UK in 1985. Tight Fit’s version of the much-recorded song The Lion Sleeps Tonight also features a yodel-like vocal.
F. Harvey, Bristol.
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