For many years, Joe Mac was one of the most famous faces on the Irish showband scene, lighting up stages at home and across the States from the legendary Carnegie Hall to a residency in Las Vegas. He was on first-name terms with icons like Fats Domino and Chubby Checker, during his tours with The Dixies.
Now, 71 years after getting his drum kit and performing his first gig in 1954, this Cork legend is still playing every Sunday night at Canty’s Bar. Even after his recent cancer diagnosis, Joe remains upbeat and optimistic. He’s grateful it was caught early and, now that treatment has begun, he feels confident he’s on the road to recovery. It’s hard to believe he’ll be 90 next year. But slowing down isn’t on his radar, and he plans to keep performing for as long as he can.
Joe has made a lifetime of cherished memories and, though he misses his “band of brothers” in The Dixies, he counts his blessings for the incredible journey they shared, as well as his family and the people of Cork. Here he talks about recovery and reminisces about the past.
Joe described his diagnosis as “not too severe,” saying he was happy it had been caught early.
“I am having radiation treatment, and we will see what happens after that,” he explains. “It is not as bad as it might seem. They will assess me in the hospital after this first week to see if I need more. So far, I am finding the treatments fine.”
He goes on to say that the cancer is in his bowel and that doctors have reassured him it’s treatable.
“I was in hospital earlier on in the year because of an infection in the bowel, they did a colonoscopy and they thought it was a polyp,” he recalls. “So I had an MRI scan then and they discovered it hadn’t spread, which was great news. They seem to have caught it in time.”
It’s hard to imagine, but he will be entering the last year of his 80s next month.
“I will be 89 next month and I will keep going with the music for as long as I can now,” he shares. “I play one night a week in Canty’s Bar from 6pm to 8pm every Sunday. I played there last Sunday, and I started my treatment on Monday. I’ll be back there next Sunday.”
“I will go into Canty’s for the second half of the match – it will be like a mad house,” he laughs.
He also predicts the outcome of the game.
“It will be a very close match. I want Cork to win, and I think they learned a lot from the Limerick matches, so I think they will do it, but it will be tight.”
Known for his energy and wit, Joe Mac seems eternally young. When asked how he sees himself, he says.
“I still think of myself as a young fella,” he laughs. “Mentally, I am fine, thank God. The energy has dropped though because of the cancer. But I am on the right track and I am hoping that it will come back again after the treatments.”
Looking back over 71 years of music, Joe fondly remembers how it all began.
“I always wanted to get into music, to get into a band and to be a show-off,” he laughs. “I joined the Butter Exchange to learn the trumpet. Around that time, I went to a dance in the College of Commerce with an old buddy of mine.”
He remembers the night that changed everything.
“There was a small little band playing, and after the interval, there was no sign of the drummer, and they announced, ‘Can anyone in the hall play drums?’ So I put up my hand, and they called me up. That was the start of it all.”
Even though he hadn’t played the drums before, Joe felt confident.
“I thought it would be easy and that I could make sense of it,” he continues “My mother was always singing around the house, and I’d be drumming on the table with knives and forks, so I just did the same thing at the School of Commerce. I fooled them all.”
“I bought my first set of drums in 1954 and I have been playing ever since,” he recalls. “I went to the School of Music in Cork. My father insisted before he would sign to go guarantor for the drums on the never-never that I would go for some lessons. And I did.”
Not long after Joe started playing with a group of friends. They called themselves The Dixielanders, but shortened it to The Dixies, and that was the beginning of the legend.
“Our first trip to America was in 1964, when we played Carnegie Hall. Our manager, Peter Prendergast, made big news of it. When we got home, there was a massive welcome at Kent Station, like we’d just won the All-Ireland hurling final. Huge crowds turned out.”
Joe admits he would have loved to stay in the US during those early days of fame.
“We were walking up Broadway and chatting to Chubby Checker and Fats Domino. “We’d go out for three weeks every year, playing New York, Boston, Chicago, maybe Philadelphia.”
Then came Las Vegas.
“In 1969, Bill Fuller, who used to bring us over, told us, ‘You’re going to Vegas at the weekend for an audition.’ We rang the Royal Showband, who were big there at the time and asked what they were doing? They said, ‘A bit of Irish, some show stuff, trad, and a bit of comedy.’ So we rehearsed for a few days, did the audition, and got it. We ended up staying for 15 weeks.”
“That would have been one of my highlights with The Dixies, and one of my solo highlights was playing in Jesus Christ Superstar in 1973 in the Gaiety in Dublin and in Cork. “
Joe looks back fondly at the bond he shared with his band mates. “I’m the last one standing from The Dixies. When the lads were alive, you’d always be in touch, and it’s strange without them.
“I have great memories of really happy times with them, whether we were playing in Las Vegas or Ballina. We were like a band of brothers. We were very close.”
In 1972, Joe and Brendan O’Brien formed a new band called Stage 2. “A year later, Brendan had a serious accident in which he was electrocuted. The showband scene started to decline rapidly around then. “I moved away from it and took a day job with Power Securities as a chauffeur, babysitter, and rent collector – an odd job man. I was out and about and loved it. It wasn’t my first real job as I had trained as an upholsterer.”
But music wasn’t finished with him yet.
“We reformed The Dixies in 1982, and it went on for another 20 years,” says Joe.
“I love performing and entertaining people, and I’ll keep doing it as long as I can. Cork people are fabulous, they come up to me all the time, and I love that.
“Even up in CUH the past few days, people from all over Munster have been telling me they remember certain shows or songs. That gives you a great lift.
“There’s a real mix at my gigs in Canty’s, some arrive in zimmer frames or wheelchairs, and others are much younger and fitter. It’s a great crowd.”
Joe and his wife Ann raised their baby granddaughter after tragedy struck the family with a fatal car crash.
“Our eldest son Aidan and his wife Linda died in it. He was 20, and she was just 19. They left behind a four-month-old baby. I don’t know how we got through it,” Joe says. “But without a shadow of a doubt, that baby and our other children were the reason we did. We had to for them.”
My son Joseph had a band of his own for a while and did karaoke too. He has a son called Joseph as well, so that makes three of us!”
“I’ve another son, Paul, he’s in France at the moment and has a house over there. I’ve been over a couple of times to visit.
“Our little girl grew up and now has two children of her own. She is happy and I’m delighted for her. I have nine grandchildren now and great-grandchildren too.”
“It’s very tough being the wife of a musician,” Joe admits. “My wife reared the kids, and did all the school runs. But she was well looked after and had a lovely life from the business.
“I was like Santa Claus to the kids every Monday and Tuesday when I was off, or coming home from tours. Back then, if you were playing in Donegal one night, you’d leave first thing in the morning, be back in Cork the next night, and up the country again the night after. You were always on the go.”
Joe had a civic reception to mark 50 years in music, and with his 90th birthday next year, there may be more to celebrate. As for his upcoming birthday, Joe responds, “No plans this year, my wife isn’t well either.
“Billy Crosbie says he’s planning something for my 90th. I just hope it’s not in the crematorium,” he laughs.
When asked if he’d do anything differently, Joe laughs and says, “I would have saved more money and spent less on cars. I bought a new one every year, took flying lessons, bought a few boats, I did the lot! But I enjoyed it at the time, and it made me who I am today.”
A proud Cork man, Joe was born in the heart of the city.
“I’ve moved a few times over the years. I spent 27 years on Patrick’s Hill in a five-bedroom house. When the kids moved out, we sold it and moved to Ballincollig. We’ve been here 20 years now, and we love it.”
Back in 1954, I never imagined I’d still be going 71 years later,” Joe says. “Back then, you never thought beyond the following weekend.”
His mother, he recalls, was immensely proud. “Some of the songs I still sing today, like Some of These Days and After You’ve Gone, are old jazz numbers she loved.”
How does he remain upbeat? “I felt I had to be upbeat all the time as a performer,” Joe says. “And besides, I wasn’t the most beautiful person in the world,” he laughs, “so my personality had to shine. “Once I get this old cancer cleared up, I’ll get going again.”
