By Ruth Dowds
IT is 45 years since jazz outfit The Seven of Hearts last played together as fresh-faced 20-somethings, once on the same bill as The Undertones.
They were the perfect antidote to troubled times with their energetic repertoire of jazz classics, performing numbers from Louis Armstrong to favourites from the Jungle Book.
All these years later, and having retired from their day jobs, The Seven of Hearts are reuniting for one last performance at The Court House, Bangor, on November 23.
They will perform with their best known line-up of Bangor musicians Bob Dawson and Mark Coyle on trumpet and drums, respectively. Alongside them will be Alex Hall on bass guitar, Brian Neilly on rhythm guitar, Jim McMillan on tenor sax, Ronnie Sloan on clarinet and Graeme Boyd on trombone.
The band members first met in 1969 as students at the South Eastern Music Centre in Ballynahinch.
Mark and Bob already knew each other well as they were in the same class at Bangor Secondary School where they played together in the school band.
They considered themselves fortunate to benefit from the music services introduced into schools by education boards in the 1970s which gave children the chance to learn an instrument for very little financial cost to their parents.
One of their teachers at the Ballynahinch music centre, ex-army man George Hale, suggested that Bob, Mark and their friends set up a traditional jazz band with George as their seventh member.
“One thing led to another and we started The Seven of Hearts and we practised and got pretty good I think. We started getting requests to come back and do gigs at different venues,” explains Bob.
George was later replaced by Ronnie Sloan, a clarinettist from East Belfast and The Seven of Hearts was officially born in 1974.
“We used to do the polytechnics and the universities,” says Bob, “and we would come on after the heavy metal bands and the kids would be queued outside.”
Mark recalls: “I think it was the May ball at Queen’s in 1977 and we were downstairs having just finished while upstairs The Undertones came on.”
Another time Mark says they braved a snow storm to fulfil a commitment to perform at Lurgan Golf Club. “Brian had an old Volkswagen Beetle which we called The Starship Enterprise. They brought sandbags and a shovel and there was no heating in the car and the wipers didn’t work and they arrived with their overcoats on.
“We made the gig but there were more of us on stage than there were in the hall. They couldn’t believe the band had made it that night,” he laughs.
Bob remembers being booked to play Ballyholme Yacht Club for one unforgettable New Year’s Eve. “We only charged £100 for the whole band and we played for so long we ran out of numbers and had to start the set from the beginning,” he says.
They were dangerous times in Northern Ireland’s history but the band focused on the music.
Bob comments: “We have memories of checkpoints but they were just par for the course.” They were regulars at golf and rugby club functions, as well as on the college circuit and in pubs and clubs across the province.
Says Mark: “There used to be an upstairs bar in Bangor called the Tavern Bar in what became the Goat’s Toe. We played on a Thursday jazz night and there was a folk night on a Friday and a rock night on the Saturday. The place was rammed because there was nowhere else they could go.”
When The Seven of Hearts split in 1980 its members scattered across the world – Alex Hall went to South Africa, Brian Neilly worked on the Channel Tunnel as an accountant, Graeme Boyd went to London, Jim McMillan became an accountant, Ronnie Sloan stayed in Northern Ireland, Mark Coyle worked in Bombardier and is now timpanist with the Studio Symphony Orchestra, while Bob Dawson became head of brass with the South Eastern Board.
Some of the members lost touch but one thing they had in common is that they each kept playing their instruments, many working as session musicians and with other bands.
The germ of the idea for a reunion began when Bob was visiting his daughter in Sevenoaks in Kent and he met up with Brian Neilly for the first time in a decade. They were joined by Graeme Boyd for a photograph with their instruments.
Though they have yet to rehearse together as a collective, Mark says it will be ‘like riding a bike’ for such seasoned musicians.
Mark adds: “We’ve been talking for years that we must get the band together and all of a sudden it happened.
“When you’ve played as many gigs as we have you don’t get nervous, you get excited about doing it. The more the disasters, the bigger the laugh. It’ll be good fun.”
The reunion gig takes place at 3pm on November 23 at The Court House, Bangor. Tickets cost £10 with proceeds going to Parkinson’s UK, a disease Bob was diagnosed with eight years ago.
