BALLROOM BOOM – MIP Oct 2025

WATCH PROMO BELOW.

Sideline is producing an 85-minute feature-length version of the ratings hit Ballroom Blitz (aired on RTE in Nov/Dec 2024). With a new title, BALLROOM BOOM, plus new music, visuals, and added material from host Adam Clayton, this is an extended narrative of how Irish showbands (and their promoters, managers, and record labels) played such an important role in setting the seeds for a modern Irish music industry, later boosted by future international artists like Van Morrison, Rory Gallagher (both once members of showbands), Bob Geldof & The Boomtown Rats, and of course U2.

The music landscape in Ireland, which U2 entered in the late 1970s, was in a much healthier state due to the vision and energy of a stellar group of musical pioneers (both creative and commercial) who mostly started their careers during the showband era. But mixed in with classic tales of stardom and success is one of the most shocking events that tore the Irish music scene apart. Late on July 31st, 1975, three members of the Miami Showband – then Ireland’s most popular showband – were gunned down after a botched attempt by rogue British ‘soldiers’ to plant a bomb in their bandwagon. They were driving through Northern Ireland, heading to their base in Dublin after a packed-out dance in Strabane. Two members escaped to tell the story.

In Ballroom Boom, survivor and fellow bass player Steve Travers, who was left for dead, recounts in detail the events of that tragic night to Adam, who became so emotional he called a halt to the conversation.

Some say that the tragedy in 1975 marked the night when ‘the music died’, but by that time, the popularity of the 6- or 7-piece showband was declining. During the 1960s, they dominated the Irish live scene, with over 700 bands and thousands of musicians performing live ‘pop’ hits of the day in ‘dry’ halls and ballrooms on most nights of the week. But by the mid-1970s, new licensed venues offered alcohol, comfort, and food, plus a bar extension. As a result, most of the star vocalists formed smaller outfits and moved into cabaret. Discos flourished, while new ‘rock’ bands dominated the live music scene, appealing to Irish teens who were discovering original acts and had access to BBC’s Top of the Pops. The 1960s also saw a younger generation embracing international social and political movements across the world, and, as new universities opened and cultures clashed, young musicians—already immersed in rock, pop, and soul—now experimented with a modern appreciation of Irish traditional music. New outfits like Horslips, The Bothy Band, The Johnsons, Mushroom, The Chieftains, Planxty, Clannad, and Spud (then managed by future U2 manager Paul McGuinness) won over a hungry audience, primed to embrace and celebrate their own indigenous culture.

Who knew that legendary venues like The Fillmore East in San Francisco or The Electric Ballroom in London were established by Irishman Bill Fuller, who, in his teens, emigrated in the late 1930s from his native Kerry and saw an opportunity to open dance halls across the world for Irish emigrants to meet, dance, and romance? Bill later settled in Las Vegas, where he actively promoted Irish showbands during the 1960s, forty years prior to U2’s Vegas residency at The Sphere.

The music world would have been much poorer without the second generation of global stars, who were born in the UK to their Irish-born parents. The stellar list includes Dusty Springfield, three members of The Beatles & The Pogues, Oasis (all four had Irish parents), Johnny Rotten from The Sex Pistols, and Morrissey and Johnny Marr from The Smiths.

It’s all in BALLROOM BOOM. Hosted by U2’s Adam Clayton, it is launched at MIP in Cannes in October 2025. Any distribution or sales queries at MIP @ RTE International Stand downstairs in the main Palais.

Contact – michael@rockabillmedia.com and/or edel.edwards@rte.ie

PR – Cheryl@mushroom-media.co.uk

Promo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-lUsOId-AE

Go raibh maith agat/Thank you.