All over Europe
On the left, England's Mickey Hayes, the man behind Euro Country Music Masters, European contest which lasted 10 years, and during this time we never met a man more cooperative than this perfect English gentleman. ECMM stopped in '90, because Mickey Hayes became sick. I haven't met him ever since but I really hope he recovered and is still alive and kickin'.
Ireland competed ten times. Six times a woman of whom five won. Susan McCann was the first one. Other winners were Sandy Kelly, Mary Duff and Louise Morrissey. But the second winner was my favourite Irish voice, Philomena Begley.
Picture taken in '82, before Phil Begley won ECMM. In her hand her first album, which I found at Honest John in London. She was very surprised that I had a copy.
Until now she is one of my five favourite voices, still doing well and still recording great albums. Funny enough, it seemed that Ireland always had great summers when I met her. And the year I did not, it rained all summer long. True story, confirmed by Paschal Mooney.
Of course, on the left, Philomena Begley, and on the right a great lady, Kathleen Cahill. She doesn't sing, she doesn't play, but she knows everybody in Irish business. She's a good friend of Ireland's queen of country 'n' Irish, and a great help during ECMM. as an intermediate to get a hold of all the Irish acts present.
I'm pretty good at looking stupid on a picture, because I can't laugh on command. But when I got together with Mrs. Cahill it was fun all the time. So this is one of the very few pictures that catched me really smiling.
As Renate Kern, she had a lot of hits in German, then switched to country music, calling herself Nancy Wood. Unfortunately, this charming lady died almost ten years ago. On the right, George Isenmann, bandleader of George and the Lucky Riders, good friend too. I visited both their homes frequently, Nancy living near Bremen, George near Nuremburg.
Nancy recorded all her records in Nashville. And even had a Billboard hit with "Imagine that". She was big in Germany then, doing a lot of TV shows, having radio shows on national networks, and is seen here with George and the Lucky Riders for a TV show, with her great husband Klaus Hildebrandt on keyboards. I still miss her.
Copyright Holger Aben
This guy made country big in Switzerland (along with Suzanne Klee, who moved to L.A. and is back now). We had a lot of fun together over here, in Switzerland and in Nashville where he records his albums. His manager Fritz Portner is also a good friend.
During one of the ECMM festivals I had the pleasure of talking to Mats Radberg, leader of Rankarna, who won the first ECMM edition for best European group. And that's probably what he's got, because with Rankarna and as a solo artist he recorded over 60 albums, which is unique for Europe. He was amazed that I had all of his albums.
Ottar "Big Hand" Johanson gave country its first shot when he recorded big country hits in Norwegian and later when it started to fade, came up with his famous trio Claudia, Big Hand, Casino. Casino Steel was an English rock singer and Claudia Scott is the daughter of Clive Scott, known in Norway with his Skywegians. These days Big Hand is still making great records. Casino is out of sight, but Claudia is close with the Dead Reckoners.
"Big Hand"
still going strong, when performing at Holland's Floralia festival 2001.
It's always good to see old friends again.
Sandy Kelly was Ireland's third winner of Euro Country Music Masters.
These pictures were taken 15 years after I last saw her.
