Columnist Joe Delaney: Popular, country, local acts packing in crowds in Ireland

Joe Delaney

Friday, June 18, 1999 | 9:36 a.m.

Dublin, Ireland entertainment scene, continued: Shania Twain, huge here too, is scheduled to perform in the 5,000-seat Royal Dublin Society (RDS) Hall on July 10. ... Ducats went on sale June 4 and were gone the same day. ... Neil Sedaka sold out Dublin's 3,000-seat National Concert Hall on Tuesday. ... Sedaka is an Orleans hotel showroom regular.

Blondie was also standing-room-only Tuesday in the 6,000-seat Pointe Theatre, once a railroad roundhouse, just north of the River Liffey. ... B.B. King sold out his May concerts in Belfast and Dublin, visited with his U2 buddies and took time to send us a card. ... B.B., a friend for 50 years, now signs his mail, "Riley B. King, Senior."

Comedian Sandra Bernhard did very well with a one-night stand at the Vicar Street Theatre, and Sister Sledge, one-time regulars in LV showrooms, played the HQ Abbey Street, May 26-29. ... Dublin swings.

More Dublin

Hal Roach, comedy star of Jury's Hotel Cabaret for more than a quarter- century, has retired to live in Florida but was unable to resist an offer to star, June through September, at Dublin's Airport Regency Hotel. ... Roach, a hit in 1972 here in performance for the American Society of Travel Agents, turned down lucrative offers to play Las Vegas back then. ... His comedy is universal, topical, very funny and very clean.

Brendan (Irish Show Band) Boyer, a Las Vegan these past 30 years, has been headlining a nostalgia tour as a solo act throughout Ireland since April, and will return home July 4. ... They resume the tour in September.

My absentee ballot in the recent LV mayoral election was mailed from Montreux, Switzerland, in plenty of time to be counted. ... Mayor-elect Oscar Goodman received plenty of press in Ireland, England, and in the International Herald Tribune, almost all favorable.

Name protection

The late Buck Ram; producer, composer, and creator of the original Platters, and his life-long right arm, Jean Bennett, spent a fortune trying to protect and control the name of the group. ... Until Ram's death, only Herb Reed, original cadre in 1956, was allowed to use the Platters' name. ... The Platters concept was a take-off on the original Ink Spots, prominent in the 1930s and 1940s. ... Ram added a girl to the Ink Spots' high-tenor lead sound.

Reed went on his own in the 1960s. ... Personnel changes through the years under Ram's direction maintained the group's original quality. ... "Only You," the Platters' first release, was a No. 1 pop hit.

A similar story

The original Dukes of Dixieland ceased to function with the death of leader Frank Assunto in 1974. ... The widows of Frank and his brother, Freddie, who died in 1967, made a deal, giving up the name for a percentage of the net profit rather than the gross receipts. ... The present Dukes of Dixieland have yet to report a net profit.

During the mid-1950s and through the 1960s, the original Dukes had best-selling albums on RCA, Audio Fidelity, Columbia (now Sony) and Decca (now MCA). ... The Assuntos worked and lived in Las Vegas.

As personal manager and producer of their albums, which included two with Louis Armstrong, I reassigned my equity to the Assunto family when I joined the Las Vegas Sun in 1967. ... Freddie was 36 when he died, a cancer victim, ... Frank was 42. ... Both left us much too early.

Two appreciations

Mel Torme was a music master, as great a musician, composer and arranger as he was a singer and jazz song stylist. ... A child prodigy, Torme was incapable of doing less than his best at whatever he attempted. ... Movie trivia, music trivia, whatever the area, Mel was practically peerless. ... It is a sad first six months when we lose Mel Torme and Joe Williams so close together. ... Each left us a great musical legacy.

Pete Mikla was a fine human being, an excellent writer and low-key publicist, a class act. ... We were friends a long time. ... I was away when Pete signed off but I did have a Mass said for him in Montreux. ... It was in French, which Pete would have dug.

Special event

Please support Golden Rainbow. ... See this year's extravaganza at the Luxor, 1 p.m. Saturday or Sunday, or give what you can to Golden Rainbow to continue its vital work with HIV and AIDS sufferers in this area. ... Also, save something for the Sun Summer Camp Fund. All monies go to the children, the Sun underwrites all expenses. ... See you next Thursday.