If you wish to go straight to the database version 2 click here
Welcome to the second edition of the Echoes of Erin database, the production of which has been kindly supported by the Arts Council – An Chomhairle Ealaion.
If you have looked at the first edition, you will realise that some fairly radical changes have been made to the second edition of the database. To summarise, the main changes are:
1. The number of entries in the first edition was 565; in the second edition this has shot up to over 1,000! The main thanks for these additions are due to you – since publication, I have received many enquiries, additions, amendments and even a few thanks!
2. The columns have been reordered. Largely, this has been for my own convenience but I think that the present order is more logical. However, the beauty of Excel is its flexibility and you are at liberty to order sequences to meet your own needs.
3. I have also reformatted the columns containing the information on tunes, with each tune (where possible) now being listed in its own column. This makes tune searches easier and I hope that you will find this change useful – I know that I have.
4. I have added a column to acknowledge the source of the information and, where possible, I have tried to indicate all contributors. However, the same information has sometimes been received from more than one contributor. In these cases, I have generally shown the first contributor as the main source of information. Although I have not sought to interrogate the informants as to their sources, I know that, in some cases, information has been acquired from other discographies rather than direct from manufacturer’s records, etc. The multiple sources are useful in their own right, as they provide a valuable crosscheck (see database for contributors). At the suggestion of Bill Dean-Myatt, I have started to compile individual label catalogues – again, a task made very easy in Excel. From the present database, to date, I have compiled catalogues for HMV, Parlophone, Regal/Regal Zonophone, Decca, Winner, Sterno, Dominion, Columbia, Decca and Glenside. These are not complete but do give an indication of the pattern of recording and where items are likely to be missing. I can supply copies of these to anyone who is interested but it is not too difficult to make your own. One interesting point arises from a perusal of the Parlophone and HMV catalogues. Both companies were part of the EMI Group and, thus, came under the aegis EMI Records (Ireland) Ltd., from its inception in July 1936. The database appears to show that the first recordings made in the Dublin studios occurred on April 24 1937. However, I am curious to know the criteria that EMI Ireland used to decide whether recordings should be issued on its HMV or Regal Zonophone labels. Regal Zonophone was created in 1933 by a merger of the cheap labels of The Gramophone Company (HMV) and The Columbia Graphophone Company (Columbia), following the formation of EMI in 1931. According to the database, traditional dance music recordings were made on that historic day in 1937 by Leo Rowsome and Terry Lane, which were released on HMV. On the same day, presumably in the same studio, recordings were made by Stella Seaver on accordion and piper Phillip Martin, which were subsequently released on Regal Zonophone. To complicate matters, Stella Seaver was the accompanist on Terry Lane’s recordings!
As usual, you are welcome to copy or download this database, although it remains copyright and should not be published either in full or in part without the prior permission of the author (Barry Taylor).
Your comments, additions, deletions and disagreements are welcome and should be sent to: Barry Taylor Barryriley [at] eircom [dot] net Note:
This database is published in Microsoft Excel.