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Bio:
Soulful rock band formed in 1970 by Gibney and O'Donovan when their previous band the
Purple Pussycat
folded. Peter Carr (also ex Purple Pussycat) was the
original drummer and was with the band for a short period during the summer of 1970. The
initial lineup was Eamonn Gibney, Gerry O'Donovan, Paul Duffy and Peter Carr. They rehearsed
somewhere in Ballsbridge, in a place owned by an American. Peter recalls finding the demo 45
with "Let Us Break Bread Together" on it that the band ended up recording later that year.
Peter didn't see eye to eye with Eamonn and so he left. He emigrated to Australia but returned
later, turning up in the late 70s incarnation of The Strangers before returning to Australia for good.
Brian Donaghy became the drummer and
Paddy Freeney joined on bass.
Jimi Slevin joined on guitar from Crossroads.
Olly Byrne became their manager.
The spelling of the band's name had changed from Alyce to Alice by the time
their debut single was released in 1970 (on or after 31 July 1970).
The A-side is a gospel song which has been covered by many artists (Gibney
himself released it as a solo single in 1980). The B-side is the Creedence
Clearwater Revival song and is much better. This single was
the next release on Parlophone after Thin Lizzy's debut "The Farmer" (DIP513).
It was warmly received but didn't sell as well as expected.
The band continued to gig in Ireland thoughout 1971. They headlined the Indoor Pop Festival at Alice's Restaurant in Wolfe Tone Street, Dublin on Saturday 21st August 1971 (poster above). The support bands were Horslips (mispelled Horselips), The Urge, Crypt, Cromwell, Wormwood and Harpos Hat Gang. They were guests on Ken Stewart's RTE radio show Ken's Klub in 1971 or 72. I don't have any more details but it's possible demo recordings were broadcast on this show.
Olly Byrne was convinced the band were destined for greatness and so he decided to move
them to New York City. In April 1972, the members of Alice flew to the USA with no pre-arranged
bookings, no instruments and very little money. A chance encounter led to an introduction to
a publicty company then promoting Stevie Wonder and from there things improved considerably.
They famously played Max's Kansas City with the New York Dolls as support. By September they'd
changed their name to Brogue to avoid confusion with Alice Cooper.
Brogue reputedly did a good deal of recording in New York during 1972 in a small
studio owned by Bob Washington (does anyone know the name of the studio?).
An LP was discussed with Warner Brothers (tentative title: What The Experts Say About Your Driving)
and the band planned a return visit to Ireland for christmas 1972. But then things fell apart before
any of this came to pass and the band and manager returned to Ireland. They lost contact with
Bob Washington and the tapes of the planned LP are now presumed lost.
A reformed band came together over Easter 1973 with Eamon Gibney, Tony
Geraghty, Danny O'Keefe, Vincent Duffy, and Carl Geraghty.
This lineup didn't last long and there are no recordings.
Eamonn Gibney and Gerry O'Donovan formed the Gibney & Donovan Band,
still active in 1978; Gibney was
also in the reformed Skid Row (1973-75), released solo material and was a member
of The Allies in the 80s.
Jimi Slevin was next seen in Peggy's Leg.
Help!: We need your help to complete this entry. If you can tell us more about this band then please do! We welcome any corrections, missing details, connections to other bands, where are they now, etc. We also need photos, scans, copies of releases or live or demo recordings, and any other memorabilia gathering dust in the attic.
thanks to TP McLoughlin