Independent People

Anyone who frequented Athlone niteclubs since the mid-1970s knows the name and voice of Noel Lackey, and have listened and danced to the music of his record-player or laptop in more recent times. Noel Lackey is a household name in Athlone since the early days of disco, through the punk rock era of the late 70s, and then to the new romantic stuff of the 80s, and to the present days of house music, and commercial pop. He started his music life attending showband performances in the Crescent as a young teenager, and helping the bands with lifting their gear, which probably gave him his love of popular dance music. “I was very, very young on the night that The Tremolos were playing in the Crescent, when their song, 'Silence is Golden' went to No. 1 in the UK, but I was there,†said Noel laughing. “It was May 18, 1967, and the manager stopped the show to tell everyone he had got a phonecall to say the song had just gone to No. 1.†He also went to see Joe Dolan and Drifters, The Real McCoy, The Indians, and even legendary dance leader, Victor Silvester, at the Crescent. However Noel's real passion was for international acts of the time such as Slade, Sweet, Deep Purple, and Rory Gallagher. He also saw the original Thin Lizzy in the Rugby Club in Athlone, just after they released 'Whiskey in the Jar'. He also saw Van Morrison, and a number of bands who visited Athlone during tours in the early 70's, such as The Boomtown Rats, and the English performers like Donavan, Dusty Springfield and Mike McCartney and the Scaffold. Noel is a true Athlone man, having come from Beechpark West. He was born to the late Noel, and Annie, who was nee Sammon from the Hill of Berries. Noel has a brother, Paul and two sisters, Marian and Fiona. Noel is married for 30 years to Ann Gorman, and the couple have two grown up sons, Derek, who's a civil servant, and plays and trains with Buccaneers Rugby Club. His second son, Noel Jnr has recently put Athlone on the social network map with the internet site, craicbook.com. “When I got into secondary school, there was a few of us lads who had no interest in anything only music and discos were just coming in at the time,†said Noel Snr. He started up his own disco with some mates. They called the new venture, 'Dyna-mite Disco'. They started playing the school discos at Athlone GAA, from 9 to 12, and they made a pittance on it after the rented sound gear was paid, but they enjoyed it, and Noel progressed with being a disc jockey throughout his school years. Soccer was another main interest of Noel's, and he was an underage player with Assumption Rovers from the ages of ten to seventeen, when the teams were trained and managed by Dessie O'Neill. Noel was a native of Beechpark West, and shared a desk with the current Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, in the Fair Green School, when they were taught by Madame Mel. When he was in 3rd class in the Marist College on St Mary's Hill studying for his Inter Cert, Noel moved school to the new Marist in Retreat, where he completed the Inter and Leaving Certs. Noel was one of a few players taken from Assumption Rovers to play for the Athlone B team by Dougie Wood, legendary Scottish footballer and manager of Athlone Town. Noel enjoyed success with Athlone Town, but the music side of him won over his time, and he dedicated the last of his years to deejaying. He was so involved in the presentation of pop music at the 70s discos that he didn't learn to play musical instruments that interested him, until much later in life. “Only in the last three or four years, I started playing piano and I'm up to grade 3, with great thanks and appreciation to local teacher, Helen O'Toole, and am getting ready for the exams,†said Noel. “I loved the guitar also, and was a big fan of Rory Gallagher, and met him once and he gave me a guitar string, and I saw him 27 times in concert.†Noel left school in June 1977, and after working in Athlone Manufacturing, for six months, he then went to Ericsson, which has been his day job since then, complementing his night job as a DJ. Noel's early days working in Ericsson were in the pre-computers era, and the factory was making relays and magnetic materials for telephone exchanges. When computerisation came in, the premises changed into a software house, and Noel was involved in the setting up of a training department in Athlone. He flew across the world to many different Ericsson bases as a trainer, for over a decade. “I'd fly on a Sunday to Africa, America or Canada and fly back on a Friday night, and be ready to deejay at a disco on Saturday night,†said Noel. Noel was also a DJ on Athlone pirate radio stations Radio Carol-Ann, ALR and Signal 102 and he had the alias, 'Derek Taylor', on each of the stations. Noel's status as a disc jockey grew with the success of the Jolly Mariner in the mid-1970's, and when it turned into 'Malibu' niteclub. “I did the opening night of 'Malibu', and I was the last DJ there on the night that it closed, and it was a great spot, but if you weren't there by 9.30pm on New Year's Eve, you could forget it, because there would be a full house then,†said Noel. “People would come from all over the midlands, particularly on a Sunday night. Everyone knew everyone there, and it was all a very big family there.†He met his wife, Ann, at a disco in the Athlone GAA where he was a popular DJ. He also worked as a disc jockey in the old Rugby Club, the Royal Hoey Hotel, The Grove, and worked at many weddings in the Prince of Wales Hotel, and the Paddock Hotel. “Since the Jolly Mariner ended in the late 1990s most of my nights would be spent deejaying in the Shamrock Lodge Hotel, and I have to thank the locals, and Paddy McCaul who've been so good supporting me over those years,†said Noel. He kept up to date with the many different brands of popular music over the almost forty years that he has been a DJ. “Glam rock fizzled out in the mid 70s, and then came the Sex Pistols and The Damned, but punk rock didn't really have an effect here, but then the disco scene moved in, and then there was electronics with Depeche Mode and Gary Numan, and then the new romantic music of the 80's,†said Noel, who played all the hits of that time and beyond. “Everyone was using LP records, and later on CDs, and I've always had to be up to date with my music, but nowadays it's all computerised, and there is no heavy carrying of loads of records into niteclubs, and now I can have 16,000 songs on my laptop,†he said laughing. Noel says that much of the same music as what was popular in the late 1970s, is still popular today. “Joe Dolan is still huge, and YMCA and girls love to dance the Macarena and Saturday Night by Whigfield, and people still love to get on the floor for Rock the Boat, and I even get requests for the Bay City Rollers from some people and Suzi Quatro†said Noel. Noel has 35 years of working in niteclubs behind him, and at this stage being a disc jockey is part of his persona. “I don't believe I'll retire, but when the phone stops ringing and when people stop looking for me, I'll stop,†he said.