Platform / Ray Kennedy & Platform

• Ray Kennedy - lead vocal, harmonica
• Billy Merriman - 12 string guitars, vocals
• Brian O'Connor - lead guitar, banjo, mandolin, vocals
• Liam Hickey

Bio:

Dublin based folk/ballad trio led by Ray Kennedy from Westport, Co. Mayo, with Billy Merriman from Ballyfermot, Dublin and Paul Halpin who was later replaced by Brian O'Connor.

Their debut LP in 1977 is let down by a tracklisting which is about as generic as you could imagine. This perhaps explains why there is little interest in it among collectors today. Liam Hickey had joined by the time of 1979's In Good Form LP is better but still derivative. If the debut LP is their Dubliners/Wolfe Tones LP, this is their Makem & Clancy LP.

The band recorded several singles into the '80s wen they were billed as Ray Kennedy & Platform.

 

 

side one:
Cliffs of Dooneen
Three Score And Ten
Only Our Rivers Run Free
Spancil Hill
Fiddlers Green
And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

side two:
The Wests Asleep
The German Clock Winder
Avondale
Scorn Not His Simplicity
Gipsy Woman
Danny Boy

Notes: Recorded at Trend Studios with Joe Farrelly on bass. Produced by Marcus Connaughton. The front cover shows an Aer Lingus plane and the back carries the legend "Special Thanks to Aer Lingus Publicity Department", so some form of sponsorship relationship may have been active at the time.

Platform reputedly recorded a further two albums for K-Tel Records.

 

 

side one:
The Brave United Men
Gentle Annie
Botany Bay
Colonel Friser
Silver in the Stuble
Lord of the Dance

side two:
Carlingford Bay
My Green Valleys
The Mermaid
Whelan's Frolics
Freedom Walk
Jamie Raeburn

Notes: Recorded at Trend Studios. Produced by Paddy McGuigan who also did most of the arrangements and provided three of the songs.