About Me
Billy Finnegan left his native village of Camlough, Co. Armagh.Ireland in 68 to follow his dream of becoming a singer in a showband as it seemed a vacancy only arose in his native Ireland when a lead singer passed away. A very big decision, having to leave his homeland,his parents,his 10 brothers and 5 sisters, but England was a different place and a few short weeks later Billy was the lead singer in an Irish Showband in Leicester called The Billy Walsh Showband,and later to take up the same job with The Downbeats Showband.the resident 8 piece band in the Shamrock Club ,Birmingham This was a position Billy loved as he could open for every touring Showband from Ireland that visited the club,and he opened for the cream of the crop for 18 months.The Ballroom crowds were falling thanks to the disco era in the 70's so Billy moved into the hotels and dinner dance scene where work was plentiful,also the working mans club circut was a good bread winner.It was then he started to write verses and this led to songs and near the end of the 70's Billy with some friends who had a love for country music went on the road with their band called Stagecoach.This was a great adventure for Billy because he had found a circut of clubs all over Great Britain full of people who loved country music and they wanted to sit quietly and listen to the band or the act on the stage.Stagecoach excelled with this type of audience and soon were the winners of awards from coast to coast,they reached the grand final of The silk Cut awards at the Wembley Country Music Festival. then the "Most Promising Act of The Year award " from The B.C.M.A. Billy's songwriting was noticed as well at this time with his "Wheels Of Time" being nominated for the Single Of the Year award by the B.C.M.A. The band then recorded their their first album and this led to band of the year awards in many clubs and they opened for American stars on tour in Europe like Gene Watson ,Moe Bandy and The Rodeo Clowns,Erv Lewis,Marvan Rainwater, and many more.Billy Finnegan and Stagecoach were a hard working popular band but the sun set on them early in the 80's and Billy found himself on the road to Scotland with his wife and 2 baby sons in a truck filled with their possessions to catch the ferry boat back to Ireland. One of the members of his band had travelled back home a week previous. Local gigs and wedding party's kept Billy busy while they built their house on Slieve Gullion Mountain InIreland.One day the Country Music Roundup was delivered as Billy had always kept in touch with what was happening on the circuit and a reporter had a section asking the question,where has the band Stagecoach gone,so Billy rang her and after exchanging phone no,s and addresses that was that,until a call from an agent saw Stagecoach back on the ferry boat and embarking on a marathon 45 night day tour of Great Britain.Nearly 3 years later and with 12 tours behind them and 2 more albums and 1 EP the band were home for a few weeks between tours. A dancehall in The Glenties.Co Donegal called and Stagecoach was dispatched in their well worn out tourbus .It was St Patricks Night and it was March and cold and on arriving home at 7am next morning Billy took ill and it was a sudden illness.The show was over.The bus was sold .the guys got new jobs.It took 3 years to put right what went wrong that cold March night and during this time blue flashing lights were seen pretty often on the mountain,But with the love and constant care from his wife Jayne and family Billy slowly crept back and with his best buddy Miles Jones from Buffalo.New York they whiled away the hours and wrote a lot of stuff, and on good days they recorded in Annahia Studios.com that was owned by Maura Erskine and Miles.This was the life saver for Billy Finnegan as he recorded another 4 albums and 1 EP but he was never able to do another live gig,to him this was occupational therapy(Well some people like to go fishing!!), he co/wrote with Michael Durkin ,Ireland and Michael Vreeland,Lutz,Florida, and took a lead part in "The Flight Of The Earls" album for the 400th anniversary of the historic flight of the Irish chieftains. He recorded his latest album in the autumn of 2007 called "Country Collection." In his local village there is a wee centre called Teac Mallon,(In the Irish it means )"house of Mallon."But it used to be a byre (a shed were cows were milked) and there on a Friday evening you can sit and be entertained by Irish storytellers=Irish traditional musicians=Folk singers=and of course there is always a song from Billy Finnegan. "Yesterday was the past and he dos'nt believe in looking back, so for Billy Finnegan the future is (uncertain territory)and it's now that matters , right now".
