Shorty

Brian 'Shorty' O’Kane began his music career in the seventies playing in various popular Belfast based pop/rock bands. After moving to Dublin, where he lived during the late seventies/early eighties, he worked as bass guitarist and vocalist for some of Ireland’s top showbands. Returning to his native Belfast in 1983, he formed and fronted his own Rock’n’Roll Revival band ‘Shorty & The Heartbeats’ who enjoyed success as one of Northern Ireland's more popular dance bands throughout the remainder of the eighties. After forming a sound hire company, Shorty freelanced as sound engineer for many local and visiting bands, before settling for an offer of a full-time position as soundman for top Irish showband ‘The Chevys’ with whom he remained throughout the nineties. During his time with The Chevys, he also ocasionally performed with them on stage and in the studio. He left The Chevys in 2003 to reform his own band ‘Shorty & The Heartbeats’ and its more rockier sister band ‘The Naked Flames’. Now based in Armagh, in the North of Ireland, he was more recently seen touring on bass guitar & vocals with 'Ireland's Voice Of Country' - Eamon McCann and is currently playing bass with Co. Down based party band 'Suagartown Road', but still occasionally teams up with various musician friends to perform 2-piece acoustic gigs around Northern Ireland as 'Shorty & Co.'. You can check out his personal website - www.shortyokane.co.uk - for a more detailed biog and contact info, as well as loads of pics! Don't forget to sign the guestbook while you're there, and thanks for taking the time to read this!