To kick Irish Week off, I'd like to feature some bands who nearly/never quite made it. Ireland is unfortunately full of these bands, people who gigged for years and built up a decent following, perhaps released a record or two, sometimes even made it onto the radio or even TV, and yet somehow never made the big step to fame and fortune, and ended up just fading away, whether their members joined or formed other bands, or they gave up the music biz altogether. It's sad, as many of these were really good bands, and should have had a better and more successful career than they had. Many of these bands are now no longer even known outside these shores, but here we remember them.
Winter's Reign were an AOR styled band whose best years were 1983-1987, during which time they recorded two albums, although the second, “In the beginning”, was in fact recorded by a totally different lineup, as “musical differences” had caused the original members to split, with three of the six --- founder members Leo Larkin (vocals, keyboards) and his brother Billy "Bo" Larkin (guitar) as well as drummer Stuart MacMillan leaving the band and the remaining ones --- guitarist Mike Cavanagh, Keyboard player and vocalist Robbie Hurley and bassist Paul Dixon --- continued on, bringing in a new drummer.
I'm not quite sure what happened to them after the second album, but they seemed to just disappear from the Irish rock scene, which is a pity, as they really did look like they had the talent to take it all the way. Here are some of their songs.