| 1980 Billy and Seamus Murphy aka The Murphy Brothers. Billy Lead Vocals. Seamus Acoustic Guitar, Vocals. 1981-2 John Hardiment (Nephew) joins band. Billy Lead Vocals. Seamus Acoustic Guitar, Vocals. Johnnie Acoustic Guitar, Vocals. 1982-3 Seamus leaves to pursue other musical directions. 1982 -1991 Billy and Johnnie continue to gig and expand their repertoire with fleeting appearances by a number of guest musicians. During this time the band was known by any number of names, most notably, Cream Of The Barley. Although playing with various other bands, Seamus always found time to make guest appearances with the “family band” 1991 On one of these guest appearances, Seamus was asked to rejoin the band full-time. Although playing Bass Guitar at the time, Seamus decided to learn G-Banjo. 4 weeks later, with Billy on vocals, Johnnie on guitar and Seamus on banjo, the boys played their first tour of England. The boys decided that a new name was needed to herald this new band. Poteen was born. The tour was a massive success with the boys having to add dates to their original schedule. This tour, and subsequent tours, was organized by their English manager, H.J. Murphy (brother) The Irish and Scottish manager was Terry Murphy (another brother) 1991 -2001 Poteen then went from strength to strength playing support to top Irish bands “The Dubliners” and “The Wolfe Tones” whilst retaining the same line-up. Billy Lead Vocals Seamus G-Banjo,Tenor Banjo, Mandolin,Vocals Johnnie Acoustic Guitar,Vocals When Seamus was unavailable, due to other musical commitments, renowned musician John Starkey stood in to play banjo and whistle. During this time Poteen established themselves as the Irish Folk Group Towards the end of the 90’s the boys decided to retire due to ill health but, still got together once or twice a year for "one last tour ". Some-one once said “ this band is too good to retire, the only way they will retire is if one of them dies”. Unfortunately, in March 2001, whilst Billy and Seamus were putting the finishing touches to another "one last tour " Billy suffered a massive coronary and never recovered. The world of Folk Music was robbed of one of it’s sweetest voices. “Poteen died on 13th March 2001” |
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