Val Doonican

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Val Doonican
Background information
Birth name	Michael Valentine Doonican
Born	February 3, 1927 Waterford, Republic of Ireland
Genre(s)	Pop standards Swing
Years active	1951–
Label(s)	Decca
Website	Offical Website

Val Doonican, full name Michael Valentine Doonican (born 3 February 1927 in Waterford) is an Irish singer and performer. From 1964 to 1986, he was a regular fixture on the BBC's television schedule with The Val Doonican Show which featured his own singing performances and a variety of other acts.

Val Doonican started performing in his home town and featured in the first ever television broadcast from Waterford. He then joined a band which toured Ireland playing the drums. In 1951 he moved to England to join another group, The Four Ramblers who toured and performed on BBC radio shows broadcast from factories.

He eventually went solo and had a radio show as well as performing concerts and cabaret. In 1963 he was booked to appear on Sunday Night at the London Palladium. As a result of this performance, he was offered his own show on BBC television, lasting for over twenty years and moving to Saturday as its popularity grew. It featured his relaxed crooner style performance sitting in a rocking chair, as well as a number of comic Irish songs, notably "Paddy McGinty's Goat", "Delaney's Donkey", and "Rafferty's Motor Car", on which he accompanied himself on acoustic guitar. He often wore a cardigan which became a trade mark, and was sometimes compared to American singer Perry Como. As a variety show, there were a number of other acts featured and performers such as Dave Allen had early exposure on the show.

The Palladium performance also kick-started his recording career. Between 1964 and 1973 he was rarely out of the British charts, his greatest successes including the singles "Walk Tall", "The Special Years", "What Would I Be", "If The Whole World Stopped Loving", and "Morning", and the albums "13 Lucky Shades of Val Doonican", and "Val Doonican Rocks, But Gently".

Val still peforms with success today, but now enjoys spending a lot of free time in Spain (where he has a second home). While he says he is not an "Internet junkie", he enjoys using email and online banking. He is also fond of using the 'Spell check' function on his computer as he said in an interview found on his website.

Val Doonican's daughter wrote two books titled "Wired to the Moon" and "Fear of Custard" under the name Sarah Kavanagh. Both stories are related to the performance entertainment world.