From the pages of the Down Recorder, May 24, 1977

From the pages of the Down Recorder, May 24, 1977

24 May 2017

DOWNPATRICK — Five young Downpatrick boys are only a stone’s throw from stardom. That’s the opinion of Bay City Rollers manager Tam Paton, who is convinced that their group, Rosetta Stone, will become a smash hit in the international pop world.

Mr Paton made a flying visit to Downpatrick to take over as manager of Rosetta Stone, formerly known as the Young City Stars. “I think they’ve a massive future,” he told the Recorder. “They will be Ireland’s first international pop stars.”

If they do make it to the big time, one Downpatrick family will be especially proud — for three members of the group are all brothers.

Eighteen year-old Damian McKee is the band’s leader and his brothers, Terry (17) and Colin (15) are also members, along with 18 year-old Ian Mitchell and 17 year-old Andy Legear.

It was Damian and his friend, Ian, who first formed a group four years ago when they were playing in the Quoile Youth Centre. At that time they called themselves Albatross and they used an old guitar and a set of drums lying around the youth centre.

The band has undergone several changes in name and membership. But it was as the Young City Stars they made a name for themselves, playing in concerts all over Ireland and a few in England and Scotland.

They first met Tam Paton at a Bay City Rollers concert in Belfast and he was so impressed with their performance as the warm-up group that he invited the boys to Scotland. After that the rest is history.

Ian was offered his once in a lifetime chance to play with the Bay City Rollers and he left the Young City Stars to become an international name. But the Stars kept going and when Ian left the Rollers he came back to join his old mates and now they’re poised on a career of their own.

DUNDRUM — The new £90,000 road improvement scheme in Dundrum, welcomed generally by the villagers, is already bringing delays to hundreds of day-trippers en route to Newcastle.

The scheme, started only last month, will continue for the remainder of the year and is expected to bring big traffic congestion to the village during the summer months.

The first real hint of summer brought out the day-trippers in their hundreds last weekend, but true major roadworks left queues of cars building up in each direction. With even warmer weather expected over the next few months, bigger snarl-ups in the village can be expected.

Local police are anxious to avoid such a situation and are appealing to day-trippers to take diversions at Clough, of heading for Newcastle. “Day-trippers should turn right at Clough and divert either via Maghera or Castlewellan,” a spokesman said.

NEWCASTLE — Transylvania did not seem too far from Newcastle when local residents spotted strange bat-like figures with fangs flitting towards the Slieve Donard Hotel.

The Dracula duo, in spite of their fearsome appearance, were none other than two Newcastle Round Tablers members in disguise, out to enjoy an evening of fun at the Tablers’ fancy dress May ball.

The winner of the best fancy dress in the female section was Carol Jaye, of Newcastle, while Gareth Crory took first prize in the male section for the second year running.

The man with the fastest throat in Newcastle must surely be Raymond Nixon, who drank a yard of lager in a breakneck time of 38.5 seconds. The raffle winners were A McVeigh, of Athlone, G N Douglas, of Bryansford, and Graham Chambers, of Downpatrick.

BALLYNAHINCH — Young people in the Ballynahinch area are to be given the opportunity to join a summer activity scheme, due to start in late July.

The scheme, which will operate from July 18 to August 5, will be based at Ballynahinch Secondary School with David Teggarty being the organiser.

Membership is open to anyone of secondary school age who resides in the area. Cards can be obtained from Mr Teggarty at Ballynahinch Secondary School.  The cost will be £1 for one member of a family and 50 pence for each subsequent member.

Activities will include table tennis, darts, pool, gymnastics, tennis, football and golf. There will be trips for swimming, pony trekking and sand yachting, and visits to Belfast Zoo and the Ulster Folk Museum. it is hoped to take all participants on a day trip for the final day.

KILLYLEAGH — The Killyleagh Jubilee Committee has finalised its Jubilee Day programme of events for Tuesday, June 7.

The day kicks off, literally, with soccer action when a number of football finals will be staged at the sports grounds and later in the afternoon a pram race will get underway from the Castle square.

A children’s fancy dress competition will be judged in the square and then the highlight of the day, a parade to the sports grounds will be led by Killyleagh Silver Band.

The sports events include an ‘It’s a Knockout’ competition which starts at 5pm and in the evening there will be an open air disco in the square, followed by a sing-song and barbecue at 9pm. A dance has also been arranged to round off the evening.

SAINTFIELD — The surroundings of Rowallane provided an attracting setting for Saintfield Agricultural Show’s garden fete, which was well attended by a crowd of between 700 and 800 people.

Music was provided by three bands — Dromore Silver, Cahard Flute and Wellington Memorial Silver — who each took their turn on the bandstand to play a selection of popular tunes.

There were stalls, including a cake stall and plant stall, sideshows which included football penalty kicks and driving a six-inch nail into a block of wood — in fact, all the traditionally successful trappings of a good garden fete.

About £800 was raised to help boost funds for the Saintfield Agricultural Show which is scheduled to take place on June 18. The organising committee behind the fete, led by the convenor, Mr Ernest Johnston, wish to thank the National Trust for lending them Rowallane Gardens for the evening.

MOURNES — Smoke belching from Slieve Donard over the weekend had many people wondering if a forest fire had broken out. However, the fire, which raged for four days, was only blazing gorse and whine on the side of the mountain, well away from the forest.

In fact, the fire was allowed to burn itself out as there was no danger of it spreading to the hundreds of young trees further down the mountain.

With the summer spell just ahead, forestry officials are warning of the dangers of a forest fire and are asking tourists to take extra care.

STRANGFORD — Strangford man Tommy Hanna took to the waters around Strangford Lough at the weekend in a rather unusual boat — unusual in the sense that it was built by Tommy himself and it took only four months to put together.

Away from his work as a fitter on the Strangford ferries, he used his spare time to assemble his own boat. He did, however, come across one snag. When the boat was built he had only one exit for getting it out of the building — through a window five feet above ground level.

With the help of his sons and a number of friends, he eventually fulfilled his ambition and the boat was put on her maiden voyage. He chose the name ‘Fury’, which he says was taken from a carving on a stone he found in a river.

CASTLEWELLAN — In a further bid to save their proposed new library, desperate Castlewellan residents have appealed to the South Eastern Education and Library Board to extend its May deadline on the project.

The Board have recently warned that if legal difficulties over their possession rights to Castlewellan Market House are not sorted out by the end of May they will the £86,000 library plans.