Legendary showband musician Paddy Cole, has passed away aged 85.
The famous saxophone player and singer, passed away at St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin yesterday afternoon.
Cole has been hailed as an icon of Irish showbusiness for the last 70 years, from starting out in the Maurice Lynch Band, to playing a huge residency in Las Vegas with Brendan Bowyer and The Big Eight.
He also fronted the Paddy Cole Superstars, as well as packing out ballrooms throughout the 1960s with Paddy and The Capitol Showband.
The 1970s saw Cole move to Las Vegas to join The Big Eight Showband, which included singers Brendan Bowyer, Tom Dunphy and Twink. Alongside Cole, the trio of singers performed a huge run of shows at The Stardust Hotel.
While in Vegas, Paddy Cole also met up with many household names in showbusiness , including the biggest of the lot, Elvis Presley, who watched Bowyer and the band perform at the venue.
In 2019, Paddy Cole was also honoured with a two storey mural in his native Castleblayney.
“I’ve seen the world through music, I’ve reared a family doing something I love, and it doesn’t get much better than that in life", Cole said in recent years.
The singer is survived by his wife Helen, and their three children, Pearse, Pat and Karen.
