The Singing Nolans were an Anglo-Irish family singing group consisting of parents, Tommy (26 September 1925–1998) and Maureen Nolan (15 December 1926 – 30 December 2007) and their seven of their eight children: sons Tommy (born 20 July 1949) and Brian (born 19 June 1955), and daughters Anne (born 12 November 1950), Denise (born 6 April 1952), Maureen (born 14 June 1954), Linda (23 February 1959 - 15 January 2025), and Bernadette ('Bernie', 17 October 1960 – 4 July 2013).
The youngest member, Coleen (born 12 March 1965), did not formally join the group until 1980 as she was too young to perform with her sisters. Tommy had a radio show on RTÉ. Due to the lack of work the young family moved from Dublin to Blackpool in 1962, and launched a family singing group, the Singing Nolans, in 1963. In 1974, the daughters later formed The Nolan Sisters and in 1980, the group changed their name to The Nolans and had a run of hits, including "I'm in the Mood for Dancing", "Gotta Pull Myself Together", "Who's Gonna Rock You", "Attention to Me" and "Chemistry".
(read more on Wikipedia)
Links to Peel[]
Peel wasn't really keen on the band's music and played a snippet of the Nolans on his show in 1981 dedicated to some listeners. However, in 1989, he first played their full track, Blackpool, which came from the football compilation album, Flair 1989 (The Other World Of British Football) Volume One, which Peel played almost every track from it on his radio programmes between 1989 and 1990.
Shows Played[]
- 10 March 1981: Attention To Me (brief snippet)
- Singing Nolans
- 03 October 1989: Blackpool (v/a album - Flair 1989 - The Other World Of British Football - Volume One) Confection (Peel is not sure who it is as he has a white label version)
- Nolan Sisters
- 02 January 1993: 'Blackpool! Blackpool! (Compilation CD-Bend It! 92)' (Exotica)