Derek Blevins Entertainer - The story behind one of the admin team of Benidorm Seriously who has also worked throughout the town as a versatile entertainer for around 14 years.

After more than 50 years of being on stage, Derek has now moved into a semi retired status.  

Find current show times and venues here.

Derek's time in showbusiness began when he joined his first band at the age of just fourteen.  Teaming up with some old School friends to form a band called Stag in which Derek was lead vocalist.  "We were rubbish" he recalls. "The set list wasn't decided by what songs the public would like to hear.  It was decided by what songs the guitarist was able to play"

This, however, lead to him becoming known in the area as a vocalist and it wasn't long before he was approached to join a new band as a second vocalist and rhythm guitar player.  This time the band was named La Tête D'oignon.  Where did the name come from?  Well, this was back in the days when bands like the Police where at their prime.  Their first two albums were called Outlandos d'Amour and Reggatta de Blanc.  "We needed a name that sounded French.  Our bass player was very heavily punk influenced and wore a hairstyle that basically was shaved at the sides and bunched up at the top into a very small pony tail on the very top of his head.  We decided the Head of an onion was a good name, when translated to French. 

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Derek Blevins Entertainer

This band fell apart when the main musician of the band was approached to join a more successful act.  Disillusioned by both bands disbanding during rehearsal stage, Derek decided if he was to work as an entertainer it might be better to go it alone.  This was a long time before backing tracks had been introduced.  A solo performer worked with only a beat box and an acoustic guitar.  With very limited ability in guitar playing, Derek decided to give it a go anyway and landed his first work.  Singing in a local restaurant every Saturday afternoon.  The task was to start just after the lunches finished for the day and continue until it was time for the evening's A La Cart Menu.

Derek takes up the story. 

"It was a venue frequented by many of the town's top musicians, especially in the genre of Irish folk music.  At first I felt very intimidated, but soon learned an easier way to get through a two or sometimes three hour performance.  I learned about twenty minutes of songs that I could play reasonably well on the guitar.  I would then get up and start the show singing my twenty minutes worth.  Then I would start to call other singers.  One by one these very talented musicians would take over for maybe as long as half an hour at a time.  This enabled me to get a complete show out of my twenty minutes.  Maybe only performing one or two more songs right at the end to finish it up. 

The quality of the other musicians meant that the venue started to draw large crowds, and since the owner was never there to see what went on, I got the credit for it.  It not only helped to build my reputation, but I learned so much from those guys, how they worked an audience and they recognised my limited ability and where always helpful with advice and often accompanied me on guitars, mandolins and numerous other instruments including backing from a very competent harp player.  And I mean a genuine harp, not the blues harp.  I also think it might still be the best paid work I ever had.  I was given a meal before I started, all the drinks I could manage with both performers and the public buying me drinks and then a meal again at the end of the evening as well as the usual fee, which kept going up as the crowds grew.  Alas after about two years the venue changed hands and the new owner decided he would book different acts each week. End of an era" 

As one door closes, another opens.  The new owner changed the venue to a "Rock" venue, and Rock bands began to form throughout the area.  Derek was invited to join a Rock band still in rehearsal, as after a few changes in line up, they soon a band playing well enough to hit the road.  On receiving their first gig (still without a name) the venue tried to contact a friend of the band to find out a name to give to the local papers.  The friend had never heard a name mentioned, so she gave them the local postcode.  To this day, she doesn't know why!  BT63 was born.

BT63 played throughout Northern Ireland for about 8 years and the guys built up a great friendship that still exists to this day.  Derek tells us the band never really broke up.  Each of the fellas found themselves involved in other projects at the time and gradually they found less and less time to work together.  " We have been discussing the reunion gig for almost 40 years now.  Perhaps it's meant to remain a happy memory"

There was a very brief spell with a band called Catch 22, which Derek left as he felt the other members were still too inexperienced, but the spell with them led to an introduction to join a Blues band as the lead vocalist.  On first rehearsal, again Derek did not feel they had the ability to play Blues as it should be played, but was of the opinion that they had a fantastic drummer and a reasonable guitarist.  He proposed to them that they form a band to hit the club circuit in Northern Ireland, which was dominated by country bands.  The idea was to play a little country (just to be accepted) but then to go down the route of nostalgia branching into 50's, 60's and 70's music that none of the other bands played a the time.  The idea worked and after settling on the name "Purple Heart" the band was soon in high demand.  Why Purple Heart?

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Derek Blevins Entertainer

"It seemed to cover the image of the band well.  The Purple Heart was a war medal often associated with the Vietnam War of the the late 60's and 70's, which was the era we were revisiting, and also had a ring of Deep Purple about it.  All the band members had experience of the Rock circuit and that often showed at the end of and evening as some of the old Rock and Roll classics where played slightly heavier than most bands in the circuit would have dared to do at the time."

Purple Heart continued for fourteen years on the circuit, and at one time were one of the most popular bands in the country.  Derek told us " we spent about four years building a reputation, about six years playing at the top flight and about four years killing it again as members left and were replaced by players with less enthusiasm.  I will always regret we did not quit while we were ahead.  I think we would have been remembered better.  A mistake I will not make again"

With the break up of Purple Heart, Derek felt the time was right to go solo again.  By this time, backing tracks had become popular and therefore a much stronger sound could be achieved without needing to "attempt" to play the guitar.  Back into the pub scene and working sometimes five nights per week, there was a decent living to be made, but after the fun and the camaraderie of Purple Heart, Derek felt he needed a challenge.  Having worked with Joe Dolan in the Purple Heart era, Derek had become a big fan of Joe's music.  He could also see that there was a market for a nostalgic show based on the music of the Irish Showbands where Joe had started his career.  Deciding to be a little adventurous, Derek took the risk of booking many of the theatres throughout Ireland with the plan to perform a one man tribute to the Irish Showbands. 

Using a lap top computer he put together a complete backing system, which included the casual music playing while the audience arrived, the security announcements compulsory with a theatre performance and the background music during the interval, as well as the entire backing for the shows songs, he spent about a year planning and preparing the project.  The end result was Derek would set his lap top to the side of the stage and hit the button as the audience started to arrive.  At the shows starting time the level of the music would rise and the story would be told using on screen footage of the singers and bands of the era, both still imagary and video, and Derek would interact with the story, changing costume for each singer being tributed and continuing the story on screen during costume changes.  The show was a massive success, but Derek told us "I wouldn't do it again.  The outlay financially was heavy and there is always the risk that money would not come back.  All too often ticket sales where last minute.  "I did make profit from the venture, but not enough to justify the risk"  However he did pick up significant experience of working the theatres.

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Derek Blevins Entertainer

When the theatre shows had run their course, Derek continued to perform the show in some of the larger clubs, Hotels, and also in Scotland, when an agent who had seen the show invited Derek to perform a sample of the show for a audience that included many of the Scottish agents.  It was at this performance that Derek met a fellow Benidorm entertainer Gareth Fulton who was host and compare for the evening.  

One other major change of performing the Theatre show was the name.  Derek did not want to use his own name as he felt his days with Purple Heart singing in a Rock style might not help the shows image.  He therefore adopted the name Dickie Ray as a play on the name Dickie Rock, one of the top names of the Irish Showband era.

Although often requested to bring the show back for return visits to venues, Derek did not want to repeat the run.  He felt the show being identical for every performance was a bad thing, so opted to continue to work around the venues singing in various styles and would include a thirty minute tribute during the show to the music of Joe Dolan.  This was the same thirty minute segment from the Showband show and it's interesting to note that the songs for that section of the show was suggested by Joe himself.  Derek had asked his advice when putting the show together regarding what he felt where his most popular songs with the audience.

Also under the name Dicke Ray, Derek recorded a selection of County albums.  One song in particular from this work was a song called "Angels" which reached number one with two of the Irish Radio Stations charts.  The songs and music are available for download here

After many years of singing so many different styles of music, Derek tells us that once he learns a song, he never seems to forget it again.  He therefore continued to work throughout Northern Ireland as a country singer, Host and compare for variety show involving some of the bigger names in Irelands country circuit, and also a cabaret performer performing thirty minute segments where the audience was effectively challenged to name a song he didn't know.  He admits there was a trick to it, but he was never beaten.  A quick glance at his Ipad and he was able to tell us he has 2,431 backing tracks on the Ipad (almost 165 hours of music).  90% of which he is confident he could still perform today without needing to recap on the words.  The tracks cover almost every genre of music including Rock, Blues, Country and Folk and almost every era from early Jazz and swing through Rock and Roll up to the mid 80's with a few later ones here and there.  Gradually however, the music scene throughout Northern Ireland began to die.  With work now only available on Saturday nights, Derek felt to continue to work in entertainment he would have to move on.  He decided Benidorm was the place to be.

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Derek Blevins Entertainer

Still using the name Dickie Ray when he arrived in Benidorm, Derek set out to create a new circuit for himself.  "I only kept the name Dickie Ray in Benidorm becasue I arrived here with about 1,000 posters with that name.  I thought I would save some expense and use them up" He soon learned that Benidorm is very different from any other place he had worked.  He tells us "There was work here and I was able to make a living, but it was very difficult to become established as a regular anywhere.  Many of the acts had been here years before me, and I often found myself filing in for other entertainers.  I could get enough work every week to get by, but I was constantly having to search for it.  I often started a week without any work in the diary, but always managed to find myself at least ten slots each week to pay the rent and put food on the table"

Just over a year after arriving in Benidorm, Derek met Tracy down in Torrevieja.  They hit it off immediatly and Tracy moved to Benidorm finding work in one of the local cabaret bars as a (believe it or not) bouncer. 

Meanwhile Derek had expanded the Joe Dolan section of the show that he used to perform in Ireland by adding an extra fifteen minutes to it, and was performing at least one "regular" slot each week that was filling Valentines due to Joe's popularity with Irish audiences.  

One night whilst at work, Tracy noticed Tom in the bar, one of the guys  who had been working as part of a father and son Blues Brothers tribute called the Blues Brothers Experience.  Tracy asked why he hadn't been working for a while.  Tom told her that his father was ill and that he had no replacment.  Tracy suggested Derek, knowing that Derek would know the songs and would be keen to get the extra work. 

The two got together and Derek quickly learned the dance routines that Tom and his Father had been performing.  The two began to work together and the regular work started to come in.  It soon became clear that Tom's father would not be coming back and Derek at last had found a permanent place in an established act.  He began to put his own influence on the show, but was very restricted to what changes could be made, due to Tom's reluctance to try anything "not Blues Brothers".  However, the partnership was relatively short lived when Tom met a girl from Belgium and decided he wanted to move there to be with her.  It looked like the show was finished.  However many of the venues were saying to Derek, "We like the show - find a replacement and we'll keep it working"

Find a replacement?  There didn't seem to be anyone in town that suited what Derek was looking for.  He had already decided that if he was going to continue, he would change how the show was performed. He told us:

"I had often put ideas to Tom that were rejected on the grounds of not being Blues Brothers enough.  I was looking at it from a different point of view.  Let's do what the Blues Brothers would have done!  Fans of the movie will know that when they found themselves in Bob's Country Bunker, they performed as a Country band with songs like Rawhide and Stand by your man.  What would they have done if they had found themselves in Benidorm?  It's a party town.  They would have performed a party show. 

The part of Elwood had always been played by a Blues Harp player who would dance.  Why not make the dancing the bigger part of it.  I decided I needed a dancer"

It was Tracy who came up with the idea.  Each week in Valentines there was a young man performing a Michael Jackson show immediatly after the Joe Dolan show.  They didn't even know his name but after a bit of searching on Facebook, they learned that he only worked the summer months in Benidorm and returned to Scotland for the winter.  Tracy sent him a message on Facebook to see if he would be interested in coming back out to Benidorm to play the part of Elwood Blues.   He accpeted the offer.

Derek quickly informed the Tropical Bar that he had a new partner and that the new show would be ready for Christmas eve. David Young arrived in Benidrom on the 23rd of December.  After a quick introduction on collecting David at the airport, they learned that David had never even seen the Blues Brothers movie.  Therefore the first thing they did while having supper that night, was to show David the movie.  The plan was simple.  This would not be a tribute to the Blues Brothers but a party based on the theme of the Blues Brothers.  Without any rehersal they arrived at the Tropical Bar on Christmas eve.  Just before walking on stage, Derek said to David "You dance and I'll sing and we'll see what happens".  The lack of knowledge turned out to be no barrier. 

David immediately tuned in to what Derek was trying to do and the first show was a massive success.  One member of the audience even commented after the show that it was "the most polished show he had seen in Benidorm"  We'll not mention the second show, as that is one to talk to Derek about over a beer if you want a laugh. Sufficient to say the show went from strength to strength and was soon one of Benidorm's most popular shows. 

They peaked at performing twenty two shows per week and became established as a main act every year at the Moraira Music Festival performing in front of thousands each year. 

After almost ten years of working together.  The time to finish had arrived.  Derek was beginning to find the energy of the show a bit too much for a man his age, and David had met a girl and announced his intention to marry and return to the UK.  Under mutual agreement it was time to finish and Derek had always said he did not want to make the same mistake twice.  Finish while we're still winning.  

And now to the present day.  Derek is still performing occassional shows throughout the town and enjoying the variety again, while at the same time, managing Benidorm Seriously along with Tracy.  

"I miss the fun of having a partner on stage, but at the same time I have the freedom to sing what I want, when I want.  I don't think I'll ever totally quit, but I started singing for fun and want to finish singing for fun.  I don't depend on it for a living anymore."

Footnote.  Over the years Derek has worked with a few notable names.

Showaddywaddy, Joe Dolan, Eric Bell (of Thin Lizzy), The Van Morrison band (admittedly without Van being there) which included Daniel O'Donnell's backing singers , Derek Mehaffey (One of the bigger names from the Irish Showband era), Goats don't Shave (Irish folk band famed for their self penned song Las Vegas in the Hills of Donegal), The Indians, (Another big name act from the Irish Showband era) and Vincent McCusker (of Fruup).

Find information on other Benidorm Entertainers here.

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