Article

Peter Carr: Two Films

Stan Erraught

Published in: Ethnomusicology Ireland 11 (2026)
Pages: 64-79 | Published Online: 19 June 2026
https://doi.org/10.64208/INHA5532

Abstract

In the mid-1970s, filmmaker Peter Carr made two documentaries for British television about bands on tour in Ireland (respectively, the Republic of Ireland-based showband Nevada and the American soul group, The Realistics). Commissioned at a time when the Troubles were synonymous with Ireland for viewers in Britain, both films reflect this wider context in different ways. Filmed in a distinctive verité style that reveals much about the social, cultural, and political forces that shaped the performance and business practices of musicians in both Northern Ireland and the Republic, these films are valuable for their realism and their unpatronizing look at commercial music making in Ireland.

Keywords: Ireland, popular music history, showbands, music documentary, BBC television, Granada television

Author: Stan Erraught | ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1569-5063

Stan Erraught is a lecturer in Music Management and Popular Music at the University of Leeds. He is the author of Rebel Notes: Popular Music and Conflict in Ireland (2025) and Music, Value, and Utopia: Nostalgia for an Age Yet to Come (2018).