Basil Henriques & The Waikiki Islanders | Lyrics, Song Meanings & Music Videos

He is highly experienced as a Musical Arranger-Record producer-Vocal Techni… Read Full Bio ↴He is highly experienced as a Musical Arranger-Record producer-Vocal Technique coach.
( Studio and live performance skills )
He has arranged the music, performed as a session musician on various instruments, produced and supervised the vocal
performance, engineered and mixed All of the following :-

Albums :-
Bagatelle (ALL of their original demos for songs such as "Summer in Dublin" etc)
Peggy's Leg ( Album, "Grinilla" )
Philomena Begley ( 8 albums and most of her singles)
Foster & Allen ( 3 albums and 3 singles)
Ray Lynam ( Various albums and singles )
Big Tom ( 16 albums and various singles)
Larry Cuningham ( Various albums, singles and videos)
T.R. Dallas ( Various albums and singles )
Brendan Shine ( Various albums and singles )
Cathy Durkin ( Various albums and singles )
Susan McCann ( Various albums and singles )
John Hogan ( Various albums and singles )
Hank Locklin ( Various albums and singles )
Tony Stevens ( Various albums and singles )
Buddy Boland ( Album )
Sean McGuire ( 2 albums )
Donna Darlene (1 album )
and MANY others in the entertainment business in Ireland

He started playing guitar at eleven years of age and took up Hawaiian guitar at twelve.
His first pedal guitar was a six string gibson 4 pedal electraharp.
At fourteen he was playing in his mother's group "The Blue Hawaiians" and at sixteen formed the "Waikiki Islanders" .
From 1966 to 1968 he was resident at the "Castaways" night club in Birmingham with his group , also playing at the BBC Broad Street studios twice a week recording "Slots" for their national network light music prgs.
He then toured Europe (The American Forces Bases) with his own show which included dancers and a knife throwing/fire dancer from Samoa. (Danny Tigilo)
He signed with EMI Records in 1966 and recorded several albums for them on their prestigious Studio Two Stereo series.

In 1970 he moved to Ireland and was co-founder of a C&W Showband called the Virginians.
At that time Country Music was gathering momentum in Ireland and he was the ONLY pedal steel player working full time pro. He did 99% of the recording sessions for the next twenty years, producing many albums and singles along the way.
He was also in demand by visiting American artists for their TV and road gigs.

He quit session work in 1991 to concentrate on a "Duo" as he had been offered many exclusive hotel residencies.
He is un-trained with respect to formal tuition, but born with music in his soul. As you surely know yourself , it is an intangible thing that really defies description BUT shows in the performance.
He is self taught regarding theory and has used the "Royal Academy" theory books for his studies.
Jazz orientated with his chordal knowledge(Mickey Baker's Jazz Guitar books) and influenced by the thirties through the fifties with his musical taste end styles, He was also lucky to grow up (If he ever did) during the transition from Skiffle to rock
and roll and finally the 60's, all of which formulated his present knowledge and taste.

He has performed as a musician with artistes such as :- Foster and Allen, bandleader with Philomena Begley, Roly Daniels and T.R. Dallas, and a staff musician with for RTE.,
session musician with the top studios in Europe, backing the likes of Gilbert O'Sullivan, Slim Whitman, Hank Locklin (He also produced two albums of Hank's, recorded during some of his many tours of Ireland), Tammy Wynette ( She always asked for him for her Irish dates and he backed her on her last tour of Ireland and her "Late Late Show" appearance), and MANY more, He also has many solo " Easy Listening " Albums to his credit,
As an instructor for the Irish government agency "FAS" he started courses at local Institutes of Technology for "Steel Guitar" and "Dobro" as well as the RGT various guitar courses.

We have lyrics for these tracks by Basil Henriques: