Background
Rock was born in the North Strand, Dublin and raised in Cabra on Dublin"s Northside.
Rock was born in the North Strand, Dublin and raised in Cabra on Dublin"s Northside.
He entered as a solo artist and finished fourth in the Contest.
He experienced much success on the Irish charts during the 1960s, but has continued on as a popular live act as well as occasionally hitting the charts ever since. Between 1963 and 1972 he was one of the frontmen of the Miami Showband (who were later in the headlines due to the Miami Showband killings incident). He had thirteen top ten hits with the Miami Showband, including seven number ones.
Dickie Rock and the Miami were the first Irish artists to go straight into the number one spot with "Every Step of the Way" in 1965.
During his time with the Miami Showband, Rock attracted the kind of mass hysteria normally reserved for the Beatles. In 1966, he sang for Ireland in the 1966 Eurovision Song Contest with the song, "Come Back to Stay".
This song also became a number one hit in Ireland. Rock went solo in 1973, although still performed occasionally with the Miami Showband after this.
Rock continues to tour at the age of 75 (2011), after a career spanning more than 40 years.
In 2008, an anonymous employee of the stricken financial company Anglo Irish Bank made lewd comments about Dickie Rock on this Wikipedia page. The bank launched an investigation into how this had happened and the incident was reported in the Irish media some months later. Rock himself commented on the incident.