Fred Hanna

Northern Irish Fred Hanna (born 1924, died February 9 2014, at the age of 89 ) studied both played piano and piano accordion as a young boy, and played his first dance gig on accordion at the age of 10. During WW2 Fred Hanna served in the Royal Navy, and in 1945 following demobilisation made his first broadcast for BBC Northern Ireland in Belfast. From the mid-1940s to the early-1960s Fred Hanna’s trio (accordion, bass and drums) and sextet (accordion, fiddle, piano, drums, bass, saxophone) were amongst the leading ceili bands in Ireland. In the 1960s and 70s, during a time of changing trends, he led the Fred Hanna Showband.

Data provided by Discogs