Denis Hegarty (born 13 September 1954) is an Irish rock and roll, doo-wop and a cappella singer, television presenter, and psychology lecturer. He is best known for his role as bass vocalist in the 1970s doo wop group Darts, and for working as a presenter on Tiswas.
Early life
Hegarty was born in
Dublin, Ireland. At an early age Hegarty moved to
Brighton, England. Hegarty met two of the singers he would later work with in Darts as a teenager, he met Lydia Sowa (aka Rita Ray) when he was thirteen and a year later met Ian Collier (aka Griff Fender).
Hegarty went to University and studied English, but dropped out in his final year due when he started suffering from major epileptic seizures.
Career
Early career
In 1972, Hegarty was a member for four years
of the rock and roll group Rocky Sharpe & the Razors. The group dissolved in 1976 when lead singer Rocky Sharpe would lose his voice after every gig.
A year later, Sharpe reformed the group as Rocky Sharpe and the Replays.
Darts
Hegarty formed the 1950s styled band, Darts in August 1976, along with vocalists Rita Ray, Griff Fender and
saxophone player
Horace Trubridge, all of whom he had played with in Rocky Sharpe & the Razors.
[Hardy, Phil & Laing, Dave (1998) Encyclopedia of Rock, Schirmer, ] His role in Darts was as the bass singer, songwriter, arranger and music director.
In 1978, the band had three singles that all peaked at number two: "Come Back My Love" (originally recorded by The Wrens in 1955), "The Boy from New York City" (originally by The Ad Libs in 1964) and "It's Raining" (an original composition by member Griff Fender).
Described as "wild eyed",
By late 1978, Darts' touring schedule was so full that Hegarty was completely unaware at the time that his father had nearly died until after he had left hospital.
Solo
He signed to
Mercury Records and released a solo single "Voodoo Voodoo" in March 1979 which was his only solo hit, reaching number 73 in the UK Singles Chart.
[" Den Hegarty", Chart Stats. Retrieved 3 July 2010] The following year, he made a guest appearance on
The Clash's album
Sandinista!.
[Gilbert, Pat (2005) Passion Is a Fashion: The Real Story of the Clash, Da Capo, , p. 279] Hegarty believes that he was "restricted in the kind of things" he wanted to do in his solo career as he was signed to the same label as Darts, and they didn't want him to "do something that would compete with Darts".
Television
Hegarty moved into broadcasting, hosting the Tyne Tees Television show
Alright Now.
[Clarkson, Wensley (1996) Sting: The Secret Life of Gordon Sumner, Blake, , p. 85] After working for BBC Radio 1 (presenting
Talkabout),
[" From the Music Capitals of the World: London", Billboard, 21 April 1979, p. 64] and featuring in three series of Jack Good's final television show,
Let's Rock, he moved on to host the final series of
Tiswas along with DJ
Gordon Astley, comedian/impressionist
Fogwell Flax, and Sally James.
[" Pied Pipers ", Tiswas Online. Retrieved 3 July 2010][" Tiswas – the TV show", BBC. Retrieved 3 July 2010] Hegarty's contributions included "inexplicably sitting in a bathtub full of baked beans or providing loud 'BONG's in his booming bass tones for a section aping the 10 o'clock news called News At Den".
After the demise of Tiswas, Hegarty became a cable show quizmaster, and then took another direction providing voices for animated characters in television advertisements.
Psychology
Hegarty, who had dropped out of university in the 1970s due to his epilepsy, decided to go back to university in the 1990s to study psychology, partly because he wanted to "understand more about what was going on in my brain".
After graduating, Hegarty worked as a lecturer in psychology
at Exeter College
and with the
Open University, but was retired as of 2023.
Recent music career
Hegarty is still singing.
He has fronted an a cappella band called Slackapella, plus a 15-piece outfit called Soul Traders (a group he formed at
Butterleigh village hall in 1999),
and still sings with the
, The Metrotones.
Hegarty helped revive Darts in 2006
and still performs at occasional gigs with the reformed band, which still mostly includes original members.
Personal life
Hegarty lives with his wife and one son in
Devon.
Solo discography
Singles
