Big Tom and The Mainliners – ‘Old Love Letters’

11 July 1974

Sensational news for those of you emotionally invested in the Big Tom Memorial Statue in Castleblayney: to facilitate the renovation of the neighbouring Market House, in August 2026 the statue was boarded off and no longer visible. This provoked a less-than-gruntled one-star review which has caused the statue’s Tripadvisor rating to fall below those of the Eiffel Tower and the Pyramids, visibility being a key performance indicator for iconic landmarks.

‘Old Love Letters’ is where, a little surprisingly, Big Tom stops having number ones. What’s probably his best-known song today, ‘Four Country Roads’ from 1981, only reached no. 5 in Ireland. From newspaper archive material dating from the mid-’70s, it seems Big Tom himself was reported to have felt disgruntled that he was less visible in the Irish hit parade than he should have been. In a development that I assume is unrelated, a year after ‘Old Love Letters’ went to number one the method for compiling the Irish charts changes radically and, to our modern eyes, unbelievably. However, Big Tom does feature in the Irish number one spot later in the ’70s, thanks to someone else. More on all these exciting developments in due course.

As for ‘Old Love Letters’, it’s pretty much identical to Tom’s previous number one single, ‘I Love You Still’. But if you’re Big Tom or a Big Tom fan, why change? Hold your ground and stay as you are, like a statue in a public space. Look on Big Tom’s works, ye mighty, and despair!