Den Hegarty

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 when he started suffering from major epileptic seizures. 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", "wild haired and manic", "maniacal", and as a "kinetic and charismatic performer", Hegarty gave the group a distinctive, anarchic edge. As the former BBC radio executive Lesley Douglas later recalled of a 1970s gig: "I remember sitting in the front row terrified of the Darts singer Den Hegarty, because all the papers had said that he was the mad man of music and that he would dive into the crowd". Music journalist Will Hodgkinson recounted another incident, during a Spanish eurovision TV show in 1979, where "the grandiosity of the whole affair proved too much for the bug-eyed Hegarty, who felt compelled to jump into a fountain and roll around in it, mid-performance", before taking off his socks and wringing them down the neck of actress Sylvia Kristel. Dave Haslam recalled how Hegarty "had a thing for clambering on the speaker stacks at the side of the stage (by far the highlight of the set)".

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. The following year, he made a guest appearance on The Clash's album Sandinista!. 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". After working for BBC Radio 1 (presenting Talkabout), 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. 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". and with the Open University, but was retired as of 2023.

Recent music career Hegarty is still singing. and sang with the doo-woppers, The Metrotones until 2022. Hegarty helped revive Darts in 2006 and still performs at occasional gigs with the reformed band, which still mostly includes original members.

Solo discography

Singles YearLabelA-sideB-sideUK