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The Bass Player
High Court Action
Stephen’s heroic battle against the might of the British establishment concluded on December 13th, 2021. Under the threat by the British government to bar all prosecutions related to the so-called Troubles, he made the difficult decision to allow them to settle.
A sincere thanks to all who supported and encouraged Stephen’s unprecedented, successful High Court action against the British establishment.
The last official photo of The Miami Showband (1975)
Stephen Travers was born in 1951 in the beautiful market town of Carrick on Suir in south Tipperary, on the borders of Waterford and Kilkenny. From an early age, it was obvious that he was a gifted musician and, by the beginning of the 1970s, he was one of the most admired bass guitarists in Ireland.
In 1975, having played with some of the most respected bands in the country, he joined Ireland’s legendary Miami Showband. But, just two months later, in the early hours of July 31st, on their way home to Dublin from an engagement in the north of Ireland, three members of the band were murdered by British security forces in collusion with the Loyalist terrorist organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force, and Stephen was shot with an explosive dum-dum bullet and left for dead among the terrible carnage that will live forever in Irish history as The Miami Showband Massacre.
New Book: THE BASS PLAYER
Stephen Travers has lived two lives. His first was as a young bass player, immersed in music, friendship, and the thrill of gigs on the road with The Miami Showband. But on July 31, 1975, that life shattered on the A1 road at Buskhill in County Down when a Loyalist gang ambushed the band, murdering three of his friends in an attack that would become one of the darkest moments of The Troubles. In the quiet aftermath, in a nearby field, Stephen awoke to his second life—as a survivor.
This second life led him down unexpected paths: as an author, composer, producer, and international speaker on peace and reconciliation. Over decades, he worked to support other survivors, challenge suspected state collusion, and seek justice in a landmark case against the British Ministry of Defence. Yet, despite these achievements, Stephen found himself drawn back to that field, revisiting the young man he had been moments before the massacre—searching for closure, a reunion with his former self.
Now, fifty years later, he has written The Bass Player, a love letter and eulogy for that first life. This book is both a deeply personal reckoning and a song for all those silenced by conflict, offering a path toward healing and, finally, peace.
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ReMastered: The Miami Showband Massacre
In 2019, Netflix, the world’s largest media platform, released a major documentary based on his book, The Miami Showband Massacre; A survivor’s search for the truth, as one of eight films in the Netflix ReMastered docuseries.
The other seven films, released at monthly intervals, tell the stories of Bob Marley, Johnny Cash, Jam Master Jay, Victor Jara, Sam Cooke, Robert Johnson and Solomon Linda and how their musical careers influenced society. The series began in October 2018 with Who Shot The Sheriff; an investigation into the attempted assassination of Bob Marley.
Stephen Travers’ story, The Miami Showband Massacre, was released on March 22nd 2019 and immediately began trending all over the world. It was Emmy nominated in 2020.
”The suddenness of the punch had caught me off guard … I knew then that something was definitely wrong.”
In The Miami Showband Massacre, Stephen Travers remembers the highs of being in the most successful showband of the 1970s and how it all ended in a terrifying moment of death and destruction.
But he also looks for answers as to why his friends – Tony Geraghty, Fran O’Toole and Brian McCoy – were killed.
What drove them to such an act? Stephen wants to understand, but will he find the answers when he meets the men responsible for the massacre face to face?
Buy the book from Frontline Noir.
