Five members of the Dublin-based band were travelling home after a performance at the Castle Ballroom in Banbridge, County Down, on Thursday 31 July 1975. Ray Millar, the band's drummer, was not with them as he had chosen to go to his home town of Antrim to spend the night with his parents. The band's road manager, Brian Maguire, had already gone ahead a few minutes earlier in the equipment van. At about 2:30 am, when the band was seven miles (11 km) north of Newry on the main A1 road, their Volkswagen minibus (driven by trumpeter Brian McCoy with bassist Stephen Travers in the front seat beside him) reached the townland of Buskhill. Near the junction with Buskhill Road they were flagged down by armed men dressed in British Army uniforms waving a red torch in a circular motion. During "The Troubles" it was normal for the British Army to set up checkpoints at any time.