"Horslips Roll Back the Years"

Horslips roll back the years

DINGLE was the place to be for music fans in December as legendary group the Horslips arrived in town to play their first fully live electric set in 25 years.

The performance, part of the Other Voices music series saw fans reliving some of their favourite Horslips tunes, classics like Dearg Doom, Furniture, Trouble with A Capital T, and The Man Who Built America.

The band first came to prominence as much for their image as their thumping, electrifying Celtic rock with their thigh length boots, electric fiddles, smoke machines and purple satin flares.

In an eight-year period from 1972 to 1980, they produced a staggering 12 albums and performed over 2000 times across the world.

They disbanded in 1980 but got back together in 2004 when they recorded a stripped down acoustic album of their favourite tracks Rollback.

In October of this year, the band released a DVD entitled Return Of The Dancehall Sweethearts, a film by Maurice Linnane.

The film is more than a music DVD – it's a social history of Ireland in the 70's told through the filter of Horslips and their music. The Horslips were one of 32 Irish and International bands to descend on Dingle for the duration of the Other Voices series.

[More at link...]

The recording of the fourth installment of Other Voices, the internationally acclaimed RTE 2 music series, commenced on December 9 in the intimate surrounds of Dingle’s St James Church.The series, hosted by broadcaster and writer John Kelly, and was filmed in front of a small live audience.

For those unlucky enough not to be part of that audience they can catch the series on RTE 2 from late January onwards.

Yes! It was fantastic. I'm still trying to capture exactly what it was about being in that extraordinarily 'right' space to hear Horslips live. In my memory, there's just this sense of light and balance to the moment.

The other song they performed that night was Rescue Me. It was the heart of the set for me.

"Horslips Roll Back the Years" - Kerry newspaper article

Horslips roll back the years

DINGLE was the place to be for music fans in December as legendary group the Horslips arrived in town to play their first fully live electric set in 25 years.

The performance, part of the Other Voices music series saw fans reliving some of their favourite Horslips tunes, classics like Dearg Doom, Furniture, Trouble with A Capital T, and The Man Who Built America.

The band first came to prominence as much for their image as their thumping, electrifying Celtic rock with their thigh length boots, electric fiddles, smoke machines and purple satin flares.

In an eight-year period from 1972 to 1980, they produced a staggering 12 albums and performed over 2000 times across the world.

They disbanded in 1980 but got back together in 2004 when they recorded a stripped down acoustic album of their favourite tracks Rollback.

In October of this year, the band released a DVD entitled Return Of The Dancehall Sweethearts, a film by Maurice Linnane.

The film is more than a music DVD – it's a social history of Ireland in the 70's told through the filter of Horslips and their music. The Horslips were one of 32 Irish and International bands to descend on Dingle for the duration of the Other Voices series.

[More at link...]

The recording of the fourth installment of Other Voices, the internationally acclaimed RTE 2 music series, commenced on December 9 in the intimate surrounds of Dingle’s St James Church.The series, hosted by broadcaster and writer John Kelly, and was filmed in front of a small live audience.

For those unlucky enough not to be part of that audience they can catch the series on RTE 2 from late January onwards.

Yes! It was fantastic. I'm still trying to capture exactly what it was about being in that extraordinarily 'right' space to hear Horslips live. In my memory, there's just this sense of light and balance to the moment.

The other song they performed that night was Rescue Me. It was the heart of the set for me.

"I found myself dancing in the bar to a Horslips instrumental"

Caught this Horslips reference in the Blogger search:

Lovely Leitrim

During the pool the place filled with the local totty out for the night. Nice young ladies they were too but if one was to refer to any of them as "young ladies" the reply was "God you sound like such an aul fella". Aul Fella is it? "Bar keep, 3 vodkas and red bull's at once!". By the end of the night the three of us were in tatters drinking that shit, Dunny was roaring at the one man band from the bar "Horslips!", "Horslips!". (You were Dunny) and because yer man didn't know the words he just played the first few notes over and over. It was good enough for me though.

A few posts here, but the author is a more regular contributor to a group effort entitled Bolloxology.

The Hairless Heart Horslips Fan

Christmas brought a pleasant surprise when Jem, of the prog-rock scholarly review site Hairless Heart Herald wrote to me:

Hi Lee,

Merry Christmas to you.

Thanks for signing our guest book. [Me: Goodness! I had forgotten this!] Due to PC problems, we have not been receiving all our emails but hopefully that is now sorted.

Coincidentally, KingBathmat mentioned Horslips not long after I got to know him, which was around the time I was helping Horslips gain more new fans by my constant playing of The Tain at the time.

I do wish they would do a few gigs once more but fear that today's UK populous is largely lacking in musical taste...

If memory serves, I found this site through a google search on "Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts" and was immediately captivated by their excellent graphic:



But prompted by Jem's email (and I'm writing back in joy and haste to tell him of Dingle and its upcoming broadcast in February...as well as a suggestion that he review Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts), I spent some time on the site. And my Christmas visitor has a fascinating history of his own!

Born on 23rd December 1957 in London, I was just about old enough to see the changes in the music scene from the fifties crooners whose material was well known largely due to the musical films of the era (Half a Sixpence, Summer Holiday etc) but also including Billy J Kramer, Frank Ifield et al, to the upcoming change in style and tempo that was The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who and The Kinks. Incidentally, the first piece of vinyl I bought was Daydream by the Lovin’ Spoonful – two shillings and nine pence if I recall.

My early musical influence, however, was not the pop of the day but classical music thanks to my father’s keen interest in the genre and extensive record collection. Bach, Beethoven and Mozart were instant hits with me as was Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite and, on the lighter front, Paganini, Tchaikovsky and Johann Strauss. Of course there are too many to list but you get the picture. I was never that enamoured with opera as I considered the melody more enjoyable than vocals, or should I say choral works. The only exception to this was the works of Gilbert and Sullivan because of the catchy tunes combined with humorous lyrics and to this end I have even been to see the D’Oyly Carte in action.

Further on down, there's more:

bought few singles and those I did buy were lucky to get into the top 100. The first two albums I bought were by The Move (I’m still a Roy Wood fan) and Mungo Gerry but it wasn’t until 1972 that I first dipped into the world of prog. I’d heard and seen Jethro Tull on the radio and TV in the late 60’s but as soon as I heard a friend’s copy of Aqualung I just knew I had to get it. Soon, all my pocket money was being spent on prog albums that were being released faster than my wallet could contend with. I bought Tubular Bells as soon as it was released before it reached the charts. ELP, Caravan, Genesis, King Crimson, Horslips, Gryphon, Tull, Fairport Convention and Gong soon found a home in my growing collection. Everything stopped for Alan Freeman’s Saturday Rock Show on BBC Radio 1 (2pm to 5pm) when I soaked up the enthusiastic banter and glowed in the fact that 50 per cent of the music played I actually had in my collection and at least 45 per cent I wanted to get. There was no need to buy YES as I had all the tracks etched into my skull from friends non-stop playing of various albums.

And here's his list of timeless classic albums:

JETHRO TULL
- A Passion Play
- Thick As A Brick
- Broadsword And The Beast
CARAVAN
- Land Of Grey And Pink
GENTLE GIANT
- In A Glass House
- Interview
CAMEL
- The Snowgoose
- A Live Record
- Moonmadness (and all the rest)
GENESIS
- Foxtrot
- Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
- Selling England By The Pound
STEVE HACKETT
- Voyage Of The Acolyte
GRYPHON
- Midnight Mushrumps
HORSLIPS
- The Tain
STEELY DAN
- Pretzel Logic
- Aja
RICK WAKEMAN
- Six Wives of Henry VIII
YES
- Close To The Edge
- Fragile
FOCUS
- Hamburger Concerto
- Moving Waves
ANTHONY PHILIPS
- The Geese And The Ghost
PINK FLOYD
- Animals
- Meddle
- Atom Heart Mother
MOVING HEARTS
- The Storm
KING CRIMSON
- In The Court Of The Crimson King
ENID
- In The Region Of The Summer Stars
- Tripping The Light Fantastic

You know, if you swapped out the Horslips selection for a Marillion selection you'd be looking at my husband's record collection circa 'when I met him.' I now feel quite remorseful that I encouraged the donation of much of this vinyl over the years so I could make room for my own selections of Pogues albums and psychobilly bands.

Clearly we just needed to buy more record shelving!

New Photos on Comebackhorslips.com

I've put my transatlantic insomnia to good use this night/morning and have scanned and uploaded nine photos of my trip to Dublin and Dingle. My web skills have improved considerably over the year, because these seem optimized for quick loading without too much loss in detail.

The photo series starts here.


The new Phil Lynott statue on Harry Street. Photo taken shamelessly from www.comebackhorslips.com

Visitors new to my fansite obsession and regulars who never discovered the secret link to these may also enjoy an older series of photos from last year's visit to Belfast. (Click on the button to see photos.) I actually visited Dublin, Rush, Cork, Kerry and Belfast -- but Belfast is where I finally found batteries for my camera. These load a little slower and I was quite full of pomp and text in those days, but there they are for your enjoyment.

John Kelly on Horslips and Other Voices

The truth is: I went to Ireland to attend a taping of a television program called Other Voices. Filmed in a small church in Dingle, this show is a music lover's delight:

The fourth series of RTÉ Two's 'Other Voices' once again brings together musicians from various backgrounds, traditions and disciplines to celebrate different sounds and styles of music and voices. 32 Irish and international acts will descend on this small but world-famous Kerry town to take part in the most celebrated rock music event of the year.

Folk legends, illustrious rockers and young pretenders will gather for the weeklong session, a diversity of musical expressions and energy, barely contained within the walls of a 200-year-old church.

I first learned about this show when an email suggestion pointed me toward Sonny Condell's archived set, which is wonderful.

Then when I learned that Horslips was going to be featured in the fourth season just days after my business trip finished, I wrote to the producer of the show, explained myself, and was immediately on the list for tickets.

John Kelly, of Mystery Train on RTE radio was the M.C. Here's how he describes the week as it unfolded in Dingle:

“…Stars are new friends – a great bunch from Canada snapping at the heels of Arcade Fire. Stephen Fretwell is definitely the real thing and everyone is still talking about him. His pals Elbow were magnificent – and a pleasure to have around the place for a few days. Martha Wainwright is another one you’d like to go drinking with every weekend. No fuss. No throwing shapes. Just great music. And of course she didn’t lick it off a stone.

But there’s no point in me pretending otherwise – the real highlight for me was Horslips. I walked in during their soundcheck and heard them play ‘Dearg Doom’ for the first time in…”

But why not read more of John Kelly over at the link?

Horslips mentioned briefly in rec.music.celtic group

Discussion on 'Midnight Court':

I used to have a performance of the Midnight Court on LP. Don't remember the names of the actors or any other details, only that some members of Horslips (although I think it was before that group was actually formed) did the background music. I am pretty sure that it has never been released on CD.

Is this true, I wonder? It certainly is possible. I am intrigued.

As for Midnight Court, on this recent visit I noticed that Ciaran Carson has done a translation of the eighteenth-century poem:

Carson echoes Merriman's mix of high rhetoric and rude colloquial wit and replicates his probing analysis of sexuality and social mores. The acrobatics of his couplets quicken the poem's passionate argument, capturing its nudges and winks in earthy, contemporary idiom.

What he calls Merriman's 'abundant lexicon of vilification . . . numerous double entendres and gorgeousness of verbal music' comes alive in his brilliant recreation. This Midnight Court unfolds with a spring — and a surprise — in every step.

There's an article by Carson in the Guardian about it too:

Merriman, in later life, must also have been an excellent farmer: in 1797, 17 years after the composition of "Cúirt an Mheán Oíche", the Royal Dublin Society awarded him two prizes, of model spinning wheels, for his flax crop. He was also, at various periods, resident tutor with one or other of the local gentry.

What else do we know? There is an oral tradition that he was the illegitimate son of a local squire, according to some; of a priest, according to others. The theory is given some credence by the paean to bastardy that occupies a great deal of the Old Man's speech in part three of the poem; and there is a further suggestion that he may have been familiar with the English poet Richard Savage's composition, "The Bastard": "Born to himself, by no possession led, / In freedom fostered, and by fortune fed; / Nor guides, nor rules his sovereign choice control, / His body independent as his soul; / Loosed to the world's wide range, enjoined no aim, / Prescribed no duty, and assigned no name: / Nature's unbounded son, he stands alone, / His heart unbiased, and his mind his own."

Another tradition has it that Merriman composed his poem when he was laid up with a leg injury, while he was engaged to be married; and his lines on the sexual prowess of the disabled, in the last part of the poem, are taken as corroboration of this speculation.

It is published by The Gallery Press. My first Gallery Press title was another volume of Carson, and that set off my habit of purchasing at least two or three titles from their list when I'm around bookstores that sell them. Amazingly, this predates my knowledge of the music of Horslips.

It all ties together -- or will once I get back to the website, but only after the holiday baking responsibilities are completed.

Cathal Magee & Horslips

Teenage Kicks: Cathal Magee

Forget Desert Island Disc... we ask local music heads to tell us about the one song that really blew their fuse way back when
09 December 2005

I grew up listening to music constantly. I was the youngest in my family and had to listen to my elder brothers and sisters practising their instruments religiously. If they weren't playing, they were listening. I preferred my brothers' collection of Thin Lizzy and Horslips records over my sisters' collection of Abba and the Bay City Rollers. On top of this, my mum used to sing all the old Irish ballads at the piano.

Like most teenagers, I wanted my own music and started borrowing cassettes out of Irvinestown library. It was here that I discovered Bowie's Hunky Dory album when I was 13. It completely blew me out of the water. It had everything, from lush piano and string arrangements to edgy rock guitar riffs and folky meanderings.

More at link.

Tony Clayton-Lea on the Horslips DVD

The Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts

It's all coming back now - seeing Horslips as a teenager and wondering how their parents allowed them to have such long hair and wear such uncommonly cool clothes as satin jackets and elephant loon trousers...

More at the link.