Eamon Carr in Halifax, Nova Scotia circa 1976

Spotted on Flickr:

Eamon Carr reads from Origami Crow in Limerick

Eamon Carr reads from Origami Crow on Balcony TV

Eamon Carr reads from Origami Crow this Wednesday

Part of my recent adventures includes attending the book launch for Eamon Carr's Origami Crow. Here's an upcoming reading:

White House Poetry Revival Wed 19th Nov 2008

Eamon Carr has been a significant figure in the Irish artistic and cultural scene for many years. In the late 1960s he co-founded Tara Telephone, the music and poetry group of the Dublin beat scene.Tara Telephone published everyone from Marc Bolan to Allan Ginsberg, Brian Patten, Seamus Heaney, Pearse Hutchinson, Eilean Ni Chuilleanain, Brendan Kennelly, Adrian Mitchell, Pete Brown in their magazines and broadsheets. The group also ran recitals. Among those who read with Tara Telephone, in addition to Eamon and Peter Fallon were Phil Lynott and Roger McGough. With Jim Fitzpatrick, the group also produced specially designed posters with artwork and poems combined. One of these posters with Eamon's poem 'A Tale of Love' was exhibited in the Tate Gallery, Liverpool, Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era Exhibition in 2005 which also toured in Germany and Austria.

For more on this poetry series, visit the Limerick.com site.

Eamon Carr and Richie Buckley on YouTube

Remembering the STARDUST - "Molly Malone"

Eamon Carr interview on RTE's Drivetime with Dave

Drivetime with Dave - December 12

Band Managers

Tonight we take a look at the triumphs and traumas of being a band manager, the side of the music story not usually heard. Are they just waiting to exploit the next young talent or genuinely interested in the music? Thomas Black, Eamon Carr and Frank Murray join us to discuss being a band manager.

Fantastic view of the rock band mythos - from Ian Faith's point of view!

Happy Surfin' Santa rides again

'Could it be that this was in fact the defining moment for U2, the event or series of events that put the iron in their soul? And if so, how has a lifetime gone by with scarcely a mention of it?'

Here's an amazing story from the histories of the Dublin punk scene and the band that redefined pub-decor in the new millenia. As always, the unison.ie papers require registration, but it is a free service.


It was the summer of '79, when the Heat was felt by McGuinness
Sunday Independent, Declan Lynch

The other way of looking at this, was the old-time rock 'n' roll way: a fanzine is a fanzine is a fanzine. It is not the New York Times, it has a licence to screw up. Don't fight it.

And this was the prevailing view at the time, as the dispute escalated to the extent that a benefit gig was organised to finance the defence of Heat. It was held in the National Ballroom in July 1979, and as I recall, a great time was had by all.

A band was formed specially for the occasion, called The Defenders. It featured ex-Horslips Charles O'Connor and Eamonn Carr (Eamonn's brother Jude was one of the main men at Heat). Gary Eglinton played bass, Donal Broughan (now an RTE radio announcer) was on vocals along with iconic roadie the late Paul Verner, and Frankie Morgan of Sacre Bleu played keyboards. A selection of Dublin's finest rock 'n' roll characters completed the line-up, which delivered a storming set of classics such as Who do You Love? and It's Not Unusual, joined onstage by guests such as the great Steve Rapid, ex-Radiators and another of the founding fathers of Heat.

The Sinners and The Fabulous Fabrics weighed in, Rocky De Valera and the Gravediggers were also on the bill. The legendary Terri Hooley, majordomo of the Good Vibrations record label in Belfast, came down to lend his considerable moral and fraternal support.

In fact, it was such a vastly enjoyable night all round, it has settled in the memories of many as a coda to the whole punk and new wave era in Dublin, a sort of a goodbye-to-all-that gig which transcended all the unpleasantness which brought it about.

More at the link.

Eamon Carr on Regina Spektor

I've long hoped that the Evening Herald would go online in some format so I could keep up with Eamon Carr's music reviews. But, perhaps a good sign here, this article turned up in the Unison.ie world.

Musicbox with Eamon Carr

BORN in Moscow, raised in the Bronx, Regina Spektor’s domain is the landscape of dreams, shifting realities and the oddly normal.

Earlier adventures in sound such as Mary Ann Meets The Grave Diggers And Other Short Stories, a “greatest hits” package culled from her three hand-to-mouth indie albums, signalled the presence of a prodigious talent brimming with ideas, desire and fairytale ambition.

The question that album begged was, would The Strokes-endorsed queen of the New York anti-folk scene survive to develop her talent or would she spontaneously combust. More likely, it seemed, she might become one of the oddball characters that people her songs and disappear into the labyrinth that is Hell’s Kitchen.

But, despite her dizzying beauty and kookie image, 26-year-old Spektor is...

More at the link. Requires registration. And today is another blasted Spare the Air day!

Tara Telephone Update & Horslips Week Begins

Back in October, I described my interest inTara Telephone, a music and poetry performance group important to the history of Horslips.

Work on the Tara Telephone site has continued, with a page devoted specifically to this up and running on a MySpace Tara Telephone tribute page. Amazingly, it was the discovery of the literary community of MySpace that encouraged me to explore that channel as a way to research and connect with other people who are interested in contemporary poetry. The Charles Bukowski tribute page here demonstrates what MySpace can also do for literature.

And it works. I've 'met' BP Fallon and have been absolutely intoxicated by his wild site.

I truly hope to use this MySpace page and the supporting site to draw attention to the significance of Tara Telephone, which had an influence on both the contemporary rock scene and the modern poetry scene of Ireland. My own interest in this is the realization that it then becomes part of the international beat movement, which had epicenters in San Francisco, New York, London, and Liverpool -- to name the few.

This following week will be a big week for Horslips news, with performance in Dingle airing on Wed. 15th Feb., on Other Voices RTE Two at 11.30pm. Fans of Horslips will be able to take part in a web chat with Jim & Barry on Thursday 16th Feb. at 2pm. All times are Dublin timezone times. Closer to the chat, I'll try to have up the timezone conversion.

Tara Telephone concert ticket with Leo O'Kelly

Finally, a bit of ephemera in the form of a concert ticket:



According to those who know, we have

Skid Row - featuring Gary Moore
Blues House - featuring Ed Deane
Orphanage - featuring Philip Lynott
Leo O'Kelly - doing a solo gig, but see below for his bio in Tir na nOg
Jazz Therapy - featuring bass-player Brian Masterson who became an in-demand studio engineer with lots of major artists

And we have Tara Telephone, which makes this last-ever post of mine on a dial-up modem all the more appropriate. Cable guy came and went and wireless cable hardware and software is installed. What's needed now is a trip to the computer store to pick up a wireless card. Would have done this before, but the decision to go wireless was a bit spontaneous yesterday.

Sorry...back to Tara Telephone (it's the phone thing, see? And you wouldn't believe how much time it takes for files to load and..whoops! At it again.)

A very important part of my "Horslipping" in 2005 (I don't know what else you call it, but essentially: all the activities around this unshakeable infatuation with a rock band that I never saw perform live until last month...) was the discovery that Tara Telephone has made a significant contribution to Dublin's modern literary scene. And, via its later guise as Gallery Press, I had already 'discovered' that long before buying my first used Horslips CD.

More groovy stuff came to light on this last visit when I checked out the two Tara Telephone publications in the books & periodicals collection at the National Library. Read them both in the hour before closing, trying to memorize as much detail as possible. Seems like there's going to be a King Crimson album purchase in my future! And, with luck, an essay to contribute to the Hairless Heart Herald.

In the midst of all that was 2005, I had begun a section of the site dedicated to Tara Telephone. It's been highlighted now and then, and still has much more to be done (see above, re: dial-up modem and the frustration of it all!)

Expect big things from it now, but here's a link to it as it currently stands:

Tara Telephone (Main Photo)
Tara Telephone Introduction

Emm Gryner Interviewed in Hot Press

Covered in Glory

Canadian songwriter Emm Gryner has released a covers album of Irish rock classics. But what inspired her to tackle Horslips, The Undertones and Gilbert O'Sullivan?

Songs Of Love And Death offers her singular take on an eclectic selection of numbers, including Something Happens’ gem ‘Forget Georgia’, the Virgin Prunes’ ‘Bau – Dachong’, Ash’s ‘Shining Light’ and Therapy?’s ‘Nowhere’.

She has also re-interpreted better known songs like Gilbert O’Sullivan’s ‘Nothing Rhymed’, The Corrs' ‘Breathless’ and Horslips' ‘Dearg Doom’.

How did it all come about?

“Well, I’m part Irish, though no-one really knows that,” she laughs. “My mum’s Filipino, which takes care of my appearance, but my grandmother is from here.”

Having visited this country on several occasions, she was eager to show the wider world that Irish music goes further than traditional airs.

“I run my own record label, so I decided to do an album of Irish covers. A lot of people thought it would be traditional songs. It’s kinda cool to be able to say, ‘No that’s not what Irish music is all about.’”

She hasn’t gone for the more obvious choices. There are no U2, Cranberries or Van Morrison songs. Presumably, this was a conscious decision?

“I tend to relate to bands in Canada who are just popular in Canada,” Emm explains. “I wanted to cover some bands who are big in Ireland but not anywhere else.”

To this end, she sought out collections of contemporary Irish music.

“I listened to Tom Dunne’s compilations. They were a great help. And I asked every Irish person I know to enlighten me. Gerry Leonard (ex-Hinterland, now Bowie’s guitarist) turned me onto Thin Lizzy, who I’d known about but not a lot.”

Some of her treatments might raise eyebrows. Her bass-heavy take on ‘Dearg Doom’, for example, is markedly different from the one we’re familiar with.

“There were a few people who thought it should be left off the album because it’s such an anthem here. But I thought it was a fabulous song and I tend to work in a way that I don’t think about the outcome.”

Horslips were generally positive about her reading of the track.

“I thought Eamon Carr wouldn’t approve of the drum machine, but he was cool about it.”

As for Gilbert O'Sullivan, is Gryner a fan?

“The first version of ‘Nothing Rhymed' I heard was actually on a Morrissey bootleg," she smiles. "He’d performed it live and I thought, ‘What a great song’.”

More at the link. Registration required, and I can't remember now if it is free.

"The Best and Oldest Furniture"

HORSLIPS "Horslips Live" review on Prog Archives.com

For guitar fans, though, it is Furniture that stands out. A beautiful song written by keboardist/piper Jim Lockhart about growing up and leaving home, it is alchemically transformed into a masterpiece by Lockhart's mournful flute intro, CHarles O'Connor's hypnotic mandolin playing and Fean's heart-wrneching solo, first a resigned lament, then a scorching, pounding on the heart in the crescendo. It would be the finale for any other band, but not Horslips. After lightweight versions of Can't Fool the Beast and More Than You Can Chew, Eamonn Carr's shimmering cymbals herald the greatest Irish rock track ever, Dearg Doom...

More at the link. And who wrote this, I may ask? (And I ask with a great deal of fondness for the writer!)

Don't leave me hanging on the Tara Telephone

One of the projects that I've been slowly working on throughout the summer for Come Back Horslips, is a history and online exhibit of the poems and art of Tara Telephone.



Visit the main Tara Telephone page of my project so far and you'll read the basic history that usually appears on other sites. Scroll down a bit and read from Mark Cunningham's Hot Press article on Horslips, which shows how Tara Telephone brought together rock voices and literary traditions in a wild, experimental mix. And some traditional music thrown in for good measure.

I know this story. It's the Haight-Ashbury in the 60s, North Beach in the 50s, Greenwich Village in the 30s and 40s, Paris in the 20s...and right now in any number of crossroads of urban culture and young people ready to take it on.

Obviously I only learned about Tara Telephone through reading Horslips' histories but in April I made an exciting discovery of a connection between Tara Telephone and Gallery Press.

I'd been a fan of the Gallery Press catalog ever since I bought my first volumes of Ciaran Carson's poetry, and that predates my discovery of Horslips. Finding this link encouraged me to look for Tara Telephone publications and learn as much as possible about the group.

Much work has now been done. A bit more to do, but a couple of people have seen a preview and say it is looking good. I'm torn between making each page available as it is finished or waiting until the whole collection (as far as I have it) can go live. And at that point I'll also figure out how to situate it on the site.

But the Tara Telephone link of recently updated pages has moved off the top of my site screen and I want to give the links to the pages already live:

Tara Telephone
Tara Telephone Introduction
A Tale of Love, Poster Poem 2

Tara Telephone on www.comebackhorslips.com

Finally! I have been wanting to work on this section of the site for some time. As it is, I am taking it slowly and today's page is simply an introduction to the topic. But it is going to be fun! I've hopes of enlisting the input and support of one of the poets I've been visiting here on Blogspot.

Also, in honor of the Watch of Enniskillen, and their rockin' version of "Dearg Doom," I've actually started the lyric page on that. Not ready for live yet, but soon.