John Kelly: The other voice behind Other Voices

Just before introducing Horslips that night, John Kelly made a joke for the benefit of the longtime Horslips fans in the audience. Bouncing up and down on his knees a few times, he said "No...this isn't the Astoria." A reference to the legendary ballroom of Horslips lore where the fans would have the floor moving in rock rhythm by night's end.

Hotpress has an interview with John Kelly as well:

Kelly's Heroes

As a long time fan, an obvious highlight for Kelly was the first full-on Horslips performance in some 25 years.

“Well, the Horslips reformation has been a slow process,” he says. “We’ve all done our bit to encourage that in various ways, but the difference with this one was that there was electricity involved. It suited them ‘cos it wasn’t like doing the Stadium. I think they had the time of their lives. They arrived and there was a session on and Charlie got the fiddle out. The next day during the soundcheck I walked up the gravel road to the church and all I could hear coming out of the wall was ‘Dearg Doom’. I realise this mightn’t mean anything to a lot of people, but I was hearing that for the first time in 25 years. I just sat outside and kinda fell apart, I mean I really did. And then I snuck in and hid and watched them privately rehearsing tunes.

“It was amazing, the highlight of my professional life for sure. I felt 13 again. And it was incredible on the night. Unlike the other gigs, it was packed with Horslips fans: people travelled from Derry. When they broke into ‘Dearg Doom’ and ‘Trouble’ there was a lot of love in the room.”

More at the link.