Heavenly Worldliness: spotlite on Horslips

Once again, the great library of Horslips videos on You Tube spark another Blogger to a posting or two. Here at Recent Horslips, Gary Brady of Childs Hill London has a chance to watch the opening number from the phenomenal set in Dingle, December 2005, that was Horslips on RTE's Other Voices.

Gary also revisits The Book of Invasions with his impressions of then and now and a link to Amazon.

Here's hoping that naming calls, btw, because my own CD cover of Book of Invasions has no CD in it, which means that the CD has been 'spending the night' over at a friend's house (i.e. its doubled-up in another cover) and I don't want to tell you how many CDs I'm going to have to check!

Amazon Review of The Book of Invasions

Horslips: Their Best Album

Unlike the other Horslips albums I have reviewed on Amazon, this album gains force from its accrued impact, rather than its individual tracks. Like "Táin," "Book" is meant to work as a unified single piece of music, as the subtitle defines it. Songs are chapters in a book, verses of a poem.

Instrumental and sung passages alternate in the three movements of the album from Geantrai--cheerier songs-- to Goltrai-- laments--to Suantrai-- songs of sleep or dreams. These unify as in storytelling various "branches" of the tale and classify them in ancient Irish categories of narrative craft and intent. It's a "Celtic symphony," therefore, in the ebbs and crests of the musical representation and the lyrical explanation of the energetic clashes and couplings the Book of Invasions (Leabhar Gabhala) relates-- the tribes who landed in pre-Christian Ireland successively to fight over its land and its wealth.

More at the link.

Horslips in alt.music.jethro.tull

Rebecca569 writes

What about Horslips?

I always forget about the alt.music world of discussion! Looking around just now it seems much less riddled with commercial postings than in days of yore.

Also intrigued by the promising thread Did any women like Tull?

They did if they were dating my husband!

Rate Your Horslips Albums

A chance mention of Horslips in the rec.music.rock-pop-r+b.1970s has led to a discovery of a great little site.

But first, I do think the thread above is worth a read. I'm still idling on some of the memories of the American rock music industry in the late 70s that my initial viewing of The Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts has jump-started.

And while the engine on that particular rant is warming up and getting ready to burn rubber, I do find it interesting that this discussion is speaking a truth that we all try to forget: namely, rock-n-roll music nearly went under in the late 70s. It wasn't even rock-n-roll anymore...it was Rock Music on AOR Radio with corporate sponsor concert tours and boardroom decisions on the Next Big Thing. It was a bloated and curled around a toilet and old before its time. I'm not saying that it is much better now. But if you were young back then (and I mean a teenager) you might remember how much work you had to do on your own to get a hold of that Jonathan Richman album or the Ramones or find a station that might play something real risk-taking like The Sex Pistols.

Or, say, Horslips.

Because the thread is slightly wrong, as is the premise of my argument above. 1976 was a great year for rock music. And, as Danny and the Juniors promise, rock and roll will never die.

But 1976 was a lousy year for new rock music or rock music outside the industry expectations of what would sell. The genres of the form were slowly closing in on the audience, like the scene in Star Wars where the walls of the trash compactor are moving in on Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie. (Star Wars metaphors are required in 70s rants.) 1977 was a bad year for it too. '78? Nope. '79...forget it. The main channels of production, promotion, and distribution for rock and roll were what needed to die. And that's where...

But wait! I wasn't going to do that rant yet, was I? Anyway. Read the thread if you like, but the real link in this post is below:

Rate Your Music.com's Horslips page

Speaking of new channels of promotion! Here's a site that is something of a 'Peoples' Record Rating service. I found it through the thread above, because they list The Book of Invasions: A Celtic Symphony in their top 100 albums of 1976. "Hang on," I said, "That can't be an industry chart! It clearly isn't based on money, and it doesn't look like elite rock critic choices either...so it must be by people who just love the music."

Looking around I see my friend Aidan Curran has already been at the Horslips ratings. I've signed up just now and have already weighed in on Happy to Meet Sorry to Part and plan to work my way through the rest.

"In every doorway stands heart's desire"

I said that the call was only going to be for three songs...but everyone knew I'd stay online for the whole set. Which was:

Faster Than The Hound (we came in...)
King of the Fairies
Sword of Light*
The Power and the Glory
Rocks Remain**
The Man Who Built America***
Fantasia (My Lagan Love)****
Furniture
Dearg Doom

encore with

Guests of the Nation!!!(this is where...)

Then I was talking briefly with Barry Devlin. Who knows what we said to each other? Then Barry up on the stage saying something. Then Charles: "I think you were better than us actually." Then Johnny (I think) "These boys were rockin'!!!" Then Jim Lockhart went into a thoughtful, well-reasoned monologue that was drowned out in the HORSLIPS clap, clap, clap! chant which led into the very band themselves performing the song that will now always make me think of Jim Nelis: Furniture.

*Long story short: this is the first song by Horslips that had me turn to my husband and say 'Wait just a minute...this group had it going ON!'

**Earlier today, when listening to The Book of Invasions -- an album that the Tribute Band performed in its entirity last April at the CBS school, Omagh -- I was thinking 'here's a really beautiful Horslips song, but not always the first one that people will mention. We should hear it more.'

***Each day when I go to work, I pass by the grand 19th century edifice that the Pacific Railroad built for itself on One Market Street. That railroad. That trans-continental railroad. Those golden nails and silver bars. The one particular golden spike was driven into the ground at Promontory Utah in 1869. I'll understand that the international audience will not realize that this momentus event was just barely four years after the assasination of an American president and the end of a bitter, divisive internal struggle over whether we were going to be a cohesive country or not. Four score and seven years ago...But from April 14, 1865 to May 10, 1869, those silver bars were laid with haste across a vast expanse of wild land not yet even 'ours'. Ruthless and determined men like Stanford, Huntington, Crocker, Hopkins - hotels, banks, colleges and state parks bear their names to this day. But what of the men who were doing the actual work on the tracks and the rails? Well...they've got a helluva great rock song for themselves!

****McGinley Og!!! Hope you were there! And if you weren't: can we meet up this February!?!

"Neon spells out my name

But I enter from the alley outside"

The second piece of Horslips-related good news is not mine to spill. But Danny of the Horslips Tribute Band drops a few hints over at the www.horslips.tk Guestbook.

"Is there anything I can offer to learn more?"

(Photo of the 'It Girl'
courtesy of the Devil-Ettes of San Francisco)

Again, for first-time visitors and the casually curious, the Horslips Tribute Band tell their story in their own words:

The idea of a tribute band to the Celtic Rock supergroup, Horslips, first surfaced in late 2004. Organ player Michael Rafferty, after listening to numerous records by the group, formed the idea of bringing together a group of musicians for one performance in tribute to the band. As the idea began to gather realistic potential, Ryan O’Sullivan was approached and soon recruited as the group’s guitar player. As word spread about the possibility of a tribute band forming, it became apparent that a number of other musicians, who cited Horslips as a main influence, were interested. The group soon recruited John Kelly on vocals, Conor McAloon on lead guitar, Daniel McCormack on bass guitar, and Damien Maguire on drums and percussion. The traditional side of the group consisted of Michael Kielty on flute, Patrick Bogues on fiddle, and Niall Moore on trumpet.

The first Horslips Tribute gig was performed in the CBS Grammar School in Omagh, the school which all of the members of the band attended. With Barry Devlin, bass player of the Horslips, in attendance, it proved to be an extremely successful night as the band performed the entire ‘Book Of Invasions’ album. With this first gig proving a great experience for the band, it was agreed that the group should continue to perform under the Horslips Tribute banner, in homage to the band who inspired the idea in the first place.

Another Gig to Promote!



For new visitors to this blog or my Horslips Tribute site, a little explanation may be in order. Most of you may know Horslips as a band from the 70s, who recently added a highly successful acoustic album to their catalog.

These photos in my blog are thumbnails of a Horslips Tribute band in Omagh. They tell the story of how it all started best on their site:

The idea of a tribute band to the Celtic Rock supergroup, Horslips, first surfaced in late 2004. Organ player Michael Rafferty, after listening to numerous records by the group, formed the idea of bringing together a group of musicians for one performance in tribute to the band. As the idea began to gather realistic potential, Ryan O’Sullivan was approached and soon recruited as the group’s guitar player. As word spread about the possibility of a tribute band forming, it became apparent that a number of other musicians, who cited Horslips as a main influence, were interested. The group soon recruited John Kelly on vocals, Conor McAloon on lead guitar, Daniel McCormack on bass guitar, and Damien Maguire on drums and percussion. The traditional side of the group consisted of Michael Kielty on flute, Patrick Bogues on fiddle, and Niall Moore on trumpet.

The first Horslips Tribute gig was performed in the CBS Grammar School in Omagh, the school which all of the members of the band attended. With Barry Devlin, bass player of the Horslips, in attendance, it proved to be an extremely successful night as the band performed the entire ‘Book Of Invasions’ album. With this first gig proving a great experience for the band, it was agreed that the group should continue to perform under the Horslips Tribute banner, in homage to the band who inspired the idea in the first place.

This Saturday, they'll be at the The Errigle Inn, Belfast.

www.horslips.tk