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Irish Post
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Post
On The Record — some of the new releases in Ireland this month
IF THERE is any band more pivotal in the development of Celtic rock than Horslips, then history has yet to discover them. Legacy being what it is, the past few years have witnessed many of the band's recordings repackaged (notably, 2022's mammoth, appropriately titled 35-disc set, More Than You Can Chew), but At the BBC (Madfish) takes a nice detour with four CDs and one DVD that unearth the band's time spent in the hallowed halls of the BBC. While the DVD highlights the musicians' esoteric choice of clothing as worn on the BBC's music show, Old Grey Whistle Test (in fairness, it was the early-mid'70s), the music once again marks them out as, perhaps, unwitting pioneers, but pioneers, nonetheless. From the riffs of Dearg Doom to the orchestral remake of The Book of Invasions, we doff the proverbial cap to them. SIMILARLY, we look admiringly towards Ólafar Arnalds & Talos and their collaborative album, A Dawning (Opia Community and Mercury KX). There is, however, a sting in the tale, in that Reykjavik-based musician Arnalds had to complete the album when Clonakilty's Eoin French (who, under the stage name Talos, had released three albums of fastidiously constructed dreamy, ambient music) died in 2024 at the age of 36. A significant portion of the album was written and recorded in West Cork before French was diagnosed with cancer, so there's little or nothing to read into the mostly melancholic vibe that weaves its way throughout. That said, if the listener doesn't shed a tear or three at some point (particularly during the closing track, We Didn't Know We Were Ready), then we don't know what to think. GRIEF also gets a look-in on the Various Artists album, My Grief on the Sea (Bring Your Own Hammer/BYOH), but not often in a way you might think – despair could be a better description. There's an intriguing concept to the record and the record label; the label aims to bring together Irish songwriters and historians to produce new song cycles that are rooted in the history of 19th-century Ireland and the Irish diaspora. The album is the first in a projected series of collaborations, with the inaugural compilation based on songs about the sea, sea passages, and migration to and from Ireland during the 1800s. From concept to outcome, it's not only worthwhile but often inspiring. The Irish singers and songwriters are what you might term niche (they include Arian Crowley, Linda Buckley, Cathal Coughlan, Mike Smalle, Eileen Gogan, Carol Keogh, Brigid Mae Power, and second-generation Irish musician, Michael J. Sheehy), but there isn't one song here that wouldn't sound out of place on daytime radio. THERE is little you could call niche on the debut album by Magherafelt singer-songwriter, JC Stewart. Arriving eleven years after the release of his debut single (Gold), the measure of what we hear on Space Hurts (Stanley Park Records) is the kind of material that could go stratospheric. Not that he isn't almost there: to date, Stewart's songs have amassed over 200 million plays on Spotify (this doesn't include co-writes with superstar songwriters Lewis Capaldi and Niall Horan). Space Hurts, meanwhile, is crammed with songs that can't be anything other than major hits – not just on old-fashioned radio stations but also on any streaming platform you care to mention. The downside? The songs are, inevitably, a tad over familiar, but the collective melody lines are so forceful you have no choice but to hum along to them. SOME songwriters don't have their careers mapped out for them in the way others do. Rostrevor's Matt Benson is a case in point. A career session musician, Benson's touring gig as the band trombonist and backing vocalist with UK singer George Ezra provided enough spare cash to make reality something he had been meaning to do for many years: record a debut album. Sit Back Down Again (Self-Released/Matthew Benson) is the result, and it's a fine record highlighting what can occur when life hands you a helping hand. The vibe throughout is mature: think John Martyn, Van Morrison, Randy Newman, Little Feat, The Band, and a few others, but mostly the vibe is Benson's own. Well worth your time and attention? Yep. See More: Celtic Rock, Irish Music, Rock Music
Irish Independent
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Dinner with Charlton and backstage with Nureyev - an ode to the golden age of the celebrity interview, recounted by a master practitioner
After steering Celtic rock heroes Horslips's unique course, Eamon Carr made a poacher/gamekeeper transition and returned to writing to earn his bread. The problem with interrogating musicians is that answers can get repetitive. Accordingly, after some natural self-doubt, he took up the Evening Herald's offer of a more general weekly interview feature.
Irish Daily Mirror
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
Horslips announce special one-off meet and greet this weekend
Horslips have announced a special meet and greet with fans this weekend. Eamon Carr, Barry Devlin and Jim Lockhart have announced they will be meeting and greeting fans and friends at SpinDizzy in Georges Street Arcade on Saturday, July 19 between 1pm and 3pm. They will sign copies of their amazing 3CD +1DVD set 'Horslips – Live @ The BBC' and will also give fans an opportunity to bring along their old Horslips Vinyls and any other memorabilia for signing on the day. A spokesman for the band added: 'It is also a great opportunity to get a lasting pic of Horslips stars in action signing off on some of their great performances.' Horslips are an Irish Celtic rock band that compose, arrange and perform songs frequently inspired by traditional Irish airs, jigs and reels. The group are regarded as "founding fathers of Celtic rock" for their fusion of traditional Irish music with rock music and went on to inspire many local and international acts. They formed in 1970 and 'retired' in 1980 for an extended period. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.
Irish Daily Mirror
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
Eamon Carr on Kneecap, Shane MacGowan, the Guildford Four and Rudolf Nureyev
EAMON Carr could see the parallels. 'How could you not?' he says. 'The more things change, the more they stay the same.' For Kneecap in 2025, see Christy Moore, The Pogues and the Sex Pistols in the 1970s and 1980s. Artists who pushed boundaries and fell foul of the establishment. 'It's ludicrous. You had the Prime Minister in England suggesting that Kneecap shouldn't play Glastonbury. Ludicrous. Just nonsense interfering in popular culture,' Eamon adds. From his time as Horslips drummer to his other lives as a producer, poet, playwright, journalist and author, Carr has seen and heard it (nearly) all before. While writing for the Evening Herald he also interviewed some of the biggest names in music, film, sport and the arts. Going back over the tapes he found a common thread. 'Ultimately I selected 15 long-form interviews for the book to build everything else around,' he says of the collection, called Pure Gold. 'There were a few others that would've stood up, but there was a feeling that these fit together. A sort of psychic thread that links them.' Carr lifts the lid on the likes of Jack Charlton, Eartha Kitt, Malcolm McLaren, JP Donleavy, Brenda Fricker, Sheila Mooney and 'Mad' Frankie Fraser. Injustice and resistance are themes that emerge again and again. Among the collection is a November 1989 interview with Shane MacGowan which addressed the pressures he was under at the time and hinted at unrest within The Pogues. 'Listening back now, the game was up. But I didn't know that,' he says. 'They dropped Frank (Murray) as manager a few months after the interview. So that wouldn't have happened overnight. 'That would have been brewing in the band, because a band like that, it's like a tanker trying to turn. It takes a while to get everything on board. 'I think Shane might've thought I knew more than I did because he probably thought I was close to Frank. 'So, in hindsight, some of the questions might have felt a bit close to the bone. Then there was also his own position as a musician in the band.' Carr had known The Pogues frontman since MacGowan's time working on a record stall in Soho in the 1970s, and in the interview he questioned the singer about his drinking and if the music industry had sapped the band's spirit. 'They were working on Hell's Ditch,' says Carr. 'He didn't overly commit to that album. He was already cutting himself adrift, emotionally or whatever, from the band. That was his last album with The Pogues. 'Internal politics in bands are really intense. Lots of bodies and lots of opinions. 'So, when I look at the Shane stuff and view it in light of all of that, I think it sort of speaks volumes. 'I think a lot of it was between the lines. What he didn't say. I found it really, really sad to be honest.' They also discussed the release of the Guildford Four from prison and Pogues song Streets of Sorrow which highlighted that injustice along with the Birmingham Six. Gerry Conlon, Paul Hill, Paddy Armstrong and Carole Richardson had served 15 years for the 1974 Guildford pub bombings before their wrongful convictions were finally quashed in October 1989. Gareth Peirce, who secured their release, was recently back in the headlines for defending Kneecap in court. Another echo from the past. 'They spent all those years in jail. It's f**king horrendous,' says Carr. Horslips were based in London, living in flats, while touring up and down Britain and Ireland at the time of the Guildford bombings. One Sunday morning, Carr encountered what he assumed was a Special Branch officer outside their flat and thought they were about to be raided for drugs. 'The house was nearly an open house,' he says. 'There was always a party. 'I came back that morning and said, 'We've had Special Branch on the doorstep. If there's any evidence of any of our guests partying here last night… empty your ashtrays.' They all laughed. 'The following morning was a Monday and we were woken at some ungodly hour with a boom, boom, boom, and next thing there were 14 police in the house with dogs. 'We're all rounded up, all brought down to the kitchen and quizzed. 'My initial thing was that it was a drugs raid. It turned out that they were investigating Guildford. 'They were querying us on where we were on different dates.' Carr was able to produce a tour diary and prove the band were playing in St Mary's Hall in Portlaoise on the night in question and the police departed soon afterwards. But not without telling him the flat had been under surveillance for a week. 'That knocked the wind out of me,' he says. The book also contains interviews with former barrister and author John Mortimer about defending the Sex Pistols and with Fear And Loathing illustrator Ralph Steadman about art in the time of war. 'When I went over the Steadman stuff, I mean, he was a proper artist, and had a proper artistic response to the Iraq war,' says Carr. 'It was unbelievable because we're in the middle of it at the moment. It's totally alive. Everything he says is alive and relevant for now.' Another interview he found carried more weight with the passage of time was one with ballet superstar Rudolf Nureyev. Carr met the Siberian in his dressing room during a performance at the Point Theatre where Nureyev spoke with great passion about the mystical power of dance. But the writer's abiding memory is one of a disconsolate figure. 'He was incredibly passionate about dance, explaining why he was doing still it in his 50s,' says Carr. 'But when I was leaving, I sort of glanced back and he looked really crushed, not the strong-willed figure that had been talking to me. 'It only became apparent subsequently when it was announced that he had died of AIDS. He would have known at that point. 'And in the light of that information, everything that he said makes double the sense, because he was talking about the passion. 'You have to have the passion because this keeps them alive. Their passion keeps them alive.' ■ Pure Gold by Eamon Carr is published by Merrion Press
Irish Examiner
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
'It was ‘Queen, 40p; Horslips, 50p': Irish rockers release new album of BBC recordings
Hidden treasure has been found at the BBC. A trove of archive Horslips material has been gathered together in a five-disc set. The collection captures the band in their pomp in the 1970s, and later recordings culled from their reunion years (three decades after breaking up in 1980). It includes live performances, interviews, gorgeous linear notes and rare photos of its band members – Barry Devlin, Jim Lockhart, Charles O'Connor, Eamon Carr and Johnny Fean – in the kind of outlandish glam rock fashion that would hurt your eyes. A highlight from the haul is a recording of their performance with the Ulster Orchestra at Belfast's Waterfront Hall. The gig was performed on St. Patrick's Day in 2011. It's arguably Horslips 'finest hour'. It includes a memorable eight-minute rendition of I'll Be Waiting, a showcase for Fean, the band's lead guitarist, who sadly passed away in 2023. 'The Ulster Orchestra is 69 people,' says Lockhart. 'It's hugely impressive. The conductor Brian Byrne had done these amazing arrangements. We were back and forth with him for several weeks beforehand, talking through the stuff we would like to hear and the direction we'd like it to go, adding, say, a Vivaldi fiddle for that bit there, and so on. 'Brian ran with it, taking all the traditional bits like, say, the intro to Trouble (With a Capital 'T'), which is Brian Boru's March, and doing a lovely arrangement of it, which led brilliantly into the song. He picked up on all the subtleties. On the night, we had this huge, incredibly disciplined force behind us playing our melodies. It was an extraordinary feeling.' The footage includes an evocative segment they did in 1974 on The Old Grey Whistle Test television show, which was hosted by the legendary DJ 'Whispering Bob Harris'. One of their first engagements with the BBC was in October 1973 when they were invited to do a session on John Peel's radio show, shortly before their second album, The Táin, was released. Their reward was £50 and exposure to his considerable audience. 'Peel was huge,' says Devlin. 'Peel didn't love us. His producer John Walters loved us. We were slightly 'Go handy' for Peel. Peel was more into the arcane. His idea of proper trad was a piper outside Micho Russell's in the rain with only a chanter, without any of the tassels. He had an austere view of what you should do with traditional music. We didn't entirely fit that, but to be fair to him, he accepted trad is a broad church so he always gave us time.' This was the golden age of rock music in Britain. David Bowie was breaking all the rules. Queen were on the rise. Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd were entrancing teenagers around the world. The Táin was a classic concept album in the vein of the era's landmark albums. It was a heady time to be in a popular rock band. As Horslips toured the UK, they bumped into bands like The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Lindisfarne at The Blue Boar Inn, a coaching inn on the Birmingham to London motorway. 'We crossed paths with Queen quite a bit,' says Lockhart. 'There's a poster of one of our first gigs in London – Queen were on the previous week – and it was 'Queen, 40p; Horslips, 50p' at the London School of Economics.' Horslips on the cover of New Spotlight magazine 'The Blue Boar was such a dive for young punks,' adds Devlin. 'It was a place you wanted to go and see where the dinosaurs had eaten, to discover the dinosaurs ate the same egg and chips you did. We used to go to Dingwalls in Camden, north London. I remember Mick Jones being there a lot. Mick would have a bunch of mad people around him, who weren't actually that mad. They were just having a quiet drink, but they were wrapped up in black plastic sacks so that slightly took the ordinariness out of it.' Bowie towered over all the acts in the 1970s. He was consistently on the cover of influential music magazines like Melody Maker and NME. Devlin sums it up best, suggesting if you wanted to know where pop music was headed in the next five years, you just had to pick up the latest Bowie album. The access to recreational drugs on the Irish music and social scene in the 1970s wasn't comparable to its UK counterpart or to the cocaine blizzard that swept across American clubs at the time. 'There was always a little bit of dope around Ireland,' says Lockhart. 'There wasn't coke,' says Devlin. 'There used to be one guy in the drugs squad in Dublin, 'Dinny' Mullins,' says Lockhart. 'Everybody knew him. He would chat to people in pubs and stuff. He was on the ball, a smart boy. He knew what was, what, but drugs weren't at that time an endemic problem. There were five serious drug users in Dublin in the early '70s. Everybody knew them by name and pretty much where they lived. Drugs like heroin only took off in Ireland in early '80s, tragically. It was terrible. 'Heroin was seen as being the road to hell, which it is,' says Devlin. 'The idea of young fellows in an advertising agency using cocaine didn't exist. There wasn't a supply chain. Pints and shorts were what people had. Hippies smoked a bit of weed. You could easily identify them because they giggled a lot, and they were always eating packets of Cheese & Onion Taytos for the munchies.' The Horslips – At the BBC is out on July 4. See: Cracking America Horslips began their assault on North America in 1974 after releasing their album Dancehall Sweethearts. They toured the continent about five times. The Police joined them on their second tour across the Atlantic. 'We were slugabeds,' says Barry Devlin. 'We stayed up very late and behaved quite badly. You'd look out the window of your hotel and the bass player from The Police would be doing push-ups on the hotel's lawn, which would put the fear of God into you.' Jim Lockhart adds: 'And Sting would be jogging about the pool or something.' Horslips in 1974: From left to right, Jim Lockhart (behind), John Fean, Barry Devlin, frontman Charles O'Connor and Eamon Carr (behind). (Photo by Central Press/) Horslips enjoyed good backing from their record labels, Dick James Music Ltd, and later Polygram, on those tours. They registered albums on the American Hot 100 billboard, but were effectively a college band, with a loyal following that filled venues on university campuses. The biggest gig Horslips headlined there was in late '79 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, a 13,000 seater. The United States also gave them a pinch-me moment, which descended into typical Horslips farce, as Devlin explains: 'Back then, Sunset Strip in West Hollywood was lined with billboards. When our album Aliens was released in the States, Polygram bought us this huge billboard. It had an enormous Celtic warrior brandishing an axe, with the five of us underneath it in Celtic gear. 'We were so thrilled we got the limo driver to drive up and down underneath it with our heads sticking out of the sunroof, and the girls on the street going, 'Ah, out of towners.' We're going, 'That's us! That's us up there!' Not very cool. I can't imagine David Bowie doing that for his tour.' Read More Joe Bonamassa: Five talking points from the first Rory Gallagher tribute at Marquee in Cork
