Neil Young and his band Crazy Horse are returning to Ireland next year, a year after a controversial concert which many regarded as self-indulgent.
Young and Crazy Horse will play Live at the Marquee in Cork on July 10th. Tickets go on sale next Monday, priced at €76.
Their concert in June this year in the RDS provoked disgruntlement from some fans who criticised the veteran singer-songwriter for the set which included one 14-minute guitar feedback solo.
Many agreed with the analysis of The Irish Times reviewer Kevin Courtney that they had expected more from the singer-songwriter. Courtney wrote: "Neil Young can be stubbornly self-indulgent at the best of times, yet fans still held out hope that he might dust off a few of his best-known tunes on this tour, with his long-standing band, Crazy Horse.
“But instead of Heart of Gold, The Needle & the Damage Done and Rockin’ in the Free World, the crowd got 20-minute-long guitar jams and only a handful of songs that you could consider classics.”
Other fans were quick to defend Young pointing out that it was Neil Young and Crazy Horse, not Neil Young the solo artist.
Promoter Peter Aiken said the setlists for his tour were all posted on Aiken Promotions website in advance.
“Crazy Horse was billed as much as Neil Young. He’s done 38 albums. He’s not a greatest hits artist. Everybody wants to pigeon-hole everybody nowadays, but he’s done every kind of album,” he said.
There were also reports that Young was booed. One fan said Young lost most of the audience after the first two songs “I have never looked forward to a concert so much and been so disappointed by it as Saturday,” the fan wrote. One wrote they would not be coming back as much as they love his music. Still more criticised the sound with one describing it as akin to “listening in a car radio stuck in traffic”.
There was also criticism of the absence of screens in the outdoor arena, poor sound quality and 40 minutes queues for the beer.
Mr Aiken revealed that Young had big screens, but they malfunctioned because of the high winds which also played havoc with the sound, both of which are the artist’s responsibility.
“In good conditions, they would have been perfect. There was a lot of (guitar) feedback and there was sunshine, downpour and wind. It was a very difficult day for the sound people,” he said. He also said it was the RDS that ran the bars at the concert and he had observed no queues for beer.
