The 02, Dublin:In his terrific
Evening Heraldessay on the Horslips years, former drummer Eamon Carr recalls how a trip to the furnishing department in Clerys changed the face of Irish rock'n'roll.
The band purchased a job lot of curtain fabric and soft cover to create their trademark look: satin trousers and loud, shiny shirts.
It’s a lovely story – with more than a hint of truth – but it understates the quality of the music delivered by the band during those halcyon days back in the 1970s. Yes, style was important to Horslips (you would expect that from a group of former advertising executives), but there was also a great deal of substance.
Tonight’s comeback concert is a reminder of the power and the glory of the band, to namecheck one of their best songs.
The striking feature of the gig is how the intervening years have not withered the power of Horslips’ back catalogue. There is also an extraordinary musical range on view: the FM radio rock of
The Man Who Built America
, the glorious traditional Irish energy of
The High Reel
and the Led Zeppelin-style majesty of
Furniture
.
In Dublin,
Furniture
sounds more than ever like Zeppelin’s
Stairway to Heaven
as Gaeilge, a sweeping epic of a song guided one way and then the other by those familiar guitar breaks.
Multi-instrumentalist Charles O’Connor was the undoubted star of a gig that showcased his remarkable versatility. Guitarist Johnny Fean ran him close with a soaring, extended solo on
I’ll Be Waitin
g and a strong vocal performance on
Ghosts
.
Vocalist and bassist Barry Devlin was at his best on
Rescue Me
, surely one of the most under-rated Horslips songs.
There are some minor quibbles. Sometimes the musical pyrotechnics of Horslips drown out some of the songs; there is simply too much going on. How exciting it would be to see Horslips on any new album embrace the stripped back, lo-fi of Bon Iver or Fleet Foxes. Horslips’ songs are certainly good enough. But sometimes they need to give them a little breathing space.
On vocals, the band share out the responsibilities between Barry Devlin, Charles O’Connor and Johnny Fean, arguably the most accomplished. But there is no Robert Plant or Paul Rodgers here: sometimes these good songs require more vocal power.
But none of this should detract from a memorable night, which left the warmest glow.
For his own reasons, Eamon Carr opted out of the reunion gigs, leaving the drumming duties to the impressive Ray Fean (brother of Johnny).
Carr did surface in full Santa Claus regalia during the encore to present newly minted platinum discs to the band. At one stage in 1973 Horslips sold 35,000 copies of their debut album,
Happy to Meet
,
Sorry to Part
, in less than a fortnight. The new greatest hits collection,
Treasury
, will surely emulate – and even better – that achievement, if the enthusiasm of this audience is any guide.
And there was real, genuine enthusiasm. The pitch for the gig described Horslips as the band ” that shaped a generation”. That might be a little over the top. But Horslips played a pivotal and (until now) shamefully neglected role in the history of Irish rock. This is a band that has paid its dues. Who could begrudge them another day in the sunlight?
