Horslips

Horslips

Horslips were a 1970s Irish Celtic rock band that composed, arranged and performed their music based on traditional Irish jigs and reels. They were one of the first, if not the first, of the Celtic rock bands. Formed in 1970, they disbanded in 1980, although in 2005 the original line-up reformed and has performed a small number of gigs.

Horslips were one of Ireland's leading rock groups of their era. Although they had limited commercial success in their own lifetime, there was a revival of interest in their music in the late 1990s and they came to be regarded as one of the defining bands of the Celtic rock genre.

Band members

• Jim Lockhart (born 3 February 1949), from Francis St in Dublin, studied classical music at Trinity College Dublin. He fell under the influence of Seán Ó Riada, wanting to build an orchestral sound out of Irish music. He played keyboards, pipes, whistles and flute. He did vocals on a select number of songs, mainly in Manx or Irish.
• Eamon Carr (born 12 November 1948), is from Kells, County Meath. He was one of the founding members of a poetry and beat performance group called Tara Telephone in Dublin in the late 60s that also published the quarterly literary journal Capella. He was the drummer.
• Charles O'Connor, (Born 7 September 1948) from Middlesbrough in the UK played concertina, mandolin, and fiddle (later on he played the electric guitar) and shared the main vocal tasks with Barry Devlin and Johnny Fean.
• Barry Devlin (born 28 November 1946), from Ardboe in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, once trained as a Columban priest. He left this to do English in UCD and then after joined a graphics company as a screenwriter. He was the band's bass player, shared vocals and its unofficial front man.
• Johnny Fean (born 17 November 1951) spent his childhood in the city of Limerick and in Shannon, County Clare. He soon mastered guitar, banjo, mandolin and harmonica. In his teens, he played in sessions in Limerick and County Clare. He developed his listening tastes from rock to blues and incorporated it into his guitar style. In his late teens he played in a group called "Sweet Street," with Joe O'Donnell on electric fiddle and Eugene Wallace. He later played in "Jeremiah Henry," a rock and blues band. His idols were Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. He left "Jeremiah Henry" in 1970 to play traditional music again in Limerick..

Horslips

Original line-up

Barry Devlin, Eamon Carr and Charles O'Connor met up when they worked at a graphics company in Dublin. They were cajoled into pretending to be a band for a beer (Harp Lager) commercial but needed a keyboard player. Devlin said he knew a Jim Lockhart that would fit the bill. They enjoyed the act so much that they decided to try to do the rock thing properly. They hooked up with guitarist Declan Sinnott, a colleague of Eamon Carr's from Tara Telephone and Gene Mulvaney (briefly) to form Horslips (originally Horslypse) in 1970. The name originated from a spoonerism on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse which became "The Four Poxmen on The Horslypse".

They went professional on St Patrick's Day 1972 having shed Mulvaney and released a single, "Johnny's Wedding", on their own record label, Oats. Declan Sinnott left soon after, primarily due to his annoyance at the group appearing in an advert for Mirinda orange drink (shot in The People's Park in Dun Laoghaire in Easter 1972) and was replaced by Gus Guest briefly, then Johnny Fean.

The albums

Horslips designed their own artwork, wrote sleeve-notes and researched the legends that they made into concept albums. They had their own record label and licensed the recordings through RCA for release outside Ireland. They kept their base in Ireland, unlike previous Irish bands.

In October 1972 Horslips went to Longfield house in Tipperary and recorded their first album, Happy To Meet, Sorry To Part, in the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. They then released another single, "Green Gravel". On the first album the melodies were mostly traditional. Jim Lockhart was on keyboards and gradually mastered other instruments including uillean pipes. Eamon Carr was on drums, including the Irish bodhrán. Happy To Meet, Sorry To Part was the fastest-selling album for 8 years in Ireland.

The Abbey Theatre in Dublin asked the band to provide the background for a stage adaptation of "The Táin". They leapt at the opportunity. "Táin Bó Cúailnge" (The Cattle-Raid of Cooley) is a tenth-century story written in Old and Middle Irish. It tells of an ancient war between Ulster and Connaught. The Táin was released in 1973 and had more original material alongside the traditional tunes, and greater emphasis on rock. In the same year a single, "Dearg Doom", went to number one in Germany.

Dancehall Sweethearts followed in 1974, and also balanced folk with rock. Their fourth album, The Unfortunate Cup of Tea, drifted toward pop music and was a disappointment by comparison.RCA ended their funding deal for the group in 1975. The group funded their next venture themselves and went back to basics. Drive The Cold Winter Away (also 1975) was their most traditional album to date. They signed with DJM Records worldwide through A&R man Frank Neilson. The Book of Invasions: A Celtic Symphony (1976), like The Táin, was an adaptation of Irish legends built into a complex story. It went further into rock than any previous Horslips album. It is usually considered their best work. It was their first UK top-40 album since The Táin.

Ever ambitious, they now tried to make it in the United States. They brought in Jim Slye to become their manager. He later sold their publishing rights to William McBurney for £4,000. In 1977 they produced Aliens, about the experience of the Irish in nineteenth-century America, which included very little folk music. They toured Britain, Germany, Canada and the United States. The night that they played the Albert Hall in London was described by one critic as the loudest gig there since Hendrix. The Man Who Built America (1978), produced by Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat and Tears and Blues Project fame, concerned Irish emigration to the USA and was commercially their most successful album. The heavier sound did bring some acceptance in America but they lost their folk base and their freshness. Short Stories, Tall Tales (1979) was their last studio album and was panned by the record company and critics alike.

File:Horslips 1980.jpg

Horslips in 1980 just before they disbanded from left: Barry Devlin, Johnny Fean, Charles O'Connor, Eamon Carr and Jim Lockhart

The last time

At a time when The Troubles were at a high, Horslips played gigs in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland without prejudice and were accepted everywhere. Their last recordings were from live performances at Whitla Hall in Belfast April and May 1980. A few months later, on October 12 1980 they played their final gig in the Ulster Hall. They made no public announcement. They simply gave an encore -- the Rolling Stones' song "The Last Time" (this was a reference to the recording studio of their first album) and the final act was Charles O'Connor throwing his mangled fiddle into the audience. Ten years after they formed, they disbanded.

Musical life after the breakup

Even before Horslips ended, Johnny Fean, Eamon Carr and two others founded the "Zen Alligators" in 1980. They played straight rock and soul on the Irish circuit, and they recorded several singles. Another spin-off group called "Host" contained Fean, O'Connor and Carr. They issued one album, Tryal, in 1984, and two singles.

The final album that had a Fean/Carr collaboration in the 80s was the 1986 under-rated The Last Bandits in the World.

Barry Devlin issued a solo album called 'Breaking Star Codes' in 1983 with some help from Jim Lockhart. The album had 12 songs, each based, loosely, on the signs of the zodiac. Further Lockhart/Devlin collaborations included the theme tune to the popular RTÉ drama series 'Glenroe'.

In 1986 Johnny Fean moved to England. An English indie band called Jacobites (1983 to 1986) consisted of Nikki Sudden and Dave Kusworth. Their 1986 album Ragged School had Johnny on guitar.

He also played sporadically with a Horslips tribute band Spirit of Horslips and pub gigs with pick up three-piece The Treat, which sometimes featured former Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell instead of Fean.

In 1990, the electric guitar intro to "Dearg Doom" was used for Put 'Em Under Pressure, Ireland's 1990 World Cup song, written by Larry Mullen and featuring the Republic of Ireland national football team and Moya Brennan. This use of the intro may be better known in Ireland than the original.

Charles O'Connor released an instrumental album called 'Angel on the Mantelpiece' in collaboration with Paul Whittaker in 1997.

Where are they now

• Johnny Fean continues to play live music with Stephen Travers, formerly of The Miami Showband.
• After his retirement from swinging the drum sticks Eamon Carr went on to become a noted producer of young rock talent in the mid 1980s and also forming his own record label called Hotwire (which sponsored noted acts like the punk rock group The Golden Horde. He has also did a number of specialist DJ slots on radio before morphing into a music/sports journalist with the Evening Herald in Dublin. More recently he has presented on a Dublin station 'Carr's Cocktail Shack' in which Eamon plays American music of the 50s and 60s.
• In 2008 Eamon Carr and former Wings and Joe Cocker guitarist Henry McCullough co-wrote a new bunch of songs. A resulting album entitled "Poor Man's Moon" is due for release on 1st September 2008. See www.henrymccullough.com
• Also in 2008, Eamon released his first book, The Origami Crow, Journey Into Japan, World Cup Summer 2002, a book that is at once a travel log about his journey to Japan, a poetry collection, an homage to Japanese poet Basho, heralded by many as the creator of Haiku, and also has some sports commentary thrown in!
• Barry Devlin has directed for the screen and been a drama writer for radio and screen, as can be seen from his credits on the IMDB and for the radio detective drama Baldi He produced a number of U2 videos in the mid 80s. Examples of his screen writing are evident in the joint RTÉ/BBC production Ballykissangel and ITV's The Darling Buds of May.
• Jim Lockhart is head of production at RTÉ 2fm and has also done some production work and music arrangement.
• Charles O'Connor owns two antique shops in Whitby in the UK. O'Connor continues to record folk and traditional music in his home recording studio.

Copyright issues

For 20 years William McBurney, head of Belfast based Outlet records for over 40 years, received royalties from vinyl and CDs, including many compilations. He claimed that he bought the rights in "good faith" from Jim Slye, who managed Horslips from the late 1970s until the band's final gig. However, the quality of these releases left much to be desired. Shoddy artwork and dodgy sound meant that most of these releases were in the bargain bin at £2.99, leaving the five former members disillusioned at the state of affairs. In fact it led to at least one band member refusing to listen to the music for almost all of 20 years.

The former band members fought back and on March 7, 1999 won a court victory in Belfast for the copyright ownership and a substantial financial settlement. Horslips are now again fully in control of their music and, to that end, released the entire back catalogue on CD in 2000 / 2001 with updated artwork and digitally remastered sound.

Return

In March 2004 three Horslips enthusiasts, Jim Nelis, Stephen Ferris and Paul Callaghan, put on an exhibition of Horslips memorabilia in The Orchard Gallery in Derry. It was opened by the band, who played five songs acoustically. Buoyed by this first public appearance in 24 years, Horslips returned to the studio in Westmeath to produce a studio album, Roll Back, in the summer of 2004. Described as "Horslips Unplugged", the album contains acoustic reworkings of many of their best-known songs.

The same exhibition moved to Drogheda in October 2005, courtesy of longtime fan Paddy Goodwin, and was formally opened on October 6 by a tribute band, Horslypse, composed of nine teenage musicians. Horslips did a rambunctious version of "Furniture" at the end.

The exhibition moved to Belfast in February and March 2006 and there were plans for a New York showing in 2007. In February 2008, the exhibition opened in Ballinamore in County Leitrim, and then, in July, opened in Ballybofey in Donegal.

A double DVD entitled Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts came out in November 2005. Disc one is a documentary and disc 2 is live footage of the band from the 1970s, including promo videos and slots on The Old Grey Whistle Test.

In December 2005 the band played in front of an invited audience for the recording of the RTÉ television program Other Voices in Dingle in County Kerry. Part of the set included three songs done "full-on" -- the first time the band played live and electric since October 1980. The full set listing for the program, part of which was broadcast in February 2006, was:

• The Man Who Built America
• Furniture
• Rescue Me
• Trouble with a Capital T
• Dearg Doom
• Shakin' All Over

The last Horslips' event so far in this phase of their career was a TG4 tribute show recorded and broadcast live on March 25 2006 before a live invited studio audience. A number of Irish personalities were interviewed, in Irish, about what the band meant to them and how Horslips shaped modern Irish music. The band played eight numbers, as follows:

• Trouble with a Capital T
• Mad Pat
• Ghosts
• The Man Who Built America
• Flower Amang Them All
• Furniture
• I'll be Waiting
• Dearg Doom
• Shakin' All Over

Trivia

A few bands revisited the career of Horslips over time, the first known instance is Irish band Winter's Reign doing 'Dearg Doom' for their 1987 full length release entitled "The Beginning."

More recently, the band Slough Feg (formerly known as The Lord Weird Slough Feg) from the U.S. covered 'Dearg Doom' on their latest full length "Hardworlder" for Cruz Del Sur music.

Most Recent and Upcoming events

On 20th September 2008 there was an event to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of 'The Man who Built America'. Joining original members Barry Devlin, Jim Lockhart, John Fean and Eamon Carr on stage for a number of Horslips classics were Paddy Goodwin and Chris Somers and Risky Business (Clive Hannon. Dave McGloughlin, Myles Lally, Tara Fernandes, Debbie Barry, Plus 1 Simon O'Connor)

In 2009 there hopefully will be a similar event for the 30th anniversary of the release of the group's last studio album in their, so called, first phase, 'Short Stories, Tall Tales'

Discography

Original studio albums

• Happy to Meet - Sorry to Part (1972)
• The Táin (1973)
• Dancehall Sweethearts (1974)
• The Unfortunate Cup of Tea (1975)
• Drive the Cold Winter Away (1975)
• The Book of Invasions (1976)
• Aliens (1977)
• The Man Who Built America (1978)
• Short Stories/Tall Tales (1979)
• Roll Back (2004)

Odds and sods collections

• Tracks from the Vaults (1977)

Live albums

• Horslips Live (1976)
• The Belfast Gigs (1980)

External links

• Official website for Horslips
• Official website for Johnny Fean and Steve Travers
• Come Back Horslips Fansite
• Carr's Cocktail Shack Radio Website
• Tara Telephone Archival History Fansite
• Performance and Interview Pt.1
• Interview Pt.2
• Horslips page on Irish Rockers website
• Eamon Carr & Henry McCullough 2008 CD available here
• Eamon Carr's first book
• [http://www.seventowers.ie/Eamon Carr's publisher site, book available here.