Madfish [Release date 04.07.25]

As some might have it, Horslips didn’t invent the genre of ‘Celtic Rock’ but they were early proponents. Before their debut album, released in late-1972, there had been the groundbreaking Frenchman Alan Stivell who had blazed a trail first with the live album ‘À L’Olympia’, recorded in February 1972, and then ‘From Celtic Roots’ (1973).

As an aside, Robin Denselow writing in 1975 described Stivell “He is the only academic I know who can suddenly march on stage playing bagpipes, with a rock band in full cry behind him, and reduce a solemnly attentive concert hall to a rocking and reeling shambles. It’s a rare and glorious talent.” Denselow mentions Horslips as a band “likely to unwind after a gig with a heavy session of drinking and playing folk tunes on pipes or concertinas.”

This is another handsome set from Madfish although such a fine production shouldn’t be reviewed (as this is) from a 160kbps digital file and without, initially, the liner note pdf. Ho hum.

The definitive collection to coincide with the band’s 50th anniversary in 2022 was also released by Madfish – a whopping 33CD/2-DVD affair that will set you back a whopping £250.

Most of the live radio material in that set, and some TV, was taken from the Irish broadcaster RTE.

‘At The BBC’ therefore brings together genuinely unreleased performances from the 1970s including a couple of “In Concert” shows and later recordings after the band’s real heyday. And their calling card ‘Dearg Doom’ appears six times.

Some of the editing does seem a little sloppy in this release, notably Disc 1, and the second version of ‘Ferdia’s Song’ and ‘More Than You Can Chew’ (the apt title of that massive box set) is more a tribute to Brian Matthew’s voiceover. The quality of the source material is inconsistent as you might expect when remastering radio, TV and film audio. Some off-air (i.e. recorded off a radio set) is used.

Disc 3 features a “broadcast mix” of the band’s Ulster Hall gig in 2011 – cited as one of the band’s best live performances – but the concert has been released in its own right on CD.

Strangely, Disc 4 (a 1979 “bonus disc”) contains unreleased Short Stories, Tall Tales studio mixes from Windmill Lane, the Dublin recording studio. So not exactly At The BBC? Colin Harper’s curator notes provide some explanation (excuse?) but it will be annoying to the Horslips hardcore; I suppose, though, they will shell out for everything.

Harper’s note and Mark Cunningham’s liner note are almost overshadowed by a lengthy scene setting piece from veteran BBC producer Jeff Griffin (where’s the autobiography Jeff?). And there’s also much credence given to the movers and shakers of this enterprise including tape sleuth Harper, broadcaster Ralph McLean, and engineers Cormac O’Kane and Eroc. Thankfully there’s also a few words on Johnny Fean.

A DVD brings together the band’s Old Grey Whistle Test output, a 1974 documentary and some fan-shot footage from the Ulster Hall gig in 2011. McLean featured the band in a special 50th anniversary show on Radio Ulster following that mammoth box set’s announcement and the filmed version is included here.

A bit like Gentle Giant, Horslips had an ascendancy in the early to mid-1970s but failed to weather changing musical tastes and they also diluted their original USP. They disbanded in 1980, reforming in 2004 with an album of acoustic re-workings. They have reconstituted several times since then although guitarist Johnny Fean died in 2023.

If this collection doesn’t quite deliver what it says on the tin – it could have been a 2-CD/DVD – for those with deep pockets it will complement the earlier box set. And for the daring, another way to discover Horslips although the second and third studio albums are probably all you need. Beware of earlier versions, the definitive remasters were released by Edsel Records post-2000. ***

Review by David Randall

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