Horslips: Tall Tales – The Official Biography

For many teenagers of Irish decent, growing up in British cities such as Birmingham in the 1970s, as I did, was a fair distance away culturally, environmentally, economically and socially, from that experienced by our parents ( in my case both were from the West coast of Ireland). We remember the ceilidh records they played in the house when we were kids, as their way of connecting with their past in a new urban setting; the shindigs; the smoke-filled rooms where adults partook of something they called 'having the craic'; and it is surprising just how much we subliminally absorbed of all that, without really knowing it on an emotional level.It is this explanation anyway, that I offer for the exhilarating experience I had when seeing Horslips play for the first time at Barbarellas club in Birmingham around 1977. Their music connected with me on an emotional level in a way that was utterly authentic, aligned, contemporaneous, exciting ( I had gotten into rock music as most teenagers had) and, moreover, uniquely special because if its Irishness. Celtic rock was its name, and it lived up to it.This was their "Book of Invasions" tour, which I still think was the band at its finest, although I saw them several times in the years that followed, up until their split in 1980. I was also fortunate to see them play at the 02 in Dublin in 2009, at the height of their come-back period, and I can say without any hesitation it was the finest gig I have ever had the pleasure of being at.So it goes without saying, then, that I am a wee bit precious about this band, as they have been so much a part of my youth and subsequent middle youth too! Or, to put it another way, from where I am coming from, anyone writing a book about this band had better make it a good one. Fortunately, Mark Cunningham's biography more than delivers on that requirement.Visually, the range of material he has unearthed is quite staggering, from the numerous photos of the band taken at their various stages in the timeline of their existence, which the book is constructed around, to copies of gig tickets, handwritten song drafts, posters, long-forgotten magazine articles, and more. His presentation of them ( and indeed of the book as a whole) is quite superb, befitting a former editor of an international music production journal. The narrative is also lively, authentic (he has let the band members do most of the talking, as well as those close to them such as former producers, roadies, and other gigging buddies) and seamless, his weaving of their reminiscences into a cohernt and pacy read being a key strength of the work.This approach elicits from band members an often frank and occasionally intimate assessment of their history and legacy, as well as several humorous recollections of past misdemeanours (or wrongly interpreted ones).The chronological (rather than thematic) narrative also enhances the reader's sense of the band's musically creative (and visually stylistic) evolution: at various times being influenced by Psychedelia, Glam Rock, "Americana" and New Wave, whilst, for the most part, retaining distinctly Irish influences in their musical compositions.We get to know the individual band members too, including their musical and artistic influences and their distinctive contributions to the band's creative outputs. Horslips was always a band in the true sense of the term; a creative collective of shared individual talents rather than any one individual dominating the others, and, until the last 12 months of their first incarnation, this served them well. By the end of the 1970s, however, with the rock and pop music scene rapidly changing in ways that became increasingly difficult for the band to navigate or accommodate (they never quite knew which way to go) a split became inevitable, and the descriptions of what that meant for band members on an emotional level are quite moving.But, as we know, after a monumental effort by loyal Horslips fans during most of the first decade of the 21st Century to get them to "Come Back" as the fans' website was called (not least so that we could all enjoy reliving our youth with them) they finally succumbed, and their performances have since been as good as ever. These events are brought to life in Mark's narrative in a way that is genuinely moving and indeed uplifting.One is also constantly reminded of the aesthetic originality of their music, and enlightened on the influences that brought that about. There is less, however, on their significance as a social phenomenon and cultural change agent in a rapidly transforming Ireland during the 1970s, than is covered in Maurice Linnane's excellent documentary, "Return of the Dancehall Sweethearts". As such, these two accounts complement one another in so many ways, and both are therefore unreservedly recommended.

I was late to the Horslips Party being just 16 when I found a copy of Horslips in a record store bargain bin but I was blown away by it and sought out every other record. This gave me a great insight into the rise and fall and rise of the band. I don't think a band biog needs to be 'gritty' to make it interesting, you just have to be engaged with the subject matter. There are some fascinating insights into the gigs the Horslips played and who supported them. It made me a tad melancholy too, as I often think Horslips never really got the credit for the impact they had on the music scene at that time and later. And the book is a thing of beauty, with images of posters, ticket stubs, and of course the band themselves. I read it from cover to cover whilst listening to Horslips of course but it's a great book to dip in and out of, too. Highly reccommended!

I love biographies and autobiographies and those band biographies that tell the stories through the band members and main participants. This one falls into the last category.I actually first heard about it being a work in progress in 2005 or 2006 and as I had, at that time, loved Horslips' music for around 15 years, I eagerly awaited it. Then when nothing seemed to be happening after a couple of years, I e~mailed the bands' bassist/vocalist Barry Devlin and he said it had been put off indefinitely as the author had been unwell.Fast forward to this summer and on a whim, I just thought I'd check to see if anything was happening on that front and I was pleased as Punch to discover that the book had been completed and was now on sale.I snapped it up right away !Some biographies I've read have been such a crushing disappointment after so much anticipation {those that spring to mind were Aerosmith's "Walk this way", John Wetton's "My own time", Stewart Copeland's "Strange things happen" and the Rolling Stones' "According to...." which inexplicably omits anything from Mick Taylor & Bill Wyman}. Horslips' was at the completely opposite end of that spectrum. It is a fantastic book, full of tremendous insights into the period the members grew up in, their influences, how they came together, how they came up with their songs and musical concept, where and how they recorded their albums, why they broke up and how they came together again and the beauty of it all is that it's all in their own words.Credit must go Mark Cunningham for his approach; he could have taken the gushing fan perspective but he was astute enough to see that however biased and subjective the main protagonists may be, their viewpoint will nearly always make better reading than an objective storyteller's, simply because of that very bias and subjectivity. And the subjectivity is all the more fascinating because they had a good 30~50 years of hindsight to reflect upon and chew over.There's not many artists I listen to that managed to put together 5 or 6 consecutive excellent albums and Horslips are one of the few {their first six studio efforts}. This autobiographical account matches the drama and sheer high quality of the music they put out in their time.

As a long time Horslips fan, I really enjoyed this book and found out a lot of new things about them and their stories. They never really "went away" as far as I was concerned and this book just reminds me of why their music appealed and still appeals to meI highly recommend it!

Horslips first rock concert I was at they are progrock celticrock irishrock they are just great big fan what they did to Irish music and culture was being done at that time its what Santana and Blues image did with Latin music made it more exciting great book captures that experience get their cds with live bonus tracks and live recording music is always more exciting live it has more energy and the band is still with us long May it last enjoy???