Horslips are the most important band to come out of Ireland. They never attained the broader ‘Classic Rock’ status of Thin Lizzy, nor became a U2-sized global phenomenon, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. The bands significance derives from their invention of a new genre of popular music: ‘Celtic Rock’.
By taking traditional ‘folk’ melodies and using them as the basis for new rock songs, sometimes with unusual or unexpected instrumentation and arrangements, they pioneered a style which continues and evolves to this day. During the 1970s, Horslips broke new ground, and introduced audiences across Britain, Europe and America to music which sounded simultaneously both familiar and yet innovative, new and spellbinding.
They were also the first successful rock act to base their entire career in Ireland. They controlled every aspect of their being; stage presentation, graphic design, record pressing, and concert promotion, before it became fashionable. Their blend of progressive rock arrangements with sometimes centuries-old melodies on conceptual albums sought to explain Ireland’s past to an audience keen to hear rocked-up versions of ancient narratives that took less than 40 minutes to listen to. Horslips had an impact because, for many Irish people, the band energised them and their sense of identity.
The origins of the band date from 1970 and a Dublin advertising agency called Arks. Devlin, a native of Ardloe, County Tyrone, was a recently arrived copywriter. Eamon Carr, originally from Kells, County Meath, was also a copywriter, and Charles O’Connor, a Middlesborough-born designer all worked there. A forthcoming television advert needed a band to mime along to a pre-recorded song, and the three employees were co-opted into performing for the camera. Realising that another musician was needed, Jim Lockhart, a Dubliner and a friend of Devlin’s, was recruited for ‘The Gig’. ‘The Gentle People’, as they were called, duly acted their way through a song promoting Harp lager. Devlin recalled:
There were free drinks and lots of girls and we thought ‘If this is what it’s like being in a pop band maybe we should look into this.
As a consequence, the pretend group decided to become a real band. The four men bonded over a shared love of traditional music, and the newly emerging rock scene. They were aware that a guitarist would be needed if they were to develop as a rock band. Kieron ‘Spud’ Murphy, a photographer at Arks, was swiftly recruited by Devlin to the still-unnamed group, and he is credited with accidentally coming up with the band’s name. What started out as a play on ‘The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’ became, after a less than satisfactory rehearsal and a Chinese meal, ‘The Four Poxmen of the Horslypse’, shortening to ‘Horslypse’, before finally arriving at Horslips. The band attracted some attention in
