The forty- and fifty- somethings put the recession aside and enjoyed the return of a much-loved band
HORSLIPS HAVE travelled from the sweaty old national boxing stadium on the South Circular Road in the 1970s to a sold-out show before 12,000 fans in the shiny O2 arena alongside the IFSC.
As a metaphor for how this country has changed over the past 30-odd years, you could do worse.
In the bars around the 02 on Saturday the talk among the forty-and-fiftysomethings was not very rock’n’roll; it was about the gloomy prospects for next year, the usual stuff about recession and retrenchment.
But once the lights dimmed and the amplifiers were nudged upwards, all this was put to one side. Welcome back to the 1970s.
Just before they came on stage, Horslips rolled some familiar sounds from yesterday. There was "Whispering" Bob Harris introducing the band on The Old Grey Whistle Testand a doleful Richard Nixonexcusing his sins.
But there was also the old theme music from Gay Byrne's Late Late Showand someone telling Bunny Carr to "stop the lights" on Quicksilver.
This was pure nostalgia, that wistful desire to return to a former time and a former place. But with a very Irish twist.
All very appropriate because Horslips are very rock ’n’roll – with a very Irish twist. There’s more than a hint of The Grateful Dead and Jethro Tull fused (as they used to say in the 1970s) with Skid Row, Thin Lizzy and Seán Ó Riada.
Back in the day, the band wore technicolour dreamcoats, satin trousers and platform soles.
But tonight, Horslips are dressed in sober long black coats and sensible trousers. With a wonderful understatement, multi instrumentalist Charles O'Connor ranges across the huge venue and says "its been a long time". And then Horslips embark on a two and a half hour journey through their (and our) back pages. All the great songs are rolled out: Trouble with a Capital T, Furnitureand, of course, Dearg Doom.
These days the band includes only one full-time musician, guitarist Johnny Fean. The others are radio producers, film-makers and the like. The O2 is one of just two comeback gigs – they played another sold-out show in Belfast’s Odyssey Arena last week.
It’s clear the band need to get re-acquainted with the concept of mass adulation. Never in the history of rock ’n’roll has an audience been thanked more often than on Saturday night. But then, I can think of few gigs where there was such a warm communion between band and audience.
Back in the 1970s Horslips sprinkled a little stardust on a grey, inward-looking city. They were bona fide Irish superstars; the lads from Dublin, hanging out with Sting and the Police and the Blue Oyster Cult in LA or Detroit.
On Saturday, they were again working their magic at a time when we would all do with a little stardust. After a memorable gig, the band encored with a blistering version of Johnny Kidd and The Pirates' Shakin' All Over.
“Quivers down the backbone, I got the shivers down the thigh bone.”
It’s not just a rock ’n’ roll classic; it also reflected the joyful exuberance of the crowd as they melted away on Saturday night.
As we left, Seamus Heaney, who was sitting alongside, described the gig as a “triumphant return”. Even allowing for the family connection (Heaney is related through marriage to Horslips vocalist Barry Devlin) it was the correct assessment.
Horslips have recaptured the fire.