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| Weasy (r) and friend before Horslips concert circa early 1976 |
| "I steal into your cities And pity the sleepers who say Time can't slip away. Light streams out from your doorway Your stairway is waiting to climb Then your sunburst's mine." |
| Johnny Fean and Green Gravel Ned Natterjacks in Kerry 21 August, 2004 |
| Steve Travers and Green Gravel |
| (from l to r) Adam Clayton, Barry Devlin and Cunnus Fort Lauderdale, March 2001 Backstage at U2's Elevation Tour |
| Dean and I immediately took Horslips to our hearts. Dancehall Sweethearts was the first Lips album we heard in its entirety, and we quickly found and bought the previous ones, plus the newer two or three.
Dean leaned more towards the folk tunes side of things, while I (being into the Beatles) was taken by their use of harmony and guitar riffs. We saw that this one band offered so much to both of us, and I guess that influence has stayed with us ever since then. The release of Book of Invasions was a major milestone for us. We clung to that album like it was the Holy Grail and when we finally got to see Horslips at the Rainbow in November 1977, it was the ultimate experience for us at the time. |
| When I moved to Essex from London at the age of 13 in the summer of 1976, I immediately fell in with a new crowd of friends, some of whom had similar musical aspirations. One of them was Dean Hobbs who had an older brother called Peter. Both Dean and I were influenced by several of Pete's albums, mainly by Steeleye Span, Tull and this interesting Irish band, Horslips. |
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| July 11th, 1975
: “Moira, Shona, Jennifer McKenna, and I went to see Horslips in Borderland. They were all fantastic. They’ve all got their hair cut, except Eamon Carr the drummer, whose drumstick I have now got, signed by the all. Charles O’Connor was gorgeous. He wrote Love to Louise XX as well as his name on the stick.” |
| "That was the first time I ever met Johnny, I fondly remember, this is true, shaking when I was talking to him, the second time I did meet him I nearly fell off my chair. That was the best gig I was ever at, the place was literally full up to the rafters. I remember leaving feeling like nothing compared to him." |
| "Steve is probably the finest bassist I have ever come across, the way Johnny and his own counterpoint kick precision. But seriously, he is one of the greatest guys in music. They both have "taken me under their wing" if you will, musically, and I will always be grateful to them for what they've done for me. " |
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| (from l to r) Steve Travers, Johnny Fean and Joe Forde Island Music Club, Crusheen, County Clare |
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| "I know it's hard to emulate half a grand and upwards worth of kit but it is a convincing enough attempt at a fraction of the cost. Unless you have a contingent of sound technicians and guitar roadies at your beck and call it's a handy device. I'm not a gizmo connoisseur but can see that it could be effective for those with limited resources. In saying that, it's still worth putting in the time and effort to tweak the pre-sets to get more authenticity.....or ram raid the local music store!" from the Guestbook 27 October 2004 |
| Unknown Guitarist from Strabane |
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| "Imagine Charles had used a big foot instead of a hand on the cover of 'The Tain'. Or a big earhole on 'Book of Invasions'. And instead of a concertina template for HTMSTP he used instead a tambourine. Their faces superimposed onto the cymbals around the edge and the whole centre die cut out. The vinyl would fall out for one thing. Merciful jesus!" from the Guestbook 18 June 2004 |
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| We'll try to keep these annoying Internet advertisements to a minimum! |
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| It's when the whole becomes greater than the individual parts- each part playing off the emotions of the other and those of the audience. It's lovely when that happens and I believe that is when music becomes truly spiritual and inspirational- it's no longer about technique, theory, practice as these have come before- it's about spontaneous emotional expression and deep primeval communication- it's sexual in intensity, deeply moving and exhilerating. |
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