Horslips played a set of gigs in the Whitla Hall in Balfast on April 29th, 30th and May 1st 1980. Unfortunately this was the last appearance of a band I wish were around when I was at a gig-going age. It is one of only two live albums - the other being "Horslips Live". This one is definitely the better of the two.
It starts off with a slightly hurried, but well executed, "Trouble With a Capital 'T'".
"The Man Who Built America" is not very different for the original album.
"Warm Sweet Breath of Love" gets a new lease of life with an early eighties guitar sound.
"The Power and the Glory" also gets a bit of an update. It starts out a bit on the nervous side, but about half-way through the band seems to relax and start to have a bit of fun.
They do a very good job of blending quickly into "Blindman" which has some fantastic guitar work from Johhny Fean.
The next song, "Shakin' All Over", I don't think really fits in with the rest of the album. They don't really bring anything new to the song.
"King of the Fairies" has always been one of my favourite trad Irish tunes. They certainly do it justice. They liven (and rock) up the version which first appeared on Dancehall Sweethearts. This is the second-best tune on the CD.
"Guests of the Nation" is quite similar to the original which is perfectly understandable considering it was on their last album.
"Dearg Doom" is a work of art. They put everything they had into it and it is the perfect end to the album. It has even more of the trad feel about it than the original but the sound has been brought forward 7 years to bring it up to date. You can tell that Johhny Fean was listening to a lot of "Thin Lizzy" at the time from his 3-4 min. solo at the start.
| Martin Feeney | martin@tuatha.org | Last Modified: 05 October 1997 |