Blue Nun
I’m afraid that I can remember absolutely nothing about this band and a quick search of the internet reveals nothing either. My guess is that they were perhaps a local band drafted in as support for Horslips, but I can’t really be sure.
If you are able to shed some light on the matter please get in touch.
Setlist: unknown
Horslips
‘The Unfortunate Cup Of Tea’ tour
Barry Devlin (bass, lead vocals) / Johnny Fean (guitars, vocals) / Charles O’Connor (fiddle, mandolin, vocals) / Jim Lockhart (keyboards, whistles, vocals) / Eamon Carr (drums)
What. A. Band! Horslips were Irish prog-folk-rock at its very grandest and the band had a strong reputation of delivering ‘live’ so when they played close to home it was agreed that we would go. But although York was on my doorstep, how were we to get there? I know that I didn’t go on a train, and a bus/coach was out of the question as it wouldn’t get us directly to our destination.
So the only conclusion can be that we went by car, but back then none of us could drive, had wheels or a licence, so who did the deadly deed? No-one seems to remember exactly but Steve Toal reckons that it was Neil Speight’s cousin Derek Stevenson who did the honours once again because Steve remembers him complaining about the difficulty in trying to find the college for a second time having been there just once before to see Heavy Metal Kids in June of the previous year.
There isn’t an official setlist for our gig, but judging by the one that I have found from a month earlier it would seem that the band were promoting their most recent 1975 album ‘The Unfortunate Cup of Tea’; unfortunately – pun intended – it wasn’t their best album, not by a long chalk; that accolade has to go to ‘The Tain’ closely followed by ‘The Book of Invasions’ which would be released later in the year. However, looking at that setlist, it was a really good mix of old and new material.
I
had ‘The Tain’, ‘Dancehall Sweethearts’ and ‘Happy To Meet…Sorry To Part’ on vinyl so I was very pleased to hear many of those songs, especially those performed on O’Connor’s fiddle – the jigs and reels of ‘Silver Spear’, ‘High Reel’ and ‘Rakish Paddy‘. But the highlight for everybody was, and will forever be, ‘Dearg Doom’, with its ace introductory riff. This, the most highly awaited song of the night, was always held back for the encore, just to keep the audience waiting, because we all knew that it was coming; it was just a question of when, never if.
And so the evening ended and, I’m guessing, that we all poured back into Derek’s car (or van?) and toddled off up the A64, discussing the great music that we had just heard and seen.
If you never saw Horslips in their pomp in the 1970s, then I’m afraid that you missed a real treat!
Possible setlist: Mad Pat; Blindman; Silver Spear; High Reel; Stars; Hall of Mirrors; If That’s What You Want; Self Defence; Everything Will Be Alright; Rakish Paddy; King of the Fairies; Furniture; You Can’t Fool the Beast; More Than You Can Chew; Encore: Dearg Doom (Pavilion Theatre Dublin, 6th February)
Footnote: I have no ticket for this gig as it was lost when I chucked out my ‘Bands Book’ in the 1980s. Bugger. But here’s confirmation of the date from Steve Toal’s diary…
Gigs'n'Stuff 