'Why this, why now?' Horslips legend Jim Lockhart introduces More Than You Can Chew, the forthcoming definitive box-set collecting the music of the seminal Celtic rockers.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that when a band calls it a day you ain't necessarily heard the last of them. Horslips called it a day in 1980 and then again last year, and now look: still not gone away. Not only that, we're back with a massive, limited-edition, retrospective box set. But first, if you've just joined us…
Watch: Horslips perform Trouble With A Capital T live at Cork Opera House in 1979
Previously in Horslips: phase one ran from 1970 to 1980 and produced 12 albums. (No slacking them times!) Phase 2 kicked off in the early noughties and - rather unexpectedly - produced an acoustic album, a live double CD and DVD, a documentary film and an orchestral set.
In between there was an extended tea-break of 29 years, during which the lads (I can say that?) busied themselves on other and varied fronts: drummer Eamon Carr is a journalist, sports pundit and art aficionado; bassist Barry Devlin writes for film and TV and graphic novels; multi-instrumentalist Charles O’Connor (already an art aficionado) became a dealer in antiques and musical instruments, and Johnny Fean continued to hone his guitar hero skills to even greater heights. And I worked until recently in RTÉ Radio, mostly with Dave Fanning. But everyone also kept a finger in some musical pie or other - hard not to - which brings us back to the box-set that’s coming later this year. It borrows its name from a track off The Táin, More Than You Can Chew. (In the planning stages it was known just as "The Enormobox".)
So what’s in it? Industry sources describe it as a "moxie-load" of stuff: 33 CDs and two DVDs, signed photos, and two books - a 'Lyricography' and the lavishly-illustrated 'On The Record’, written by Mark Cunningham, author of the band’s 2013 history, Tall Tales. There’s 14 original albums plus over 20 hours of previously-unreleased material gleaned from dusty old rehearsal cassettes, live recordings and radio and TV broadcasts. Not just previously-unreleased, but in large part previously-unheard, not just by the public, but by the band.
When an album comes out, the versions of songs that made the cut onto tape and into live setlists, obviously they're the ones that stay with you. So hearing long-forgotten half-explored ideas and alternative routes, different ways a song could have developed, is a novel experience. Some of the tapes had to go through a delicate retrieval process where they were slowly baked for a few days to make them briefly playable again. There’s a fascinating selection here of post-phase-1-Horslips music: from Charles, Eamon and Johnny there’s The Host’s Tryal album plus loads of alternative material; there’s Barry’s album Breaking Starcodes, Charles’s Angel On the Mantelpiece set and a varied collection of my own music for film, radio and TV.
Watch: Horslips perform Faster Than The Hound on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1974
Why this, why now? It’s all down to a Belfast mate of ours, Colin Harper. He’s a writer and musician and a Catherine wheel for enthusiasm. Check out his definitive book Irish Folk, Trad and Blues, or the stunning Titanium Flag album. Colin came up with the More Than You Can Chew proposal, put us together with the good people at Madfish Records and started the ball rolling almost two years ago.
March 17th 1972 was the release date of our first single, Johnny’s Wedding, so its 50th birthday seemed an appropriate launch date. 50 years, eh? On the one hand, Yikes. On the other hand, doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun? (Note to self: maybe have a bit less fun.)
More Than You Can Chew is released via Madfish on July 29th 2022 - find out more here.
