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Horslips — At the BBC
(Madfish SMABX1296, 2022/2025, 4CD + DVD)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2025-09-05

At the BBC Cover art

Anyone who has followed this Irish folk-rock band through the years might be aware of a recent 35 disc box set (33 CDs and 2 DVDs) issued in 2023 titled More Than You Can Chew. It contained every album the band released to date, plus nearly a dozen live shows, archives, rarities, and solo projects by the band’s various members after their initial split in August 1980. A more appropriate title for the set would have been More Than You Can Afford, but one would think after all that material hit the market at once, the well would be pretty much dry. But the set contained none of the recordings they did for the BBC, so here we go again with five more discs (four CDs and one DVD) in a nice compact set housed in a hardbound book that goes through the history of the band as it relates to their BBC performances, studio, live and otherwise, several essays, and a tribute to the band’s late guitarist Johnny Fean, who passed away in April 2023.

The first CD documents the band’s earliest BBC recordings from 1973 and 1974, when their current album was The Táin, the first being a Radio 1 In Concert from February ‘74 featuring ten tracks, mostly from that album. If you like songs like “Charolais,” “Dearg Doom,” and “Trouble (with a Capital T),” you will hear several versions of each throughout the first three discs of this set, as well as short interviews and documentaries interspersed among the songs. There is a huge gap from mid-1974 through February 1979, apparently because the BBC wasn’t paying attention to the band during that time; disc two picks up with another Radio 1 In Concert set in early 1979 with outstanding performances of tracks from The Book of Invasions, Aliens, and The Man Who Built America. There are several discs in the aforementioned More Than You Can Chew set that are dedicated to live shows from ‘75 through ‘78, filling that gap, so if those ever get released seperately from the box I’m sure I will be one of the first in line for a copy or download. Disc two fast forwards to the reunion period that began around 2010. One of the interesting audio clips from this period is a 2019 collaboration with the trio Ulaid and most of Horslips, performing a version of “Sideways to the Sun,” which they included it on the DVD as well. Disc 2 wraps up with a 27 minute interview with the band in 2010. Those first two discs are by far the most engaging.

Disc 3 is a 2011 performance of Horslips with the Ulster Orchestra on a great selection of songs from throughout the band’s first decade. A lot of bands have recorded their material with various orchestras, from Deep Purple to Renaissance to Procol Harum to Caravan and many others, and in general the performances soften up the rock edge that built those bands’ original appeal, and here with Horslips it’s no different — the original folk-rock versions of any of these twenty songs had a lot more appeal than they do with an orchestra behind them in my opinion.  Besides, wasn’t this performance released already as Horslips & The Ulster Orchestra Live at the Waterfront Belfast? Yes it was; the difference is that Disc 3 of this set is the BBC broadcast mix that went out over the air. Not sure of the specifics of this vs. the version that was previously released, since I’ve never been able to find a copy. Still, it’s nice to hear these alternate versions of some of the band’s best songs.

Disc 4 is the bonus disc of the set. It doesn’t appear to have much to do with the BBC, as it contains the working mixes for the band’s final studio album of the 70s, Short Stories / Tall Tales, released in ‘79, and with the exception of a little acoustic gem titled “Rescue Me,” Horslips seemed to have completely abandoned their past and what made their music work so well. No fiddle, no pipes, no mandolin, no concertina, for the most part no flutes, and no Irish jigs and reels guiding their compositions and arrangements. That’s not to say it’s a bad album — there are some other fine songs here like “Guests of the Nation” and “Summer’s Most Wanted Girl,” but it could be the work of any other rock band of the day, like Foreigner or Toto. So with that said, we have here the working mixes, not demos, but what the members of the band were given to listen to as they prepared for the final mix stage. It’s not that much different than the final release, but it’s there, another piece of the Horslips history to enjoy.

The set includes a DVD, starting with five songs performed in 1974 and one from ‘79, before it jumps to the reunion period beginning in 2010, unplugged versions of “Trouble” and “Green Star Liner,” then the aforementioned collaboration with Ulaid, followed by a high quality audience recording of two tracks from the set with Ulster Orchestra (“I’ll Be Waiting” and “Trouble”). Following that, and closing the DVD, there is Ralph McLean interviewing keyboardist Jim Lockhart and bassist / singer Barry Devlin at the Horslips 50th anniversary exhibition at the Orchard Gallery in Derry City in 2004, roughly concurrent with the release of Roll Back and Music from an Exhibition. That interview goes on for about an hour and a half... Interesting, but probably not something one will revisit often. The book (it’s hardbound, with discs stored in the front and back covers and adjacent slipcase pages) contains a lot of interesting reading, including essays by Colin Harper, Ralph McLean, Mark Cunningham, Jeff Griffin, and a tribute to the band’s late guitarist Johnny Fean. It’s a fine package with something for everyone.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases, 2022 recordings

Related artist(s): Horslips

More info
http://burningshed.com/horslips_at-the-bbc_box-set

 

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