My older sister was Horslips CRAZY when I was a young teen, so I suppose I was predisposed not to like anything that she liked, but I always thought of them as chancers, acting out the rock lifestyle in imitation of the stars they saw in NME every week (much as I would have done, but I was 14). The music, whilst an original blend of rock and Irish trad, didn't send my pulses racing and in fact they seemed to ditch the "trad" later and went incredibly AOR, MOR and all those other horrible TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms). I mean, isn't "The Unfortunate Cup Of Tea" just the WORST album title you've ever heard? I blame Monty Python...
HOWEVER.......
...this is possibly the best music DVD I have ever seen. A documentary on the band that, at over two hours, gives the word "exhaustive" new meaning. Hours of extras including full length versions of the performances presented in snippets in the documentary (something that normally infuriates me) and beautiful packaging. Fantastic attention to detail - everyone involved should be thoroughly proud of themselves.
The five band members come across extremely well, from the gauche but honest Johnny Fean to the erudite Eamonn Carr. And I never realised Charles O'Connor was English! (From Middlesboro, the poor chap - no wonder he turned Irish!)
If you were around in Ireland in the early Seventies, this is an invaluable document. If you are a Horslips fan, you have struck the motherlode.
I really can't praise this highly enough.
