John McKenna meets the men of Horslips
John McKenna meets the men of Horslips
John McKenna, 18 Oct 1979
Lipsos Vogue: Do you like the idea of rock'n'roll as a pose?
"As a piece of flesh that throws itself around on stage, then yes, very much. People I want to see have good shapes. I mean you want to see good shapes on stage, you want to see Jerry Lee Lewis wreck a piano. It's the best thing in the world to see shapes.
"There are bands who do it. I mean we've seen them in the States, bands like Blue Oyster Cult... such a fabrication, they're boring little runts. They're just boring timid little farts. Guys like Bachmann Turner Overdrive, huge, fat men - they claim to believe in a spirit of rock'n'roll, but I can't see how they do.
"The intimate rock'n'roller, the guy who plays juke joints, if you put him in a 2,000 seater it still works, those are the sort of shapes that work.
"If the shapes are authentic they work, but if they're not authentic, they're just fuckin' silly."
Onstage, Johnny Fean now has his Nugent backbends off-pat, clearly relishing even an old whore like 'Shakin' All Over'. Charles O'Connor is, of course, a posey old tart into standing in front of bedroom mirrors:
"I have recently because I've had my hair changed and it's fascinated me. A couple of months ago I was doing a lot of posing with a Grestsch guitar I'd got, sussing how high the strap should be. I'm allowed to now, it's not a cricket bat anymore."
No, more often a Telecaster, that animates O'Connor onstage as Horslips rattle and roll through six songs off the new LP, songs with more space and a new direction, extra gaps where they're needed. The packed house in Belfast, naturally, snuggled the old chestnuts to its sweaty breast, but I gave up an audience a long time ago.
They seemed entirely unaware of the kick in the band when a new number, let's take 'Richochet Man' because that's the only title I can remember, was unveiled, largely unappreciative of the new developments, and Charlie's excellent guitar playing. And it is very much O'Connor who seems to have upset the traditional Horslips cart, posing, preening and singing for all he's worth, giving something more to a combo who, at least on the evidence of my last viewing, were beginning to draw into themselves to an absolutely disastrous extent. It all seems fresh now, it's all fun once again. Sally loved it.
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