Old blood, new life

It's not just the clocks that went back last week, with two of Ireland's most legendary bands releasing new versions of their old hits.

Almost 25 years after calling it quits, original Horslips members Eamonn Carr, Barry Devlin, John Fean, Jim Lockhart and Chales O'Connor have recorded a semi-acoustic album in Grouse Lodge, Rollback, which is due on November 26.

"We were always pretty loud and on the nail, 'cos we were hugely into performance," says Lockhart. "But when we were writing these songs all those years ago, they all had other possibilities, other musical paths they might have taken. So for instance, 'The Man Who Built America' has reverted to the waltz time in which it was originally written. 'Trouble' is a skinny blues lurch and so on."

Accompanied by a 16-page booklet, the collection is a mere hors d'oeuvres for their Return Of The Dancehall Sweethearts DVD rockumentary which follows in early 2005 and demonstrates where Justin Hawkins got some of his wardrobe ideas from.

Also giving their back catalogue a fresh lick of paint are The Radiators Plan 9 who are making their recent John Kelly radio session available as an EP.

Along with the three Mystery Train tracks – 'Kitty Ricketts', 'Prison Bars' and 'Enemies' - they've also included a rather nifty update of 'Television Screen 2004'.

U2 fans should note that the band's lead singer and graphic artist is Steve Rapid, alias Stephen Averill who put together the How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb sleeve.

While there's no new old material on it, Irish rock archivists will also be delighted to hear about the release of The Best Of Something Happens. An 18-track trawl through the volts, it comes complete with comprehensive sleeve-notes courtesy of Tom Dunne.