IT HAS taken 29 years of cajoling – but Horslips have finally made their comeback.
The band, which defined Celtic rock music for a generation in the 1970s, made their return to the Odyssey in Belfast on Thursday night. The last concert they played before that was in Belfast in October 1980. Tonight the band play the O2 in Dublin in front of what is hoped to be a sell-out crowd of 12,500.
“I was extremely happy Belfast was the first gig, but very unhappy it was the second last gig of the tour,” said bass player and unofficial band leader Barry Devlin, referring to the fact their comeback consists of only two concerts.
The band that took to the Odyssey Arena were Devlin, keyboard player Jim Lockhart, fiddler Charles O’Connor, guitarist Johnny Fean and his younger brother Ray on drums.
Devlin said the band had the “taste of meat” now and wanted to do more shows, but not mammoth tours of every dance and parish hall as they did back in the day.
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