After the break-up of Horslips in 1980, bass player/singer Barry Devlin began work on a solo concept album based loosely around the signs of the zodiac. The result was Breaking Star Codes, released through RTÉ Records in 1983. There was a who’s who of musicians involved in the album, including Greg Boland, Paul McAteer, Brian Masterson and Roger Doyle from Supply Demand & Curve, Garvan Gallagher from Metropolis, Steven Travers and Tommy Lundy of The Crack, Honor Heffernan and Tommy Moore. Most prominent of all was Devlin’s Horslips colleague Jim Lockhart. The album cover featured a painting by Roger Dean, a name synonymous with ’70s prog rock artwork.
The songs are in a soft rock vein, and may not have been what Horslips fans were expecting. Indeed, the self-effacing Devlin writes in the sleeve insert that he would have preferred eight songs but there are twelve zodiac signs to be referenced, and also that the zodiac narrative link through the songs is fairly tenuous. Many years later he joked that the album only sold 14 copies despite making the Irish charts. Nevertheless, fans of his former (and now revived) band may find this of interest. Devlin & Lockhart collaborated again with RTÉ in composing the iconic theme tune to the long-running rural drama series Glenroe. Breaking Star Codes remains Barry Devlin’s only project as a solo artist.
RTÉ promoted the album and filmed a television special titled ‘The Star Codes Project’, recorded in June 1983 but not broadcast until March 1984. Although this remains locked in the vaults for the time being, the promo suggests an intriguing mix of mimed performance and interpretive dance – surely worthy of another airing!
Barry Devlin – Breaking Star Codes (192 kbps):
- Twins (Gemini)
- Who Can Tame The Lion (Leo)
- It’s The Cruellest Sign (Virgo)
- Remember You’re A Winner (Aries)
- When Two Stars Collide (Sagittarius)
- Just Another Line (Pisces)
- Let The Scales Decide (Libra)
- December 21 (Capricorn)
- The Stars Said (Taurus)
- Remember A Star (Cancer)
- Aquarian Girls (Aquarius)
- Love With A Sting In It’s Tail (Scorpio)
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There’s remarkably little online about early-’70s Dublin group Spice. The Irish Rock Discography suggests that they evolved from ’60s group The Cyclones, and that band member Jimmy Mullen was the uncle of U2’s Larry Mullen. The same site reveals a possible second EP single and a various-artists compilation album which nevertheless featured Spice as the main attraction. I don’t have these, unfortunately (at least not yet). But this first single reveals a laid-back maturity that promises much from the rest of their output. Notably, Jackie Hayden was centrally involved in their career, both as producer and occasional songwriter. He had already overseen a great single by The Urge, and would go on to work on the Falling Asunder project and Reform‘s first album, arranging U2’s first record contract along the way. The ‘A’-side here has a lovely west coast rock vibe, not quite Jefferson Airplane standard but maybe Moby Grape? The flipside is a gentle soft-rock ballad. Both feature some really nice vocal harmonies, and the playing and production are wonderful, especially in comparison to much of what was being released at the time in Ireland.
- Last Year
- Looking My Way
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You read about bands like The Drifters or Fleetwood Mac; how their managers owned the rights to their successful brand name and could therefore attempt to replace the entire line-up, but you probably don’t expect that kind of thing in County Mayo. Time Machine were formed in Kiltimagh (incidentally, the town that supposedly gave us the word ‘culchie’) in 1969. They were singer Gabriel Henaghan, guitarists Seán Holleran and John Walsh, bassist John Higgins and drummer Paddy Glynn, and they were managed by local teenager Louis Walsh (was he related to John Walsh?). Gigging for about a year, the original members began to drift away, first with Joe Joyce replacing Glynn. Eventually, Holleran and Joyce rebuilt the band as a power-trio in 1970 with bassist Gerard McLoughlin. The band won a respectable following over the next few years, playing nationwide and even – significantly – supporting Status Quo. When the opportunity came to record a single, it was a Quo cover that was selected for the ‘A’ side – Francis ‘Mike’ Rossi’s ‘Railroad’. Producer Bill Somerville Large mixed in some steam-train sound effects for emphasis and the group rip through some tight, punchy boogie-rock. The ‘B’ side was ‘Going Down Down Down’ – written by Don Nix (as ‘Going Down’), but probably owing more to a then-recent cover by Chicken Shack. Here, the trio are even deeper into the rock groove, with distorted sludgy guitar surging like a chainsaw.
This promising first single came out in late 1972 but early the following year the band abruptly split up. Manager Louis Walsh was by now also involved with a Dublin rock group named Freeway, but rather than build up their name recognition from scratch, he persuaded them to rebrand as Time Machine. The ruse was discussed openly in the music press at the time, but nevertheless seemed to pay off as the new band picked up plenty of bookings, including supporting the Quo again. Freeway were singer Austin Smith, guitarist Pat Savage, bassist Sean Creighton and drummer Derek Teeling, but within a few months Smith and Creighton were replaced by bass player Kevin Jennings to restore the trio format. About a year after the first one, a second Time Machine single was released in late 1973. ‘As I Roved Out’ was a tip of the hat to Celtic Rock. And why not, considering the recent success of Horslips and Mushroom, and of Thin Lizzy’s first international hit single. ‘B’ side ‘Leaving Lady’ was the first original composition released under the Time Machine name, a guitar-heavy blues rocker. The single made it into the Irish charts.
Whatever the nature of the original group’s split, Seán Holleran and Joe Joyce were performing together again by early 1974 under the name Bratt, along with bass player Tom Mylett. Bratt don’t appear to have lasted long, and the new Time Machine had themselves lost momentum and split in either 1974 or 1975. Louis Walsh was by now preoccupied with guiding the careers of pop groups like Chips, and would go on to make hay with Johnny Logan, Linda Martin and a succession of boy-blands. But there was another twist in the Time Machine story.
Derek Teeling from the last line-up brought the Time Machine name back from the grave a second time around 1978, without Louis Walsh’s involvement. Teeling on drums was joined by singer Annie More, guitarist/vocalist Chris Hand, bassist Tommy Smith and keyboard player David ‘Knobs’ Jameson. A third Time Machine single came out – ‘Never Met Suzi’. It’s not shared here, although the curious can find two of its three tracks online. This final phase was marked out by Rezillos-style high energy new wave courtesy of Hand and slower material from Jameson. This band seems to have petered-out during 1979. So that was it – a group name passed on like a baton through three – or arguable even five – distinct bands. Some talented musicians passed through the ranks but I don’t know that any of them made any more records. The evidence from the first two singles, though, suggests that either trio could have made a great heavy rock album.
Intriguingly, when interviewer Brendan Courtney decided to reunite Time Machine for Louis Walsh in about 2005, it was John Walsh, John Higgins and Paddy Glynn from the very first line-up who were selected to deliver an acoustic ‘Proud Mary’.
- Railroad
- Going Down Down Down
- As I Roved Out
- Leaving Lady
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The Irish Rock Discography reports that the original name for this band was ‘Ned Spoone and the Safari Elephants‘, formed in south Dublin in 1967. That group broke up in 1971, after which a new line-up was put together by guitarist Alan Grundy. Among the new recruits was singer Reg Walker, formerly of the rather good Love Street. It was only this heavy rock version of the Spoone which actually released any recordings – one single each in 1972 and 1973, on the PYE and Play labels respectively. Unfortunately, the first single has so far eluded me, but it consisted of covers of the James Gang’s ‘Walk Away’ and Humble Pie’s ‘Red Light Mamma, Red Hot!’ – both heavy blues rockers, which will give you at least a sense of the where their heads were at.
The follow-up paired another Humble Pie cover with a group composition, but the song titles on the disc label were switched around in error. The production (by the band themselves) is perhaps a little too murky to do them complete justice. Or maybe it’s just this scratchy copy? The guitar solo on ‘Four Day Creep’ comes through loud and clear though, and is worth a listen. ‘Look to your Soul’ is an organ-heavy pop/rock number with some unusual, but presumably intentional, choices in the production; a double-tracked guitar is constantly a fraction out of time with the rest of the instruments, giving a weird echo effect which is both grating and intriguing in equal measure. The group broke up permanently around 1974. Like many bands of this period, a solid knowledge of contemporary heavy rock was not enough to secure a lasting career on the Irish scene.
Ned Spoone – Four Day Creep (192 kbps):
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Hot on the heels (well, within a year) of their first came the Bogey Boy’s second, and so far final, album: Jimmy Did It! in 1980. And Jimmy does indeed get most of the limelight here, from the great caricature sleeve (by Paul Ellis) to all six original song credits. The remaining songs are made up of two Fleetwood Mac covers and one each from Connie Francis and Sonny & Cher.
The addition of a brass section (not to mention the wonderfully-named backing singers ‘The Pointless Sisters’) on the recording sessions brought a change from the band’s previous output. There’s a laid-back soul vibe on ‘The Word Is Out’ and ‘Who’s Sorry Now’. ‘Long Grey Mare’ (misspelled on the record label) is reinterpreted as easy listening blues, while ‘Stop Messin’ Round’ is stripped back to piano. The rest of the tracks offer melodic AOR, the best of which is ‘Never Let Up’, but only on ‘Do The Buzz’ is there a taste of their earlier rock sound.
The Bogey Boys – Jimmy Did It! (192 kbps):
- 01 – The Word Is Out
- 02 – Blind Eye
- 03 – Who’s Sorry Now
- 04 – Never Let Up
- 05 – Bang Bang
- 06 – Long Grey Mare
- 07 – Do The Buzz
- 08 – Trouble
- 09 – The Emigrant
- 10 – Stop Messin’ Around
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In the mid-1960s members of the Young Dublin Singers were auditioned in the Gaiety Theatre (by either producer Fred O’Donovan or owner Eamonn Andrews), in a search for backing singers for studio recordings by the showbands and pop groups of the day. The Young Dublin Singers had their origins as the school choir of St Louis Convent in Rathmines. Three teenage girls were chosen and it was soon suggested that they should become a pop group in their own right. They were Irene McCoubrey (known as ‘Mac-C’ or ‘Maxi’), Barbara Dixon (‘Dick’) and Adele King (‘Twink’).
As Maxi, Dick & Twink, they toured Ireland and the UK between 1967 and 1970 and continued to be employed as session singers. They also recorded the singles ‘Things You Hear About Me’ and ‘Tangerines, Tangerines’. At the end of 1970 the trio were invited to join Irish pop group The Bye-Laws on an extended tour of Canada, billed collectively as ‘The Toybox‘. The grueling tour was a disaster and broke the girls’ professional relationship; Maxi and Dick left the tour in early 1971, while Twink continued as a featured singer with The Bye-Laws for a few more months.
Back home, singing star Brendan Bowyer left the Royal Showband to set up his own group, ‘The Big 8‘, and Twink sang with this and the spin-off Paddy Cole Band for the rest of the decade. Twink also had solo projects and was in the running to represent Ireland in the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest. She went on to become an all-round entertainer and an institution in Irish panto. Dick briefly sang with the Royal Showband before moving to Canada, where – now using her married name Barbara Law – she became an actress and released a pretty decent disco album (Take All of Me) in 1979. Maxi joined folk singer Danny Doyle’s Music Box but, like Twink, had parallel solo ambitions and was the Irish representative in the 1973 Eurovision (notwithstanding some last-minute wobbles). Her entry, ‘Do I Dream’, was released in multiple European territories by Decca Records. Follow-up ‘Young Love Is Afraid Of To-Morrow’ [sic] was co-credited with her imaginatively-named backing band, Maxi and Company. By 1978 Maxi was back with a new trio, ‘Sheeba‘ – as detailed elsewhere on this site – and subsequently became a prominent DJ on Irish radio.
Given the later success of all three singers, it may be surprising that only one brief reunion was staged, during a 1982 episode of Twink’s eponymous TV series. But their vocal harmonies actually worked really well together – check out ‘The Sweet Eye’ or ‘Catch The Bride’s Bouquet’ in particular. Unsurprisingly, Euro-pop is the general theme running through these songs, with ‘Things You Hear About Me’ and ‘I Got Dreams To Dream’ probably the the most Eurovisiony of all. There’s some great production and orchestral arrangements in the mix too. Pick of the litter, though, is ‘Tangerines, Tangerines’ – irresistibly upbeat, with hip staccato guitar and delightfully gibberish lyrics.
Maxi, Dick & Twink – The Singles (192 kbps):
- Maxi, Dick & Twink – Things You Hear About Me
- Maxi, Dick & Twink – Catch The Bride’s Bouquet
- Maxi, Dick & Twink – Tangerines, Tangerines
- Maxi, Dick & Twink – The Sweet Eye
- Twink – It’d Take A Miracle (live INSC)
- Maxi – Do I Dream
- Maxi – Here Today And Gone Tomorrow
- Maxi – Do I Dream (live ESC)
- Maxi & Company – Young Love Is Afraid Of To-Morrow
- Maxi & Company – I Got Dreams To Dream
See Also:
Irish Showbands.com: Maxi, Dick & Twink
Irish Showband & Beat Group Archive: Maxi, Dick & Twink
And although it’s arguably beyond the parameters of this site, do yourself a favour by visiting Dick’s disco:
It’s hard to get a handle on the legend of Sleepy Hollow, save to say that they were from Cork and that guitarist Bill O’Brien seems to have been the mainstay of the changing line-up. They supported Rory Gallagher on tour, but mostly they built up their blues-rock fan-base in their home city across the 1970s. The band released just one single – on their own label, by the looks of it. ‘Come On Joe’ was written by bass player Johnny Rice and supposedly aimed at their roadie Joe O’Herlihy. Through the medium of hard rock, Joe is urged to help the band get on their way to their next gig. ‘B’ side ‘Sad Affair’ came from O’Brien; a boogie rock number that would have fit in with the pub rock of the day. It’s a snapshot of their live shows and a hint at what a full album might have had in store.
After the band ground to a halt, both Bill and Johnny ended up in Hot Guitars – another mainstay of the Cork scene, led by singer Joe O’Callaghan. Sleepy Hollow reformed in 2019 – initially for a tribute gig after the death of Johnny Rice, but subsequently as a going concern. Now with Joe O’Callaghan and Johnny Campbell, the band played a string of dates before the music industry was put on ice. Below is their performance at the festival dedicated to their old friend Rory Gallagher.
Sleepy Hollow – Come On Joe (192kbps):
- Come On Joe
- Sad Affair
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Irish Rock Discography: Sleepy Hollow
Got to say this again – by all means share my vinyl rips on other platforms, but please be sound and don’t take all of the credit for yourselves. A lot of time and effort goes into digitising these rare records, not to mention spending the GDP of a small nation in collecting them over the years. A site link or even a namecheck would be appreciated.
Anyway, as detailed elsewhere on the site, Pierce Turner and Larry Kirwan – from Wexford – first played together as Aftermath, releasing a single in early 1971. ‘We Have No More Babies Left’ was written in response to the Bhola disaster, in which the deadliest cyclone in recorded history killed half a million people in present-day Bangladesh. The plaintive church-organ-driven song demands that God justify allowing such cruelty to happen. It also mentions an astoundingly long-lived Irish institution: “We’ll bring you a film of this catastrophe while you watch the Late Late Show in bed.” Melancholy ‘B’ side ‘Neck And Neck’ is a little ramshackle compared to later re-recordings. Moving to New York and emphasising their Irish credentials as Turner & Kirwan of Wexford, the duo’s next single (on the Thimble label in 1973) featured ‘Neck And Neck’ on the ‘A’ side, this time with the lush, McCartney-esque production it deserved. The altogether too brief flipside ‘When Starlings Fly’ is simple but gently charming.
However, the main focus of this post is the obscure ‘bootleg’ which forms the missing link between those singles and the excellent 1977 official debut album. The Irish Rock Discography reports that Bootleg was a limited-run private pressing which was sold at gigs and was probably also sent as a demo to record labels in search of a deal. The production code ‘TKLPS (‘Turner & Kirwan LPs’?) 1984‘ is a red herring, given it was apparently released in 1974. Despite being limited in numbers, there seem to be variations in the packaging – white labels vs green labels, some with publicity photos and typed biography inserts and others (such as this one, unfortunately) without. The sleeve was plain white with home-made paper labels glued on. Presumably, the contents were more consistent. What’s on offer? Well, the second version of ‘Neck and Neck’ (as far as I can tell) gets another outing. You also get alternative/demo takes of Absolutely… tracks ‘Warts and All’ and ‘Absolutely And Completely’, and an apparently live rendition of ‘Traveling People’ which is a revelation as to how their more complex material might have translated to the stage. There’s a jaunty but inessential run through an old Manfred Mann (well, Bob Dylan) classic, and the otherwise unreleased soft rock ballads ‘Float on the River’ and ‘Dusty Mansions’. ‘Menapia Man’ is the highlight though – a fragile and haunting reflection on days gone by. If you’re looking for more of the band’s 1977 album here you may be disappointed, but this was never really intended to be a standalone album. Yet for completists, this illustrates another step in the evolution of these two important Irish musicians, from orchestral pop to prog rock and on towards the new wave.
- Aftermath – We Have No More Babies Left
- Aftermath – Neck And Neck (In The Race Of Life)
- Neck And Neck
- When Starlings Fly
- Warts And All
- Absolutely And Completely
- Neck And Neck
- Float On The River
- If You Gotta Go (Go Now)
- Traveling People (live)
- Dusty Mansions
- Menapia Man (live)
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In one of the more unlikely musical transformations, photographic evidence shows San Bernadino‘s evolution through the 1970s from dickie-bow-clad showband to country-and-western combo. Along the way they shed members until they were just a four-piece; singer Barry Donovan, guitarist Don Murphy, bassist Richard Lucy and drummer George Drummond. After two late ’70s singles on the Ruby label the group moved to the Release label and signaled another change in direction: new wave pub rockers.
Here’s two of their singles from this period (both from 1981, in fact), although I’m missing at least two more. ‘Caught in a Trap’ is new wavey rock and ‘B’ side ‘Court Room Justice’ is bluesy AOR. Follow-up single ‘I’m a Headbanger’ is probably the band’s best remembered song, a frantic-riffing paean to a heavy metal fan who is ‘into Motörhead and Rainbow’. It’s backed with an uncomplicated rip through the Chuck Berry standard ‘Route 66’, aside from which the other tracks here were written by Don Murphy. The distinctive picture sleeve looks like it could have been lifted from a Marvel comic, but surely not? So were they a heavy metal band? No – no more than The Freshmen were a punk band based on their punk pastiche single, and funnily enough The Freshmen’s Billy Brown produced these singles. But it seems they were a decent rock group with a finger somewhat on the pulse and the initiative to write their own material. They dropped off the radar after 1982.
- Caught in a Trap
- Court Room Justice
- I’m a Headbanger
- Route 66
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It’s feast or famine here at the Rock Roots ranch. After two and a half years with only one post I’ve set myself the challenge of completing all of my unfinished posts for the site. And to make matters even more difficult I’m going to try to get them all out in 2021; St Patrick’s Day will be the 10th anniversary of the site, hard as that is to comprehend. Let’s see how I get on….
To start, there’s a very convoluted history to the band that recorded ‘Yoko Ono’. The Irish Showbands website can fill in all the minute details, but suffice to say here that they began as The Agents in County Offaly in 1965. Later they recruited singer Gary Street (real name Joe Conway) and guitarist Mike Bryan. As The Fairways, they released a series of hits and misses, all of them written by the Conway/Bryan team. This ‘A’ side is probably not the best example of their output, to be fair, but it shows off some nice nice brass instrumentation and production. A gentle pop-reggae number about trying to “get to Skaville”(!), the name of our eponymous heroine is awkwardly shoe-horned into the lyrics as someone who’ll be waiting at that particular destination. Why is she in Skaville? Is John Lennon with her? Or the rest of the Beatles? Who knows, but Gary is anxious not to keep her waiting too long. Just for context, this single was released in the same month (July 1969) as John & Yoko’s ‘Give Peace A Chance’, so it was a name on many people’s lips. ‘B’ side ‘I Don’t Care’ is a rather old-fashioned Music Hall number that you could imagine as an obscure Herman’s Hermits ‘B’ side. ’nuff said.
Deferring again to the Irish Showbands biography, the band split towards the end of the same year, and Mike Bryan was killed in a car crash just a few months after that, aged just 25. Gary Street joined another group who adopted the name ‘The New Fairways‘ in the early 1970s before gradually evolving into The Duskeys – an early vehicle for country singer Sandy Kelly. Gary, meanwhile, sang on the English circuit for many years but died in 2003. Here they are in happier times and with a distinctive and – for the Irish pop scene – quite arty picture sleeve.
The Fairways featuring Gary Street – Yoko Ono (192kbps):
- Yoko Ono
- I Don’t Care
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Rock Roots: The Irish Rock Music Archive 