Besides Them and, perhaps, Taste, very little 60s Irish rock makes it into mainstream histories of the ‘golden decade’. Yet there were many more rockers making noise throughout Ireland, albeit largely cut off from the big record labels and media outlets that would have afforded them international exposure. Green Beat covers not just the groups from which Van Morrison and Rory Gallagher sprung to fame, but also Ian Whitcomb and Bluesville, the first Irish act to have a Top 10 hit in the US. Then there’s the Jimi Hendrixproduced Eire Apparent; the bands in which Phil Lynott and Gary Moore honed their chops; and psychedelic acts known primarily to collectors (Nirvana, Andwella’s Dream), not to mention folk-pop singer-songwriter David McWilliams (of Days Of Pearly Spencer fame).
Extensive first-hand interviews with musicians, promoters, and assorted scene-makers give an in-depth flavour of both the exhilaration of the era and the frustration of battling the entrenched all-around-entertaining Irish showbands for a share of the limelight. Even specialist collectors might not have heard the records or stories of some of the more interesting smaller bands given their due, such as Belfast’s Themlike Wheels and Dublin’s Creatures.
