Customer Reviews

BBC Radio 1 in Concert

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this album on a whim, after a hard-working day. I already had a couple of their albums, but still wasn't quite prepared for this collection (from 2 different concerts, 2 different dates). What an alternately warm, rocking(!), moving and energetic set. Calling them the "Irish Beatles" is perhaps a bit silly, but it can't be denied that this is some of the finest Celtic/trad. Irish music ever recorded.

I have to disagree with several other reviews of this album- this is, for me, the best example of the masterful Bothy Band in full flight. The live setting removes the frequent over-production of great Irish musicians & almost every set on this record is excellent (a feat that 'After Hours', for example, cannot claim)

The combination of full-on jigs & reels (the opening 'Martin Wynne's' set being a good example), poignant & funny songs and pensive instrumentals (eg 'The Maids of Mitchelstown') is unmatched in any other Irish folk record which I have yet heard.

Paddy Keenan's 'Bucks of Oranmore' is indeed a highlight, but the whole set offers more than the rest of the Bothy's back catalogue. This is one of THE irish masterpieces and is a perfect demonstration of exciting music which doesn't rely on production effects - just legendary musicians playing fine tunes. This is one of the best records made in any genre.

And it is still available directly from Green Linnet on CD for about thirteen bucks. Check it out.

The Bothy band is amazing...plain and simple. This album is everything the trad irish music lover could ever want. There are jigs, reels, laments...EVERYTHING. Grab your Guinness and put on your dancing shoes because this album will have you out of your chair and stepping all over the place!

If you've heard the rest of the Bothy Band's albums, you've heard most of this one -- it's a good recording of a live performance, so it captures both the band's verve and (alas) the whooping yahoos in the audience. However, the wonderful uillean pipe rendition of "The Bucks of Oranmore" is almost worth the price of the whole album. Worth owning, but don't start your Bothy Band collection with this one.