*"Like all the best ideas, Tir Na Nog were a complete accident, formed by two guys with absolutely nothing in common.Sonny Condell came from somewhere remote up in the Wicklow Hills and was steeped in classical music - the nearest he came to musical adventure was listening to Radio Luxembourg under the bed clothes. Leo O'Kelly, on the other hand, was a hip young beardered wonder from Carlow heavily into Hendrix, Velvet Underground, The Doors, Love and looking cool and groovy. Over two decades on, Mr. Condell and Mr. O'Kelly are still now at a loss to explain how or why it all happened, yet somehow, somewhere the oddest of odd couples came together to create a folk rock musical hybrid of startling ingenuity. It made them famous, if not rich, deposited them on some of the worlds biggest stages and effectively opened the way for a whole flood of Irish bands to follow.
It all came together in Dublin at the turn of the seventies. The Beatles were splitting up, psychedelia was coming to a nasty end amd topping the charts were the exciting sounds of Edison Lighthouse, Dana, Lee Marvin and Rolf Harris. A suitable climate for free expression.
Leo had been working in a mixture of various bands and showbands (playing everything from Clancy Brothers songs to Monkees and Tom Jones covers) when he stumbled across Sonny working in a sensitive duo with his cousin. Leo has already toured Britain and Europe with Donal Lunny during a brief spell with Emmet Spiceland the seminal group which provided the basis of Planxty) and in addition to giving him his first taste of playing genuine folk music, filled him with a desire to move to London to try and make it as a singer/songwriter. Sonny Condell, it transpired, harboured identical ambitions. They fell into conversation, discovered they were both budding songwriters and after jamming a bit decided to travel to London together. Within two days they'd got themselves a record deal. It couldn't happen now of course, but they just walked into Chrysalis Records, played a bit and were offered a contract on the spot!
They took the name Tir na nOg from a mythical land where gods live and you never grow old, and before they knew it they were off and running playing every folk club in Britain. They were also swiftly trotting off around the world on support tours with various heavy duty rock bands of the day, notably Jethro Tull, The Who and E.L.P. They even had a beguiling single 'I am Happy to be on this Mountain' which troubled the lower reaches of the pop charts. Always instinctive, whimsical and totally random in their approach to music, they were like no-one else around at the time, which had the advantage of separating them from the crowd, but the disadvantage of totally confusing the media, the industry and occasionally even their own audience. Two acoustic guitars, a tabla, a lot of hair and some WEIRD songs."
*** "Leo and Sonny arrived unannounced and with not even a place to stay in London on a sunny Saturday morning in May 1970, having saved £30 each, which they'd estimated would last them a month!... By the end of that day they had secured a two night weekend residency at The Bell on Petticoat Lane, a floor to sleep on(long term!)in Ealing, and a free demo recording sesssion in Soho which would secure them a contract with Chrysalis Records two weeks later!... A good days work!... By October they were playing The Royal Albert hall with Jethro Tull and Procol Harum as part of a British and European tour. They had in the meantime built up a very strong roots following on the London Folk Club scene with their timeless songs, close harmonies and engaging, between song banter, while Chrysalis organised the bigger concert and college tours around Britain and abroad. As well as headlining Tir na nOg gigs(with some interesting support acts including Richard and Linda Thompson,Supertramp,and Jasper Carott!)the pair found themselves gigging with some of their own heroes. Tours and concerts included gigging with The Who, Cat Stevens, T.Rex, Roxy Music, Elton John, The Velvet Underground and Hawkwind, to mention a very few. At one point Al Stewart, though quite a star himself, applied to join the band!
Their first album "Tir na nOg" was produced by the the legendary folk producer, Bill Leader. This achieved Melody Maker Album of The Month on it's release in 1971. Many radio sessions with the late,wonderful,John Peel followed, along with with Bob Harris and Kid Jensen shows... and even the great Alan Freeman was a self proclaimed fan. "
*"Tir na nOg made three albums between 1971 and 1974 before Chrysalis visibly lost interest in them, the early momentum faded and they retired back to Ireland to lick their wounds and pursue solo careers. Yet they were unquestionably ahead of their time and the progressive possibilities opened up by their third and final album certainly convinces Kelly now that they split up too soon. Some of the ideas that they were exploring were subsequently developed by others, including, it must be said, sampling! One of their tracks 'Cinema' liberally sampled from an old Henry Fonda movie. But their influence and their reputation remained strong during the ensuing years, even while Condell was working with another innovative Irish band Scullion and O'Kelly spent several years living in Amsterdam and London, sporadically re-surfacing to play solo gigs and to produce albums for others.
Yet there remained a nagging feeling in both their minds that they'd left some unfinished business behind with Tir na nOg. Which is exactly why in 1991 they decided to have another crack at making some sense of the elusive magic between them and Tir na nOg rose again. 'I can't explain it', says Leo now. 'As soon as we started to play it all slotted right back into place. I don't know why, but there does seem to be something quite special between us."
* Colin Irwin
*** John O'Regan...
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And thanks for accepting me! I remember your name well but had to refresh my memory as to what music you played! The early seventies was a magical time for me musically - there seemed to be no barriers to music at the time - jazz, folk, rock, blues all rolled into a tremendous vibe that left me feeling somewhat deflated when it all seemed to disappear very suddenly in '76-'77. I'm currently having a field day on My Space revisiting all those bands that I would have liked to collected LP's of but didn't have enough for money at the time!
Thanks Leo, glad you like the stuff. Great stuff yerselves, have been a fan for years! :) Hopefully catch one of your gigs over the summer. Take care, Bean
Wow, is it really you? I first heard you guys on a compilation album called The History of U.K. Underground Folk. It has slightly different versions of "Our Love Will Not Decay" and "Daisylady" than on your self-titled. Great stuff.
