Currently listing 336 groups with many more to come!

The history of Irish rock music is quite amazing given the parochial attitudes and lack of creativity generally during the 60's and 70's in Ireland. Looking back on names like Van Morrison, Rory Gallagher, Thin Lizzy and U2, it is hard to believe these bands came from the same culture that spawned the showband era.

However, no discussion of Irish entertainment in the 60's, 70's and 80's would be complete without including the "beat" scene which developed in the country's major city's in the 1960's and eventually lead to a plethora of pop and rock bands coming from every corner of the country by the 1980's.

In Dublin and Belfast, before the rock bands there were the Beat groups. Sadly, many groups didn't last very long and members switched allegiances like musical chairs which also make a verifiable account of the period quite difficult.

Fortunately, for us, there was a person who basically chronicled the era on a regular basis for over a decade. Dublin D.J., Pat Egan, wrote a regular column in Spotlight magazine, the "bible" of Irish entertainment in the 60's and through the 70's until it's demise around 1979. The evolution of the era can be traced through the names he called his column.

Originally called "Beat" it became "Group Scene" in May, 1970, then "Heavy Sounds" in October 1972 and finally "Let It Rock" in October 1973. When Pat left the column in August 1974, it was renamed "Rock On" and written by Smiley Bolger, we think until the magazines demise. Of course, an examination of bands in England would show the same progression: from the Beatles to Led Zeppelin to Pink Floyd. But England did not have the same musical culture as Ireland by any stretch of the imagination, making the rise of Irish rock even more significant.

The Beat groups of the 60's played the same gigs, created the same stir, but just went by a different name than groups in the 70's. Outside of Dublin, there were few venues for rock groups and any original music was naturally compared to the rock gods of the era. Recording was an expensive proposition and few bands had the "bread" to record at Trend studios, or one of the handful of Dublin's other professional studios.

Irish beat/rock groups in the late sixties and early 70's all faced the same dilemma: to be successful they had to leave Ireland. Even though the country could produce world class rock acts, almost all of them were forced to go to England to gain recognition there, before they would be accepted at home. Quantifying the groups of the era is difficult as they tended to come and go with members shuffling between groups. Often groups would be launched to great fanfare, only to be gone a few weeks later. It was a fickle time and allegiances were formed and disbanded on a regular basis.

The first major breakthrough band in Ireland was "Them," featuring the the legendary Van Morrison. Formed in 1964, they were from Belfast which was official part of the UK and so they are often not thought of as an "Irish" band. It would be 1967 when a blues guitarist and former showband musician struck out in a new direction that Ireland would have it's first rock stars. Rory Gallagher was the guitarist and Taste was the band that rivaled even guitar god Eric Clapton's Cream for fans. Taste broke up in 1970 with Rory starting his own international solo career as one of the world's greatest guitarists.

Around this time, Horslips broke through initially with their experimental version of Celtic rock. They were possibly the first Irish based rock band to enjoy success in Europe without relocating to London, or the States. While they became huge at home, and toured extensively in the United States and England, super star status eluded them. They came together in 1970 and within a decade had broken up with Johnny Fean and Eamonn Carr forming the Zen Alligators, a short lived rock n' soul band that toured the ballrooms. Recently though, they have made a string of appearances together with talk of a reunion in the works.

It was probably Thin Lizzy that became the first major Irish rock band to conquer England while still (more or less) living and playing at home in Ireland. Their rocked up Irish folk tune, Whiskey in the Jar, broke in England while the band was still playing small gigs in Irish hotels and secondary schools. I first heard the number when they introduced it at gig in the Imperial Hotel in Sligo in January, 1973. However, on February 1, 1973, Phil Lynott, Eric Bell and Brian Downey were onstage at the BBC's Top of The Pops, alongside such international pop icons as Stevie Wonder (singing Superstition), Carly Simon (You're So Vain), and ELO (Roll Over Beethoven). Lizzy had arrived!

The coming of Lizzy, Rory Gallagher and Horslips, among others, led to an explosion of young rock bands on the fledgling Dublin rock scene as the seventies progressed. Critics of this era in Irish rock might suggest that one of the downsides of the reporting on the Dublin scene in publications like Spotlight, gave an undue amount of press dedicated to "up and coming rock bands" that were no more than "garage bands" (i.e., here today and gone tomorrow). In fact, in 1974, Don O'Connor, founder member of Limerick based Reform complained saying, "The magazine gives a false impression to rock bands around the country...They believe all these groups are the greatest thing going....yet they haven't got the price of a van." Harsh words from one of the era's most successful Irish based rock groups.

It still wouldn't be until the late seventies that things really began to change. Encouraged by the success of punk and new wave artists, Irish rock groups started coming of age. Local bands realized they could make records "as good," if not better than many of the punk bands in London. Bands like the Boomtown Rats (based in England), The Undertones (Belfast) and Stiff Little Fingers (Belfast) led the charge in 1977-78, taking their places alongside punk contemporaries like the Clash and Sex Pistols.

The introduction of Hot Press in 1979, gave further momentum to Irish rock's development. Hot Press gave alternative music it's own voice and it's own face. In much the same way Rolling Stone helped legitimize rock music a generation earlier, so Hot Press did in Ireland and never looked back. Of course, one of the drawbacks of having its own publication was the continuing problem distinguishing true rock talent with amateur "wannabee" rock bands that literally did little but rehearse, constantly switch members and play the occasional gig.

However, Irish rock really started making waves at home around this time, and bands started having significant success in Ireland without having to move to England. Arguably, the biggest success enjoyed by a group around this time in Ireland was Bagatelle's huge hit, Summer In Dublin, in 1978 which took the country by storm. Not since the days of Thin Lizzy and Horslips, had a group been so successful at home. Although it is difficult to categorize Bagatelle and their leader, Liam O'Reilly as rockers, they were still part of the Hot Press crowd--rock bands at heart. Liam went on to represent Ireland in Eurovision some twelve years later and placed a very respectable 2nd.

Following on the heels of Bagatelle, groups like The Blades, Mama's Boys, The Lookalikes, Stepaside (originally formed in the mid 70's), Reform, and many others had hit records in Ireland. The irony though, was that with success, they joined their ancestors, the showbands, playing in the ballrooms and dancehalls which dotted the countryside and cities of Ireland. "This week, Big Tom-next week, Mama's Boys!"

Little did anyone realise that during this period (around 1976) a group of four young Dublin lads were getting their act together. Known originally as "Feedback," the band burst on the Irish scene in 1978 and never looked back. U2 became not only the biggest rock group ever to come of or Ireland, but it has been argued, they are the greatest rock band in the world.

Of course, Irish rock continued to grow in both stature and influence as the eighties rolled on. Sir Bob Geldof's Live Aid concerts in 1985 were truly significant and revolutionized the social impact music could have across in the world...a trend that continues to the present day.

Since this website is dedicated mainly to bands that played in Ireland, up until 1985, a discussion of Ireland's continuing prominence in the world of rock through the 1990's and into the 21st century is beyond our scope. For the moment, we will leave that task to someone else.

Needless to say, when Thin Lizzy took to the stage in the Imperial Hotel in Sligo in the winter of 1972 and played their "new single, Whiskey In The Jar," few in the hall that evening could have ever imagined what would happen next!

Long live Irish rock!

Photos- A-C / Photos- D-H / Photos I-L / Photos - M - Z