Review by Brad Balfour
Title: Pure Gold: Memorable Conversations with Remarkable People
Author: Eamon Carr
Publisher: Merrion Press
If there’s one idea applicable to this book, it’s that there’s more than one act in life. “Pure Gold” is perfect evidence of that notion. From being a noted musician with the fascinating Irish group Horslips, the writer, musician and art historian Eamon Carr became a widely published commentator on culture, arts and sports. When he was in Horslips, Carr co-wrote and recorded a series of innovative best-selling albums.
In addition, his published work includes “The Origami Crow,” “Deirdre Unforgiven,” “Foundation Song” and “Show business with Blood.” His dramas include “DUSK” and “CúChulainn Awakes.”
But it’s in his recent book, “Pure Gold,” that Carr transforms a series of interviews into a kind of memoir of his experiences, written as much with his personal touch as they are written to detail the people he’s spoken with.
Included in this book are interviews with many musical personalities who are no longer with us. These include classic pop/jazz chanteuse Eartha Kitt, Irish pup rocker Shane MacGowan and punk entrepreneur/performer Malcolm McLaren. In addition, there are interviews with several others in the arts who have passed on such as the Russian ballet master Rudolf Nureyev, the legendary author J.P. Donleavy and veteran writer Brian Behan.
Given that many of the people he interviewed are so notable, it makes these interactions even more worth a read since many of his interviewees are no longer with us and won’t have a chance to say anything more. But there are others interviewed here who are still among the living such as Irish actress Brenda Fricker and British artist Ralph Steadman. In any case, Carr does a great job of turning these profiles into real portraits of creative exchanges.
Born November 12th, 1948, Carr is from Kells, County Meath. He and Peter Fallon were among the founding members of a poetry and beat performance group called Tara Telephone in Dublin in the late ‘60s. He was both the drummer, and also published the quarterly literary journal, “Capella.”
Carr, Barry Devlin and Charles O’Connor met when working at Arks Advertising Agency in Dublin. They were cajoled into pretending to be a band for a Harp Lager commercial but needed a keyboard player. Devlin said he knew a Jim Lockhart who would fit the bill. The four enjoyed the act so much that they decided to be proper rock performers. They joined with guitarist Declan Sinnott –– Carr’s Tara Telephone colleague –– (and briefly, Gene Mulvaney) to form Horslips (originally Horslypse) in 1970.
The band went professional on St Patrick’s Day, 1972, and released a single, “Johnny’s Wedding”, on their own label, “Oats.” Sinnott left soon after, primarily due to his annoyance at the group’s having appeared in an ad for Miranda orange drink (shot in the grounds of Ardmore Studios, Bray, in Easter ’72).
Horslips designed their own artwork, wrote sleeve-notes and researched the legends that they made into concept albums. Through their label, they licensed their recordings to Atco, RCA and DJM for release outside Ireland. Unlike other Irish bands, they kept a base in Ireland.
On their first album, melodies were mostly traditional. Keyboardist Lockhart gradually mastered other instruments including uilleann pipes. Drummer Carr was on the Irish bodhrán. “Happy To Meet, Sorry To Part” was the fastest-selling album for eight years in Ireland.
So Carr is no stranger to the creative process, nor to fame as well. When he went on to his next act as a master interviewer, he could authentically tap into what it is to be creative, diggings out from his participants what gave them the creative spark. And this book is the result of many years of talk and rumination.