GREAT IRISH BANDS, PART 33: THE GOLDEN HORDE - THE CHOCOLATE BISCUIT CONSPIRACY
Dec 6th, 2008 by Conor McCabe
I saw the Golden Horde play only once, and that was in McGonagles off Grafton Street sometime in the late 1980s. I first came across them in Hot Press, especially during what I now know was their “Hotwire” years - 1983-86 - and was more than a little intrigued by their collaboration with Robert Anton Wilson, who was living in Ireland at the time. There are plans afoot to re-release all the Golden Horde’s early recordings, including the Chocolate Conspiracy. In the meantime, here’s the video for “100 Boys”.
The band’s WIKI ENTRY is here, while the wonderful unofficial band site is here.
For more songs, check out the group’s myspace here.
Enjoy.
Ye deserve a comment for bunging those up, Conor… Remember the GH alright - Ireland’s very own ‘Nuggets’ band, I reckon (30 years after). Wasn’t overly enthusiastic on them at the time - suppose I thought they spent more time getting dressed up/putting on the make-up than they did on the songs (was fairly widespread that in the 80s)…
Robert Anton Wilson - was living here for the taxbreaks, I assume ? Interesting character - along the same line as a few other wackos (Genesis P. Orridge, Wilhelm Reich, Lovecraft… )
Your post inspired me to go looking for Ireland’s own Cramps (the Gorehounds) - didn’t directly find them but found some other interesting stuff I might get a chance to post up on…
Robert Anton Wilson moved here in protest at Ronnie Ray-gun getting elected, and to check out his (and his wife’s) Irish roots. He also spent a lot of time here in libraries, reading Swift, Joyce, Beckett, Yeats and other Irish literary greats. Nothing to do with tax breaks!
(ref: Wagner, page 75, ISBN 1-56184-199-4)
The Golden Horde did some music for the original TCD stage production of RAW’s “Wilhem Reich In Hell”, and one of the songs is on the cassette (but not the LP) of the album. Guru Weirdbrain (better known as an Evening Herald journo and a member of Horslips under his real name!) put their album out in Ireland on Hotwire, his own label.
The Chocolate Biscuit Conspiracy happened in 1987 - 23 years ago!
So 2010 would be an apt year to get the reissues out.
The KLF (who also had a thing about the number 23 and were influenced by RAW: the Justified Ancients are in one of his books) started making music 23 years ago aswell.
[…] is it not that we’d eventually arrive at the Golden Horde. And not the first to do so, although note they were also namechecked here, but… nonetheless a band worth covering, and […]