rock

Hothouse Flowers

1 festival played

Dublin band who have carried gospel-soul fervour and trad Irish undertow through rock since the mid-eighties — Liam Ó Maonlaí singing like the room depends on it.

Hothouse Flowers formed in Dublin in 1985, growing out of busking on Grafton Street by Liam Ó Maonlaí and Fiachna Ó Braonáin. The band's music draws on soul, gospel and blues while keeping a foothold in Irish traditional music, with Ó Maonlaí also playing piano, bodhrán and tin whistle and singing in Irish as well as English.

Their debut album People arrived in 1988 and reached a wide audience, with "Don't Go" becoming their best-known song. The group has continued to record and tour across the decades, with periods of hiatus while members pursued other work, and remains known chiefly for the intensity of its live performances.

rock