Loudest Whisper grew out of an earlier band called The Wizards, who were formed during the 60's in Fermoy, County Cork in Ireland by singer/guitarist Brian O'Reilly. Around 1970 they changed their name to Loudest Whisper, to reflect their wish to mix their earlier folk-rock with the heavier music of the time. After a few years on the circuit they performed a folk-rock musical that they had written, entitled 'The Children Of Lir', and from it's first performance in January 1973 it was a huge success, leading to more performances and a feature on 'Tangents', an RTE Television current affairs programme. Spurred on by this success, O'Reilly wrote a second musical entitled 'Perseus', which featured a new member of the band, Gerladine Dorgan, who was still at school at the time, and it premiered at the Fermoy Youth Centre at Christmas 1973. Following the success of these performances, Loudest Whisper were signed to Polydor Records, and set about recording 'The Children Of Lir' album, and they also recorded their first single at the same time, with 'William B' being a tribute to W. B. Yeats. Both the single and the album were released in 1974, and 'The Children Of Lir' has since become one of folk-rock's most highly-regarded and sought-after albums, despite Polydor's lack of faith in it at the time. The following year was taken up with a third musical, 'Maiden Of Sorrow', although this was never recorded as a studio album, and so the only way to hear it is on a bootleg recording which was issued by Kissing Spell Records.
1977 saw some line-up changes, with bassist John Aherne leaving as he was unable to balance the live work with the band with his day job, but it also saw the release of the 'Rock 'n Roll Child' single, which was a hit in Ireland. In 1978 work began on building a recording studio, which was a joint venture between O'Reilly and a local music shop, and Fiona Studios opened it's doors in 1979, where the band recorded their next Irish hit single 'Magic Carpet'. In 1980 Polydor agreed that they could record a second album, as long as it included their hit singles, and so in 1982 they released 'Hard Times', featuring new co-lead-singer Bernadette Bowes, although they seemed to have got one over on the label, as it included all new material. However, between 'The Children Of Lir' and 'Hard Times' the band had been recording demos which they stored away, and since these have appeared on a recent box set we now find that they had more than enough material to release their second album a good six years before they actually did. By including a couple of b-sides, a track from the 'Perseus' musical, and some 1974/1975 demos we end up with a great folk-rock album, mixing some lovely folky moments with lashings of heavy guitar, just as they set out to do following their change of name. I think it hangs together really well, and it certainly proves that 'The Children Of Lir' was not a one-off, and that they had much more to offer if only their record label had shown a bit more faith in them.
Track listing
01 Wrong And Right
02 Danae's Song
03 Lord Have Mercy
04 The Wheel Of Life
05 You Said You Loved Me
06 Come Back Paddy Reilly To Ballyjamesduff
07 Children Of The Wild Wind
08 Wouldn't It Be Fine?
09 William B
10 Silent O'Moyle
