Noel Harrison

Makem and Clancy (1977)

Noel Harrison made two appearances on the music show hosted by legendary Irish folk musicians Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy.

The show aired for 11 episodes on WENH-TV in New Hampshire in 1977 and had not been seen again until the tapes were painstakingly restored by the Ward Irish Music Archives and released on their YouTube channel in March 2023.

The tapes include the only surviving contemporary footage in the public domain of Noel performing tracks from his classic 1979 album Mount Hanley Song.

Clips showing all of Noel's performances are below. To see the full shows, please visit the Ward Irish Music Archives' YouTube channel and their website.

September 25, 1977

In his first appearance on the programme, Noel performed two tracks from Mount Hanley Song - these were Southward Bound and Down on the Farm. 

Noel also played the Archie Fisher song Dark Eyed Molly, which he would return to in 2003, for inclusion on his album Hold Back Time.

The live recordings of Southward Bound and Down on the Farm are the only existing video recordings of Noel performing these tracks.

September 26, 1977

In his second appearance on the programme, Noel performed three tracks from Mount Hanley Song - they were Wild Child, Lilly and Middleton Fire Brigade.

Middleton Fire Brigade was still a live favourite, which Noel left in his set well into the 21st century, as shown on his 2002 album Live From Boulevard Music. 

The recordings of Wild Child and Lilly are again the only live recordings in existence of these tracks.

After he finished his performance, Noel was joined on stage by Makem and Clancy to take part in a performance of the traditional folk song The Leaving of Liverpool, which The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem had a top 10 hit with in Ireland in 1964.

Restoration

The Makem and Clancy programme was restored by the Ward Irish Music Archives after Tommy Makem gave them the original two-inch tapes of the show in the 1990s.

As the tapes had not been played for 20 years, they had to undergo a lengthy process of restoration which included being both soaked and baked so they could be played again.

As well as restoring the full shows for fans of Makem & Clancy, the work by the Ward Irish Music Archives has created an invaluable record of Noel Harrison's live performances around the time of Mount Hanley Song, documenting five of the album's 11 tracks.

The only other known live recordings of Noel from this period are in the CBS archives, where footage of him performing four more songs from Mount Hanley Song remains, but has sadly not been made available to the public.