Godfathers of Celtic rock Horslips were a highly appropriate and welcome late addition to the roster of this year's Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow. Having reformed as a live act in 2009, the band have completed two short but highly successful tours of their Irish homeland, but tonight marks the band's first appearance on the UK mainland for over thirty years.

I was lucky enough to have attended the band's fantastic show at Dublin's O2 in December, a grand affair in a 14,000 capacity venue where the band were augmented with a brass section and female backing singers. Tonight's show is by comparison a more intimate and stripped down affair. Glasgow's wonderful Old Fruitmarket venue has a capacity of 1,200, and there was no brass or backing singers, so it was down to the five members of the band to weave their Celtic magic. Of the five original members, four remain - Charles O'Connor, Barry Devlin, Jim Lockhart & Johnny Fean - with drummer Eamon Carr, still a member but currently unable to perform, being replaced by Johnny Fean's brother Ray.

A healthy contingent of diehard Horslips fans have travelled from all over the UK and Ireland tonight to join the locals in celebrating the return of Horslips and their unique fusion of traditional Irish music, progressive rock & hard rock.

The core of tonight's set is based around what many consider the Horslips' finest moments, 1974's 'Dancehall Sweethearts' and 1976's 'The Book Of Invasions'. After the traditional flavoured instrumental opener 'The King Of the Fairies', it's the hard rocking 'Power And The Glory' that really gets things going. Charles O'Connor takes lead vocal duties for 'Mad Pat' and 'Blindman', both from 'Dancehall Sweethearts', and 'The Tain's' 'Maeve's Court/Charolais', reminiscent of classic-era Jethro Tull, sees the band getting the audience singing along. A trio from 'The Book Of Invasions' follows in the shape of 'Ride To Hell', 'Sideways To the Sun' and the excellent 'Sword Of Light', which gets the audience dancing with its infectious rhythm and catchy guitar riff.

'Nighttown Boy', minus the brass section, once again goes back to 'Dancehall Sweethearts' before Johnny Fean steals the show with some sublime guitar work on 'Furniture', the Prog-tinged epic from the very first album 'Happy To Meet, Sorry To Part'. 'Furniture' has always been one of the best-loved Horslips tracks, but the band excel themselves with tonight's rendition which has never sounded so good. Fean's extended guitar solo was simply jaw dropping and Barry Devlin's vocals sounding on top form. This was a real highlight of the show. Johnny Fean takes the vocal lead for two excellent cuts from 1977's 'Aliens', 'Speed The Plough' and 'Sure The Boy Was Green', and 'The Man Who Built America', the only track to feature from the band's latter day more commercial rock era, closes the show in fine style with band receiving a rapturous reception.

Horslips return for an encore of two of their best-known and loved songs. 'Trouble (With a Capital T)', with its mega-catchy flute riff, is a delight, and is followed by the classic 'Dearg Doom' from '72's 'The Tain'. This is probably their best-known track, largely due to a classic performance of the track on The Old Grey Whistle Test, which really put the band on the map all those years ago. You can't fail to clap along wildly to this prime slice of Celtic rock at its best.

The band return to the stage one more time for the traditional set closer of the old Rock'n'Roll standard 'Shakin All Over', which brings an excellent evening's entertainment to a close.

This being Horslips' first live appearance outside of Ireland for over 30 years, it's understandable that the band showed a few signs of nerves at the start of the gig, which quickly disappeared as soon as they realised the enthusiastic crowd assembled here tonight were very much on their side. The set was slightly shorter than the Dublin set in December, with 'The Blind Cant Lead the Blind' and 'More Than You Can Chew' being omitted from tonight's set.

Horslips will always have a special place in the hearts of the Irish people, where they made a huge musical and cultural impact during the 1970's. Their profile outside of Ireland these days is significantly lower, but hopefully this first step outside of Ireland will encourage them to venture further afield and play some shows around the UK and overseas, where a whole new generation of fans await them with open arms. With the current resurgence in interest and popularity of classic & progressive rock, the time is certainly right for this unique and wonderful band to re-emerge.