Friends In Time - The Golden Horde, 1987

Saint Valentine’s Day music with The Golden Horde who perform ‘Friends In Time’ and bring a little romance to the streets of Dublin.

Short of cash, the band decides to busk on Grafton Street and perform their song ‘Friends In Time’. Having purchased the traditional Valentine’s Day chocolates and flowers, they are given to pedestrians on Grafton Street generating smiles and surprise in equal measure.

Lead singer Simon Carmody describes the band as,

A semi-mystical musical conglomerate based in equal parts around melody and creativity, and a certain moronic genius, I feel that this is something we created, it’s our own thing.

Where does Saint Valentine’s Day romance fit into all this? According to Carmody,

I feel that each person has an inner romance of the mind, they’ve got to feel in their own deeply personal and very intrinsically spiritual fashion, and we’re basically trying to bring that out in people...

The band moves on to Saint Stephen’s Green, where they meet Shay Healy, discover a message from a mysterious admirer, and are generous with their Cadbury’s Roses.

The Golden Horde are Simon Carmody, Peter O’Kennedy, Des O’Byrne, Sam Steiger and John Connor.

This report for ‘Evening Extra’ was broadcast on 20 February 1987.

‘Evening Extra’ was a nightly magazine programme which ran from Monday to Friday at 7 pm dealing with current issues and people in the news. The first episode was aired on Monday 13 October 1986 and it ran for 278 shows over 2 years until the final show on 29 April 1988. The programme had numerous presenters and reporters including Siobhan Cleary, Richard Crowley, Bibi Baskin, Aonghus McAnally and Shay Healy.