The boys are back in town

Well, this may well be the last of the proper Bandfriday slots but boy are we going out on a high.  Thin Lizzy were probably the biggest band to come anywhere near The Liberties in the late '70s and if memory serves me correctly we had to travel to Antrim to see them.

Thin Lizzy were definitely a rock group but in-between the harder stuff (Rosalie, Jailbreak, Boys are Back in Town) there were ballads (Sarah - a tribute to his daughter) and the odd Irish folk song (Whiskey in the Jar), re-done in the Lizzy style, of course.   They enjoyed world-wide success for a few years.

This collection comes courtesy of The Brother and as usual, the lad done good (to use Football Manager-speak).

Phil Lynott, keeping it real

Phil Lynott was a Dublin man through-and-through (although he had actually been born in England, but we'll keep quiet about that) and lived the rock-star life - drink, women and drugs.  Unfortunately the life caught up with him and he died the rock-star death at the age of 36.

At this time we have the American Scott Gorham on lead guitar - and a pretty fine guitar he played too.  As you can see he had all the right moves: long hair, snazzy outfit and decent poses while he did his work.

By all accounts Phil Lynott didn't take easily to being a front man - although you would never have thought it at this stage in their career.  I seem to remember that particular night he had a sore throat and we were all a little disappointed at the number of ballads they played.  But on the plus side ballads usually mean time for some serious guitar solos...

The Brother even got a nice little sunstar coming off Phil's saxophone:

I wonder what Mr Gorham was playing here - he looks well into it, whatever riff it was.  Apparently he used a '59 Gibson Les Paul guitar, in case you were wondering...