Lizzy were introduced over the tannoy as “the next supergroup”. The Santa Monica Civic show was a real triumph. And does all that area of it, you know? I’m also very easy to recognise the darkie in the middle jumping around with the guitar, you know. You take a band that’s made up of arms, legs, bodies… I happen to be the piece that talks. Me and Brian have known one another since we were kids. It’s also down to our drummer Brian Downey. And then when we broke up – well, not many bands break up three times. You know, all the things that I’m worrying about now happened to us the wrong way. They were all going on about ‘the Irish traditional thing’. That was how far behind the press got on the band. Like an album and three singles after Whiskey…, man, you’d get people mentioning Whiskey… in interviews – and I’d go “Oh Jeezuz”.
But, you know, that’s Thin Lizzy summed up for you. The only place we seemed to be happening was on the street. I was conscious that the media saw that we didn’t follow up Whiskey In The Jar. You were actually conscious of that, then? But you still remember the bad old days, though, Phil? Remember being looked on as a token loser band? Thin Lizzy seem to be doing very well with girls now.
Knowharramean? And I think the girls do, too.” I love shots where the band look grassed. “I only want shots where I look ’andsome,” he said, smiling with a measure of irony. The frontman flicked through them, largely satisfied. Really a lot more thought has to go into it.Īt this point, Chris O’Donnell, Thin Lizzy’s co-manager, wandered over and handed Phil a set of photo contact sheets the band had taken at Disneyland the previous day. But on record – and with the pen – it’s almost for all time. It’s like, “Can I do it tonight?” And you can see when people like you. I can get the audience, but it’s for the moment. That’s the nice thing about being a live act. This guy ’ere in LA worded it in such a way that all of a sudden I’m on the defensive. I take it as a compliment when we’re compared, but I take it as an insult when it’s said I imitate him. Now I have to spend half me interviews saying “I’m not fooking Bruce Springsteen” and that I appreciate him but I don’t try to imitate him. A budding poet, eh? There’s a guy here in LA who’s written how I’m Bruce Springsteen. I’m more proud of that than, say, I was when the record got into the charts. For example, you’ve sold 10,000 copies in the UK of your book of poetry, Songs For While I’m Away. But you also certainly regard yourself as an artist, and not just in the field of music. Of course, much of that pretension came from such acts considering themselves as artists. Put screens and films on and hoped the audiences were tripping and that they’d get off on it.
The very harmful stage of the whole thing was when the bands just got up and just let it float. Well, I was a singer, right, and the 60s proved that melodies played in the rock idiom… That whole weird thing rock went through when the arrangements dominated – ELP, Jethro Tull and 10⁄ 4 time – was very harmful to rock because although there are a lot of good musicians, musicianship and melody don’t always have to be the same thing.
PHIL THIN LIZZY SERIES
And you seem to certainly believe in songs, as opposed to just getting up there and creating a series of sounds. I’ve noticed that you seem to believe almost passionately in a kind of total contact with Thin Lizzy’s fans. Lynott and Bob Geldof sing backing vocals for Blast Furnace And The Heatwaves, 1977.
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