Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Great to Phil the music again
New box set will have Thin Lizzy fans Dancing In The Moonlight
The tapes remind me of what an amazing songwriter he was BRIAN DOWNEY ON THE LATE PHIL LYNOTT
the lyrics to me first. He used to go to these poetry sessions in Dublin back in the late 1960s, along with Eamon Carr from the Horslips and the guys from Dr Strangely Strange, they were regarded as poets as well.
“Dublin was very vibrant back then with all sorts of impromptu poetry sessions going on. Phil would turn up at all sorts of places, with or without a guitar, to recite poetry or play music.
“Obviously, some of the poems turned into Thin Lizzy songs. But initially he was regarded as a poet back in the day.
“His original poetry books are very hard to find so it is lovely to see the record company including them in the actual box set.”
Brian met Phil, who was born in England but living with his Dublin grandparents, at th e Chri sti an Brothers School in Crumlin in 1965.
The pair formed Thin Lizzy with former Them guitarist Eric Bell and for the next 13 years Phil and Brian were the only constant members in the band, recording 12 studio releases and a critically acclaimed live album.
Their singles, from The Farmer in 1970 to The Sun Goes Down in 1983, are all in the box set.
Brian keeps Thin Lizzy’s music alive with his own band, Live & Dangerous, but like all musicians his career has been hit hard by coronavirus.
He added: “We had a load of gigs planned in Denmark that have had to be cancelled until 2021. These are difficult times for all musicians but much harder for the younger guys coming up who don’t have a catalogue of recordings to fall back on.
“The recording industry is pretty bad at the moment and maybe this pandemic will change things.
“But I feel sorry for younger musicians because they have no audience to play to apart from on the internet.”
So it’s a good time to release a box set. But for Brian it’s more about the memories of his decades-long friendship with Lynott than the money.
He said: “I knew Phil for so long he crops up in my mind nearly every day. It might be something you hear on the radio, a track being played.
“He’s in my mind constantly and I’m sure it’s the same for the rest of the ex-members of the band.
“He was so much larger than life, he was a massive friend. He was confident, he was encouraging if you were down, cheering you up with his good humour in the car or in the tour van.
“He was an amazing musician to play with – myself and Phil were regarded as a really tight rhythm section. He could be hard, especially in the studio situation, he could be very demanding.
“But there was no animosity about him telling us what exactly needed to be done on songs. He was respected and that’s half the battle.
“The tapes remind me of how talented and what an amazing songwriter he was. He’s one of those guys who will always be respected, always be remembered as a great, great musician and a fantastic songwriter and a really, really good friend.”
Thin Lizzy – Rock Legends is available now from Universal Music.