I know Wishbone Ash too well to be impressed by Lizzy's twin guitaring
To me Wishbone Ash is boring stuff. I was just never moved by them.
I saw them at Arrow Rock Festival when we were opening act. And was in awe about their professionalism. But the music just doesn't do it for me.
Eric Bell was an artist with true feel, Gary Moore obnoxious (as he always is), Scott Gorham utalitarian but great-looking, Robbo authentic and with grit, Snowy White underrated and (too) tasteful and young John Sykes a puppy pissing erverywhere, but in honest enthusiasm
Agreed on most accounts. Except maybe the remarks about Snowy White. I don't think he's underrated. He's dead boring
The albums: Ill-served by production no matter what producer they got.
I actually like the production on Fighting, Nightlife, Johnny The Fox.
Never really liked the production of Chinatown and Thunder and Lightning though.
Live and Dangerous is their best studio album really
Yep. And totally unneccesary. Have you ever heard the King Biscuit recordings? They were broadcasted live and they are the original undoctored recordings.
Apart from a few off key backing vocals the band is perfect. I wonder why they decided to do overdubs.
I know that Robbo told me he refused to do overdubs. He said it would have been ridiculous.
Do yourself a favor Uwe; Buy the Peel Sessions CD. Here you hear honest reocrdings/production that capture the band's magic throughout the years when they visited John Peel's show.
I dare not ask: Also the Baby Face stuff?
No, I'm afraid I don't have those. Have they emerged from the vaults yet?
Little story:
I never saw Phil live. When the band played their last gig in Holland, my parents wouldn't let me go to Nijmegen to see the concert 'cause they thought I was too young (I was 13)
When I went to see Gary Moore four years later (on October 16, 1985) there was a rumor that Phil Lynott might come an join him cause they had the "Out In the Fields" hit at that time. But Phil never showed up. That was a close as I got to seeing Phil live. A month and a half later he was dead...
In 1995 I went to Dublin for a pilgrimage. I visited Philip's grave. Went to White Horses where Philomena lives. Went to Leighlin Road in Crumlin where he grew up. Met his uncle Peter, who let me in and offered us a cup of tea. I told him about my pilgrimage and that I was on a quest to find the poetry book that was published by Philip in the early seventies. I had been to every book shop and antiquarian booktrade in Dublin in vain. He went upstairs and after two minutes he came down with a copy of this book. I thought he only wanted to show it to me and I was excited to hold it for a moment. Wow.
But he insisted that I kept it. Now how cool is that?
A few years later when I was in the band Bittermoon, we were preparing a tour with Rob Lamothe. Lamothe used to be the lead singer of Riverdogs and we were big fans.
We contacted him if he would like to do some guest performances on our album. Which he did. That was a beautiful experience. And we became friends and we toured together.
So while preparing for the tour -and getting all the dates right- I received an email from Brian Robertson's management if we would mind Robbo joining in on the tour? Robbo was a huge fan of Rob Lamothe and he would like to make music with him.
I was over the moon! The guy that played the most beautiful solo in rock history (Live and Dangerous "Still In Love With You" first solo) was going to play with us??
So Robbo came over to Arnhem. I won't go into all the details, but we learned a bit of Rock n Roll life style from Robbo
The man has an incredible sense of humor. We did good gigs and we did bad gigs...
A few years later Robbo and Floor and I met again in Dublin at the Vibe (remembrance concert that is held every year). He introduced us to Philomena. She's an incredible lady. Very gentle, warm hearted person who has time for every single fan of her son. She is amazing.
After the concert Robbo asked us if we'd like to come join him to Brian Downey's 50th birthday party. We weren't invited by Brain Downey, so we were a bit reluctant. But Robbo insisted. So we drove to this big hall were the party was. Filled with friends and family... We congratulated Brian Downey. He welcomed us, invited us to have a drink and we watched him play with his mate Brush Shields (Brush is the guy that gave Philip his first bass lessons).
So there I was drinking a beer, sitting next to Robbo watching Brain Downey play the drums at his birthday party.
That sort of made up for the disappointment of never seeing Thin Lizzy -with Phil Lynott- live.
