The Boys are Back!
This current UK tour has been billed 'late-on' as a 30th anniversary of the classic live album 'Live and Dangerous', due to the very late cancellation of Queensrÿche. This I expected would knock quite a few paying punters off from attending. I'm glad to say how wrong I was.
I have seen Lizzy twice in the last 24 yrs. Firstly on the Thunder and Lightning tour, with a much younger Gorham, and an even younger Sykes, secondly this year as the opening act supporting Deep Purple. The DP tour was less exciting, they were opening act out of three, poor-ish sound, but 30 mins of classic hit after hit.
Lizzy were one of my fave bands, but I have yet to be convinced of the merits of this glorified covers band, with just two previous members, with Sykes being in the band for what seemed like a few months. The other two, Tommy Aldridge, in this his 53rd band, and relative newcomer and Italian face puller par excellence, Francesco DiCosmo. Would Nirvana tour without Cobain and get the approval of their fans? Probably not. Does the same apply to Lizzy, nope! It doesn’t matter that bands have original members, but if you can tour with a part-classic line up, then thats good enough for me. Lizzy had two great periods, firstly from ’76 to ‘79 and secondly with Sykes in ’83.
Based on where I was positioned, the venue was well attended and if we didn’t know it, then we were going to be treated to great performance. With a combined age of your average Jedi Knight, Lizzy took to the stage. Just like the old days, ‘Jailbreak’ opened to the police sirens, with Sykes' vocal style adapted to more of a 'Lynott' sound. Wishbone Ash were one of the pioneers of the twin guitar sound, but for me Lizzy stole it and made it their own for others to follow. Gorham and Sykes traded licks, with Gorhams soloing keeping to the original with Sykes giving it all with the extra theatrics.
Every song which followed was a Lizzy 'classic', ‘Waitin For An Alibi’, ‘Don’t Believe A Word’, ‘Emerald’, ‘Warriors’, ‘Bad Reputation’ and even ‘Southbound’. And more!
For me, Gorham was excellent, his solos passionate and true to the original. Sykes solos and harmonies were in a higher key but did not detract from the quality of his playing and the choice of songs
Darren Wharton aka ‘Murph and the Magictones’ was wheeled out for Still In Love With You, and Tommy Aldridge played hard as usual. The bloke doesn’t half know how to knock seven bells out of his kit, but he hasn’t the subtlety of Brian Downey. Aldridge played his joker on Sha-la-la with his now trademark solo of throwing away his sticks and playing bare handed. Class!
It’s a shame that Phil Lynott isn't with us today, as Thin Lizzy would have probably gone stratospheric. I don’t know if he would have approved with the ’07 Thin Lizzy, but at the very least the Lizzy legacy is being passed down to much younger generations of fans, of which there were plenty in attendance, I guess that is what he would have wanted.
Yes, it was a good selling point to revamp the set list to a LAD night, but other than the encore it would have been the candles on the icing to play, say Thunder and Lightning or The Sun Goes Down, as for me Thunder And Lightning was one of their best (and strongest) albums. While you have a guitar god like Sykes at your disposal at least use him for some songs he played a huge part on. Apart from that little gripe, they were excellent. I was blind, but now I see.