Thin Lizzy

Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Two of the founding members, drummer Brian Downey and bass guitarist/vocalist Phil Lynott, met while still in school. Lynott assumed the role of frontman and led them throughout their recording career of twelve studio albums until the band split in 1984. Thin Lizzy are best known for their songs "Whiskey in the Jar", "Jailbreak" and "The Boys Are Back in Town", all major international hits still played regularly on hard rock and classic rock radio stations. After Lynott's death in 1986, various incarnations of the band have emerged over the years based initially around guitarists Scott Gorham and John Sykes, though Sykes left the band in 2009. Gorham later continued with a new line-up including Downey. Lynott, Thin Lizzy's de facto leader, was composer or co-composer of almost all of the band's songs, and the first black Irishman to achieve commercial success in the field of hard rock music. As well as being multiracial, the band drew their members not only from both sides of the Irish border but also from both the Catholic and Protestant communities during The Troubles. Their music reflects a wide range of influences, including blues, soul music, psychedelic rock, and traditional Irish folk music, but is generally classified as hard rock.

Links To Peel
Peel seemed to discover the band in 1971, while he was on a ferry between Dun Laoghaire and Holyhead, where he met Phil Lynott and the rest of the band, who told him to look out for their first record, which they will release soon. On a record sleevenote Peel wrote for Thin Lizzy's Peel Session release in 1995, he mentioned:


 * "The story of my first meeting with Phil Lynott and the boys aboard a ferry, salt caked smokestacks and the rest, between Dun Laoghaire and Holyhead, has been told too many times already. Suffice to say, Thin Lizzy were crossing to England for the first time aboard the same boat as myself, made contact and urged me to listen out for them. ... Throughout the first half of the seventies, they provided a welcome antidote to much of the pretentious hogwash that bedevilled the age ..."

The band did eleven sessions for Peel's show and Peel himself invited Phil Lynott as a studio guest talking about the band's double album 'Live And Dangerous' and his solo album on 29 May 1978. After the end of the 70's, Peel seemed to have lost interest in the band. However he voted Whiskey In A Jar as his Peelenium 1973 on his BBC Radio One show on 17 November 1999.

Festive Fifty Entries

 * 1978 Festive Fifty: Emerald (Live) #49

Peelenium

 * Peelenium 1973: Whiskey In A Jar

Sessions
1. Recorded: 1972-04-26. Broadcast: 02 June 1972. Repeated: 21 July 1972 2. Recorded: 1972-11-14. Broadcast: 28 November 1972. Repeated: 06 February 1973 3. Recorded: 1973-07-26. Broadcast: 01 September 1973. Repeated: 22 December 1977*The Rocker / Things Ain’t Working Out Down On The Farm / Slow Blues / Gonna Creep Up On You / Suicide 4. Recorded: 1973-07-31. Broadcast: 07 August 1973. Repeated: ?*Vagabonds Of The Western World / Gonna Creep Up On You / Little Girl In Bloom 5. Recorded: 1973-08-06. Broadcast: 16 August 1973. Repeated: ?*Randolph's Tango / The Rocker / Slow Blues 6. Recorded: 1974-04-04. Broadcast: 11 April 1974. Repeated: 06 June 1974, 18 July 1977, 28 August 1978*It's Only Money / Little Darling / Still In Love With You / Blackboys On The Corner / Sitmoia 7. Recorded: 1974-10-03. Broadcast: 24 October 1974. Repeated: 19 December 1974, 24 May 1977*She Knows / It's Only Money / Sha La La La / Philomena 8. Recorded: 1975-05-29. Broadcast: 05 June 1975. Repeated: 31 July 1975 9. Recorded: 1976-02-12. Broadcast: 09 March 1976. Repeated: 12 April 1976*Emerald / The Warrior / Cowboy Song / Jailbreak 10. Recorded: 1976-09-23. Broadcast: 11 October 1976. Repeated: 23 December 1976, 03 January 1977, 21 March 1977*Don't Believe A Word / Johnny / Fool's Gold / Johnny The Fox Meets The Weed 11. Recorded: 1977-08-01. Broadcast: 22 August 1977. Repeated: 22 August 1977, 26 September 1977, 0x September 1977*Killer Without A Cause / Bad Reputation / That Woman's Gonna Break Your Heart / Dancing In The Moonlight / Downtown Sundown
 * Call The Police / Things Ain’t Working Our Way Down At The Farm / Chatting Today
 * Whiskey In The Jar / Suicide / Black Boys On The Corner / The Saga Of The Ageing Orphan
 * Half Caste / Rosalie / Suicide / Freedom Song

Other Shows Played
(The following list was compiled only from the database of this site and Lorcan's Tracklistings Archive and is certainly incomplete. Please add further details if known.)

1972 1973 1975 1978 1979 1984 1999 2004 Others
 * 14 April 1972: I Don’t Wanna Forget How To Jive (LP – Shades Of A Blue Orphanage) Decca
 * 09 May 1972: Call The Police (LP - Shades Of A Blue Orphanage) Decca
 * 01 May 1973: Randolph’s Tango (single) Decca
 * 08 May 1973: Randolph’s Tango (single) Decca
 * 18 December 1973: 'Gonna Creep Up On You (LP-Vagabonds Of The Western World)' (Decca)
 * 26 May 1975: Whisky In The Jar (single) Decca
 * 29 May 1978: Rosalie / Cowgirl's Song (single) Vertigo
 * 29 May 1978: (LP - Live & Dangerous) Vertigo
 * 26 December 1978: Emerald (LP - Live And Dangerous) Warner FF #49
 * 21 February 1979: Waiting For An Alibi (single) Vertigo
 * 16 April 1979: Do Anything You Wanna Do
 * 16 April 1979: Get Out Of Here
 * 08 May 1979: Got To Give It Up (LP – Black Rose - A Rock Legend) Vertigo
 * 13 June 1979: Just The Two Of Us (Single - Anything You Want To b-side) Vertigo
 * 05 January 1984 (TOTP): Whiskey In The Jar (clip from 01/02/73)
 * 31 August 1999: Whiskey In The Jar (session)
 * 17 November 1999: 'Whisky In The Jar (7")' (Decca) Peelenium 1973
 * 21 October 2004: 'Don't Believe A Word' - (Warners) (Robert Smith of The Cure sits in for the show)
 * Where It's At: 'Half-Caste (7"-B side of Rocky)' (Mercury)
 * Punk Fiction: The Boys Are Back In Town
 * John Peel: In Session Tonight: Whiskey In The Jar