Thin Lizzy and related 1964-1970

Date: 700212 = 12th February 1970

Hi Peter,
A Happy and a Lucky New Year to you. Those photos are something singing through the guitar amps.
OK. In the photo is myself on guitar Rodney on drums, Sammy on bass, and Brewster on rhythm guitar.
Tom Patterson....the very first time I ever performed on stage was at the Christmas party we held at Orangefield Boy's school. myself and
a classmate Davie Lyttle said we would sing a Lonnie Donegan song but we didn't play guitar...so, another guy from our class Tom P.
said he played guitar. a few days later he came in and took out an Electric guitar and a small amp. I begged him for about 4 hours
but he wouldn't let me near it.

I got my first guitar which was plastic for a Christmas present I'd have been around 14 or so. then I bought a wooden acoustic
about 6 months later,and eventually sent to England for an electric guitar called a Rapier 22...it cost £22. 50p.

I was playing with the Atlantics just before I left Orangefield school for good..be about nearly 16 years old..roughly 1963.
I don't know what happened to Sammy Cooke.i was living in London ...this is when Thin Lizzy moved from Dublin to London.
I lived in a huge house in Belsize Avenue ...there was about 12 musicians living there and Gary Moore lived in the ground floor flat.
Sammy Cooke came over and joined Gary's band,so Sammy ended up living in London.and played in Gary's band for a while. The last i
heard about him was he was working as a barman in the famous Marquee Club in Wardour Street.
Thanks to Eric Bell

The Atlantics (Eric Bell)
From: Belfast 
Active:
Lineup:
Eric Bell - lead guitar, vocals
Rodney Howes - drums
Don Brewster - rhythm guitar
Sammy Cooke - bass


Thanks to Rodney Howes
 
 

With Telstars

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With Cavaliers

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Gary Moore with Beat Boys played together with Deltones with Eric Bell on guitar. The next day Gary would become 13! years old.

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With Casuals

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With Crescendos

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With Miami

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With Blue Angels

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With Blue Angels

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With Thermo-Beats

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With Corsairs

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The Bluebeats Showband (Eric Bell)
 
From: Glasgow
Active: 1966  
Lineup:
Hugo - sax
John - bass
Eric Bell - lead guitar (born Eric Robin Bell, 3.9.1947 in East Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland) 

Supporting Spencer Davis Group

Supporting Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas

The Shannon Showband (Eric Bell)
 
From: Leeds
Active:
Lineup:
Ray Ellliot - sax
Kevin - bass
Hugo - vocals
Eric Bell - lead guitar (born Eric Robin Bell, 3.9.1947 in East Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland) 

Van Morrison and Them Again (Eric Bell)
 
From: Belfast  
Active: September - October 1966  
Lineup:
Van Morrison - vocals, harmonica (born George Ivan Morrison, 31.8.1945, at 125 Hyndford, Bloomfield, East Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland)
Alan Henderson - bass (born 26.11.1944, in East? Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland)
Mike Brown - bass
Joe Hanratty - drums
Eric Bell - lead guitar (born Eric Robin Bell, 3.9.1947 in East Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland) 

This band played a few unsatisfactory ad hoc gigs in Belfast.
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With Fugitives

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With Feet

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With Champion Jack Dupree, Barrelhouse Blues band

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Arts Ball
With The Group, The Few

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With Fred McDowell Blues, Barrelhouse Blues band

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Presented by Nick the Greek and Belo Lugosi

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Brian´s father bought a drumkit for Brian. Shortly after the guys in the street suggested to Brian that they should start a band. They named the band The Liffey Beats after The Mersey Beats. The guys were Tom Cullen on lead guitar, `Bomber` Fagan on rhythm guitar, Robbie Welsh on vocals and Brian on drums. The band used to play numbers by The Shadows, Tornados and The Spotnicks (Swedish band). The bands biggest gig was when a priest asked them if they wanted to play in a hospital. The audience were children between six and twelve years old. The band got a box of candy for the gig.
(Info from the book The Rocker by Mark Putterford)

Thanks to Mike Higgins

The Black Eagles were put together by Joe Smith for his two sons Danny and Frankie Smith. Joe Smith wanted Peter Lynott (born 2.1948, in Leighlin Road? Crumlin? Dublin, County Dublin, Eire), a neighbour to be the lead singer of the group and tried to pinch him from his group The Sundowners, but this proved unsuccessful. So instead his nephew Phil Lynott took the job instead. Joe Smith thought that if Phil Lynott was in the band he would tell his uncle Peter Lynott how great the group was and he would want to join.

The band now going under the name The Black Eagles played place like St Anthony's Hall, The John of Gods and local youth clubs in Dublin, Eire. Phil Lynott made such a great impression on the people that turned up to watch the group, that the band forgot about Pete Lynott. The group became really popular very quickly and got a lot of gigs. They then got a residency at St Paul's Hall in Dublin, supported by The Mod Con Cave Dwellers, who included Brian Downey on drums. When The Black Eagles drummer Mike Higgins decided to quit Lynott approached his school friend Downey, both where pupils at The Christian Brothers School in Crumlin, Dublin and said if a vacancy comes up would he join the band and Downey said yes. Still the group placed an advert in a local paper asking for a drummer. Downey answered it and phoned Lynott saying he thought he had the job. So Lynott made an excuse and invited him over to Joe Smith's house and when he walked in, was asked could he play 'You Really Got Me' by The Kinks. He played so well, in particular a complicated drum pattern in the song, much better than the old drummer Higgins that Downey got the job and they spent the afternoon rehearsing Beatles and Stones numbers.

Downey then spent next two days learning thirty songs and played his first gig where The Black Eagles still had a residency at St Paul's Hall. The band than got a lot more books around the centre of Dublin, The Club-A-Go-Go, The Flamingo Club, The Scene, The Five Club, The Sound City and the slightly more up market version of The Five Club, The Green Lounge. The band was then booked to play The Bastille Club in a hotel in Dalky, County Dublin, by Ted Carroll, who later managed Thin Lizzy. Carroll had booked The Mad Lads from Belfast to play three hours, but they could only play an hour so he needed another band and this van driver recommended The Black Eagles, who he was told could get for about a fiver. They played well, doing Yardbirds and Small Faces numbers.

Then shortly after that Frankie Smith had had enough and suddenly left and was replaced by Alan Sinclair. Still the booking kept coming in and they opened for the big showbands and opened at The Mayfair Rooms for Joe Dolan and the Drifters. Next to leave was Danny Smith replaced by Ronnie Deegan. Not long after that even though they were still getting gigs, the band just fell apart, especially as Joe Smith's sons were no longer in the band and he lost interest.
Thanks to John H Warburg

Phil asked Brian one day in school if he wanted to join the band, because the bands drummer Mike Higgins was going to quit. The first song he played with the band was You really got me. The band was now Phil on vocals, Brian on drums, Danny Smith on bass and Frankie Smith on guitar. The manager was Danny´s and Frankie´s father Joe Smith. They played the  first gig with the new linup at St. Paul´s Hall in Dublin. It was a big success with 400 people in the audience. The band used to play four gigs a week in Dublin. 
(Info from the book The Rocker by Mark Putterford)

Before the split they changed the bands name to Jigsaw.
(Info from the book The ballad of a Thin Man by Stuart Bailie)

Thanks to Michael O´Flanagan
Ticket

Brian played with the country and western group for a short period. When Brian was offered a gig with Sugar Shack he left the band. 2-3 months
(Info taken from The official Brian Downey homepage)

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Article

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Article

Platform 3 with Gary Moore

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A.K.T

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Milkwood, Elliott Ness

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Sunshine, Elliott Ness

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With Stratatones

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Played together with Deltones with Eric Bell on guitar. The next day Gary would become 13! years old.

With Brothers Showband

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With Zodiacs Showband

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With Viva Showband

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With Epic Showband

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With Crescendos

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With Exiles
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With Tigers
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Platform 3 with Gary Moore supported Sugar Shack

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With Sunshine

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With Pasado

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Kama Sutra was a soul band that played numbers by Eddie Floyd and Sam and Dave. When Philip was in the band he met Brush Shiels who was an up and comer of the beat club scene in Dublin.
(Info from the book Irish Rock by Mark J Prendergast)

(Info from the book Irish Rock by Mark J Prendergast)

Ted Carroll - manager

Lead guitarist Bernie Cheevers and bassist Brush Shiels got the band together in Summer 1967, after both had been sacked from their previous group The Uptown Band and they thought they would obliterate every other band in Dublin. They got Noel Bridgeman in on drums in what was his first band, and went hunting for Phil Lynott and that was how Skid Row formed, orginally as My Father's Moustache (Summer - Oct 1967). Shiels had wanted Phil Lynott in the band, not because he could sing, but because he was good looking. Shiels went around to his house and Lynott agreed to join. Shiels also tried to get Lynott to get his friend Brian Downey to join Skid Row, but he turned down the gig as he was more into the blues than the West Coast sound. So instead Skid Row got in Noel Bridgeman. The band had their first rehearsal in a condemned house (with scaffolding poles holding up the ceiling and one single working socket outlet on a dangling flex) off Lower Dorset Street in Dublin. The first number they tried was Hendrix's 'Manic Depression.' They also rehearsed in a room in Synnot Place, that was let by a Mrs Quigley, whose son Pat Quigley was bass player in Dublin band, The Movement and the first song the band attempted together was Hendrix's 'Hey Joe.' They also found themselves a management deal with Ted Carroll, who had managed The Uptown Band. The band also played at the UCD (University College of Dublin).

When Cheevers left the band in Earl 1968 the band to find another lead guitarist and found one in Gary Moore. Moore at the time was playing in The Method. He was playing with them because their lead guitarist Dave Lewis had a car accident and could not go on the bands trip to Dublin, so they approached Moore (ex The Beat Boys) in a Belfast park and virtually kidnapped him and took him to Dublin, where they played some shows at The Club-A-Go-Go in Abbey Road. It was in the dressing room of this club that Moore was introduced to Brush Shiels, who was looking for a guitarist for Skid Row, who were playing across the road at The Seventy Two Club. While Skid Row taking a break Shiels had come over to The Club-A-Go-Go to watch Moore. So when The Method were taking a break Moore went across the road to The Seventy Two Club to watch Skid Row. Moore decided to join the band and about a week later he moved to Dublin and got to meet the rest of the band. Moore who was not getting on with his father, thought by joining Skid Row it was a good move to get away from home and was also told he would be getting £15 a week, which he did not!
Thanks to John H Warburg

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Poster

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Taken from Evening Herald 690402

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With Creative Mind

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Taken from Evening Herald 690515

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With Dolls House

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Jon Hojes memorial dance

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Article

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Promoted by Liam Kett

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Contract

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N.O.A.H Concert

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Thin Lizzy

From: Dublin
Active: Early 1970 - 4th September 1983

Line-up:
Philip Lynott - vocals, bass
Brian Downey - drums
Eric Bell - guitar
Eric Wrixon - keyboard

Terry O´Neill - manager

 

January 1970
 Contact Promotions, Ollie Byrne and Terry O’Neill become the managers. Ollie Byrne is not at the meeting. Contact Promotions book and/or manage about 14 groups out of their offices in Countdown Club. Ollie Byrne continues to cancel meetings with the band.
Band rehearsals begin at the Countdown Club owned by Ollie Byrne.

Thanks to Michael Grimes (promotor)
Story

Thanks to Dave Murphy (Purple Pussycats)
Story

Thanks to James Durney
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Thanks to Terry O´Neill for checking his diary

Thanks to Terry O´Neill for checking his diary

Thanks to Terry O´Neill for checking his diary

Promoted by Peter Fallon
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Thanks to Martin Stassen
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Thanks to Terry O´Neill for checking his diary

Thanks to Terry O´Neill for checking his diary

Thanks to Terry O´Neill for checking his diary

Thanks to Mike Maguire
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Thanks to Terry O´Neill for checking his diary

Taken from Leinster Leader Newspaper

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Taken from Belfast Telegraph 700424

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Thanks to Terry O´Neill for checking his diary

Thanks to Terry O´Neill for checking his diary

Thanks to Terry O´Neill for checking his diary

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Articles

Thanks to Terry O´Neill for checking his diary

The photo on the poster originally had Eric Wrixon in the photograph on the right but was turned 90 degrees anti clockwise and cut.
Thanks to Terry O´Neill

700731 Thin Lizzy release their first single The Farmer

Thanks to Terry O´Neill

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Taken from Evening Herald 700822
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Article

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Article

Thanks to Terry O´Neill for checking his diary

Taken from Evening Herald 700822
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Article

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Article

Promoted by Ollie Byrne

Thanks to Terry O´Neill for checking his diary

Promoted  by Premier Promotions

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Thanks to Terry O´Neill

Promoted by Michael Grimes

Taken from Evening Herald 700903

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Advert, Article

Thanks to Terry O´Neill for checking his diary

Taken from Evening Herald 700905

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Spotlight Night Out

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Sunday: Byrne Sisters and Danny Doyle, RTELO and Tara Telephone

Promoted by Frank Sinnott

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Article

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Thanks to Terry O´Neill for checking his diary

Thanks to Terry O´Neill

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Promoted by Dermot Latham

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Thanks to Terry O´Neill for checking his diary

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Thanks to Hugo McGuinness and Steve Rawson
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Article

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Stories

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With Judas Gun

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Ticket

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Taken from Kilkenny People 701106

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RTE TV Like Now ?

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Promoted by Dermot Latham

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