Lizzy were set to play the first open air show at Dalymount Park. Philip of course wanted to do a "vibe" around it and rang Smiley to organise something at Morans Hotel. Morans's drink licence prohibited them from advertising events so a single poster was placed in the window on Talbot Street and the rest was word of mouth. That's part of what made these shows so special.

 However somewhere along the way New Spotlight magazine found out and went quite big with it. Philip was driving in to the gig, saw a hugh crowd going round the block, and realising that it could have implications from the promotors of the Dalymount show continued on up Gardiner Street where he found a phone box to ring Smiley to cancel the show.

 Smiley was faced with a big problem when the Boomtown Rats walked in to give him a signed copy of "Looking after No. 1." The b-side had been recoded at Morans and featured Smiley. As he explained his problem, Bob Geldof took out a marker, scratched out Thin Lizzy on the poster and wrote " Boomtown Rats - Looking after Dublin." When the crowd realized what was going on they went crazy - the rats were really huge then, and so many people were there that Smiley eventually had to abandon the door and let people in for free (Morans held about 250 people).

 Meanwhile Philip was feeling guilty and went back to see what was going on. He got on well with the Rats but was incensed at them "robbing my f*****g gig." So he went back to the car, took out his bass, found Eamonn Carr (Horslips drummer) in the bar and recruited him, and decided he was taking over the show again.

 When he took to the stage the place erupted and a near riot broke out in the venue which was well over its capacity at that stage. Chalkie Davies was over to cover Dalymount and apparently took some terrific shots of the whole thing. It was a great night, but the following week the management of Morans felt it had gone too far and pulled the plugs on gigs at the venue in the future.So it was the last night at the Much More Music Gig but it certainly went out with a bang.

Regards,

Hugo McGuinness