Thin Lizzy - during their respectable/skinny tie phase.
Thin Lizzy In Concert – 1983 – Past Daily Soundbooth
Thin Lizzy – live at Regal Theatre, Hitchen, UK – January 6, 1983 – BBC In Concert series – BBC Radio
Thin Lizzy to end the week on a loud note. Recorded for the BBC In Concert at the Regal Theatre in on January 26, 1983. This was the last tour Thin Lizzy would have before breaking up owing to a bad outbreak of wretched excess (Phil Lynott was in deep with a heroin addiction) which came to a head during their Japanese leg of the tour.
Thin Lizzy formed in Dublin in 1969. Their music reflected a wide range of influences, including blues, soul music, psychedelic rock and traditional Irish folk music, but is generally classified as hard rock or sometimes heavy metal. Rolling Stone magazine describes the band as distinctly hard rock, “far apart from the braying mid-70s metal pack”. AllMusic critic John Dougan has written that “As the band’s creative force, Lynott was a more insightful and intelligent writer than many of his ilk, preferring slice-of-life working-class dramas of love and hate influenced by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and virtually all of the Irish literary tradition.”
After a successful multi-band tour in support of Status Quo, the band recorded the album Jailbreak, which proved to be their breakthrough record. Released on 26 March 1976, it featured the worldwide hit “The Boys Are Back in Town” which reached No. 8 in the UK, and No. 12 in the US, their first charting record in that country. The twin guitar sound had been fully developed by this time and was in evidence throughout the album, particularly on the hit single, and other tracks such as “Emerald” and “Warriors”. The album also charted well on both sides of the Atlantic, reaching No. 10 in the UK and No. 18 in the US, and the follow-up single, “Jailbreak”, also performed well. Thin Lizzy toured the US in support of various bands such as Aerosmith, Rush and REO Speedwagon, and they planned to tour there again in June 1976, this time with Rainbow. However, Lynott fell ill with hepatitis and the tour was cancelled, which set them back a few months.
After a difficult leg of the farewell tour in Japan, where some members of the band had difficulty obtaining heroin, Thin Lizzy played their final UK concert before their break-up at the Reading Festival on 28 August 1983, which was eventually released in 1992 as their BBC Radio One Live in Concert album. The last concert came in Nuremberg on 4 September, at the Monsters of Rock festival, after which the band members went their separate ways.
Before the end of 1983, Lynott formed a new band called Grand Slam, but they were never able to secure a contract with a record company and split by the beginning of 1985.
Phil Lynott died on 4 January 1986, aged 36, having suffered from internal abscesses, pneumonia and septicaemia, brought on by his drug dependency, which led to multiple organ failure.
As a reminder, here is one of the gigs from that farewell tour, as it was recorded on January 6, 1983 and broadcast by BBC Radio 1 as part of their In Concert series.
