Philip-Lynott.com

Thin Lizzy

Colston Hall, Bristol – Friday, 22^nd October 1976 - Sounds

BRISTOL ROCK audiences aren't exactly notorious for their tendency to take off in a

bacchic, seat-smashing fury, when confronted with yet another heavy metal band.

If Hendrix walked onstage one night, perhaps they might stand up and shout a bit, otherwise you'd have to work really hard to get any response from them. Thus sitting watching two thousand Bristolians exploding in a spastic frenzy, cheering, stomping, screaming for a third encore, you have to conclude that there is no better bona fide rock band in England, maybe the world, at this moment than Thin Lizzy.

I suppose I should have expected it.  After all, Lizzy have walked away with the cup this year, and no one’s going to stop them getting every last drop of adulation and glory out of their lap of honour.

After every number Lynott swaggers to the front of the stage, fists clenched, saluting, threatening, cheerleading, goal of the season, louder you buggers, we deserve it.

They come on amidst flares, straight into "Jailbreak", followed without a pause by "Massacre" from the new album.

This is only the second date of the tour, but they are playing with such confidence that those unmistakable riffs start the gig off on a higher energy level than most groups manage to finish on.

"Emerald" and "Johnny” maintain the pace, the new songs being greeted with as much enthusiasm as the older ones. They cool off for a while with "Still In Love With You" from "NightLife” reminding you that the unashamedly romantic element in Lynott's writing is just as important as his biker / street punk image.

The "street poet" tag does make his comparison with Springsteen a viable one because they seem to be the only figures around who can carry off the role without leaning irksomely towards affectation.

Although he wouldn't admit it, of course, Lizzy owe their success entirely to the personality, writing and singing ability of Phil Lynott and it is only he who is going to he able to keep them on top of the league.  It is his hand that ignites the audience into yelling and clapping with the slighttest gesture; it is he who whips up the crowd during Brian Downey's unremarkable drum solo, transforming it into a momentary release of pure primal power quite unlike anything I have seen here before. Moreover, it is his deceptively good playing that is the essence of Lizzy's sound, for while Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham work perfectly together rhythmically, neither has the soloing ability that Gary Moore possessed.

They finished on a neutrons-plitting surge of energy that built up through “The Boys Are Back", “Rosalie”, "Suicide" and “Sha La La” to climax with the encores, "Me And The Boys" and inevitably, "The Rocker".

Usually at this stage of the game, when your path to success has been strewn with eulogistic palm leaves, there's some guy who nails you up there against your former glories. That won't happen to Thin Lizzy yet; they are the second coming of British heavy metal, offering hope for an exciting fruition in the next five years that had recently seemed lost in the tedious and complacent hands of the tax exiles.

David Houshain