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Thin Lizzy

From page 108 of Classic Rock Magazine August 2003

Cover of August 2003 issue.

The Astoria, London

Some 17 years after Phil Lynott’s death, no Thin Lizzy gig could hope to compete with the kind of performances that fired ‘Live & Dangerous’. Tonight, however, it was still great to hear the band’s illustrious back catalogue aired live.

The current line-up includes ‘Thunder & Lightning’ era guitarist, John Sykes, Lizzy’s longest-serving axeman, Scott Gorham, former Page & Plant drummer Michael Lee, and Gary Liedman on bass.

Gorham, his still plentiful hair now greyed, is the true link to Lizzy’s glory years, and tonight he performed accordingly. His guitar of choice, though, was a Stratocaster, not his customary, iconic Les Paul.

Sykes’s approach as frontman seemed reverent and sacrilegious by turns. His voice, for example, is a reasonable approximation of Phil’s, and between songs he was careful to big-up Lynott as the much-missed “King of rock’n’roll”.

The problem, ironically, was Sykes’s histrionic, if technically excellent, guitar playing: too metal for vintage Lizzy aces such as ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ and ‘Emerald’, hence the Celtic phrases in the latter lost all subtlety.

Still, it would be a stony heart indeed that failed to warm to the stoked opening chords of ‘Rosalie’, and the superb Michael Lee ensured that Lizzy’s first encore had plenty of spunk. Not precisely the boys you’d want back in town, perhaps, but they were welcome all the same.

James Halbert