The news / editorial section of the Rock Legend site now features an in depth interview with Alan Byrne on his forthcoming book 'Thin Lizzy - Soldiers of Fortune' 

Due for release in March next year Alan's book promises to be the most revealing insight in to Philip Lynott and Thin Lizzy yet published.

                                                                                                                                John Sykes has issued a statement via his message board to clear up the confusion surrounding the Z contract, it reads as follows:

Contrary to what has been reported on various web-sites, I have not signed any contracts with Z Records. We are having discussions, but it is not a completed deal. We'll post news if something happens in this area. Thanks, John

                                                                                                                               Thin Lizzy's performance for German TV show Rockpalast on 29th August 1981 is set for release on DVD next year. So far details are a little sketchy, the DVD will be available through MAWA in Germany, some distributors have a release date of 23rd of January, however Peter Ruechel at Rockpalast states "we hope to be able to release the Thin Lizzy DVD in February 2003". More news when we get it. 

                                                                                                                               Laurence Archers Grand Slam are booked to play a charity gig at The Kings Head in Fulham High Street on the 29th of December, also appearing will be Debbie Bonham.

Nearest tube station is Putney Bridge for further details contact the venue 020 7381 0444

                                                                                                                              Laurence Archers Grand Slam have been confirmed to play at this years Vibe For Philo. Laurence has teamed up with Fat Sam's Grand Slam who put on a great show last year. An expanded set is promised and hopefully this time the PA will be up to the job!!

Midge Ure is set to be Special Guest at  the 17th Vibe for Philo to be held at Vicar Street  Dublin. Other acts announce so far are Dundalks finest, Thin Az Lizzy, The Lizzy Boys from Japan, The Vagabond Kings from Boston USA, and upcoming Irish rocker Leanne Harte. No further acts have been officially announced as yet. 

New release from Japan of Grand Slams gig at the Nostell Priory Festival in Wakefield 27 August 1984. Titled 'Summer Mission' this claims to be a soundboard recording and is released on the 'Langley' label. Track listing as follows :-

Yellow Pearl

Nineteen

Sisters Of Mercy

Military Man

Harlem

Dedication

Parisienne Walkways

Crazy

I Don't Need This

Dear Miss Lonely Hearts

Cold Sweat

Crime Rate

                                                                                                                            2003 sees the welcome release in the US of Thin Lizzy's 1983 BBC Sight And Sound In Concert recording from Hitchin, Regal Theatre on 26th January 1983.

It will be available on both DVD (region 1) and VHS (NTSC). The set is due to appear in the US on the 21st of January and is available for pre order on Amazon.  The recording runs to 46 minutes and features Jailbreak, This Is The One, Cold Sweat, The Sun Goes Down, Holy War, The Boys Are Back In town, Rosalie, Baby Please Don't Go. As yet there are no plans for a European release

Philip is featured on the front cover of December issue of the UK magazine Classic Rock. Inside is a five page feature on the Johnny The Fox tour including an interview with Scott Gorham.

Also the December issue of Guitar includes a bumper 18 page Thin Lizzy special with features on Philip plus all the guitarists and the Live and Dangerous album.

Emerald, the 17th Vibe for Philo, the Philip Lynott tribute to be held in Dublin on Saturday, January 4th, 2003. The Venue is planned to be Vicar Street. Tickets will be €22, but they are not yet available. They will be available online at www.ticketmaster.ie. There is no official word so far regarding the bands to play there.

Thin Lizzy - Soldiers of Fortune

Alan Byrne's book will be available as a hardback from March 2003 and seems 
already set for a paperback issue in May, 2003 SAF/Firefly are the publishers.  It is available via www.amazon.co.uk, to pre-order at £20 sterling.                       
There will be a special edition CD, featuring a complete interview, including unused quotes from a chosen interviewee. Proceeds from the disc will go  to the Roisin Dubh Trust

The 'Irish Rock Legends' series of stamps are now available to buy. The stamps feature Philip Lynott, Rory Gallagher, Van Morrison and U2, special presentation packs are available from the Irish Stamps website www.irishstamps.ie

www.ellerup.dk/lizzy

Danish Thin Lizzy cover band Live And Dangerous will play a couple of shows soon and they would like you to turn up and make some noise. The dates are:

18 October (Friday) Fatter Eskil, Skolegade, Århus, Denmark (show starts at 22.00)

25 October (Friday) Tex, Vestergade, Copenhagen, Denmark (show starts at 24.00)

John Sykes and Scott Gorham's version of Thin Lizzy played their first gig of the current US Tour in Petaluma, California on the 9th of October. The set list was as follows:- 

Jailbreak
Waiting for an Alibi
Don't Believe a Word
Killer on the Loose
Emerald
Cold Sweat
The Sun Goes Down
Chinatown
Are You Ready
Bad Reputation
Massacre
Still In Love With You
Cowboy Song
The Boys are Back In Town
Rosalie
Black Rose
Thunder and Lightning 

Chinatown is the only notable addition to the set that the band have been playing for the last few years. Interesting choice though, especially as Sykes never played the song live with Lizzy (unless anybody knows different) The band also played  'Killer on the Loose' as part of the set in LA on the 11th of October.

November 16th - Guitar Festival near Paris, France November 30th - Red Lion, Gravesend, London, UK

Our friends in Japan are at it again! Two new Thin Lizzy bootlegs have hit the shelves.

Killing Moore - Live at Paradise Theatre Boston 5th September 1978 

Moore Joined - Live at Barbarella's Birmingham 10th October 1974

Phil Lynott's Grand Slam

Grand Slam - 'The Studio Sessions'

ZCRCD90BOX

Disc One:

Nineteen

Crime Rate

Sisters Of Mercy

Whiter Shade Of Pale

Like A Rolling Stone

Military Man

Harlem

Gay Boys

Breakdown

Look In These Eyes

She Cries

Disc Two:

Radio Interview With Phil Lynott, Dublin, Ireland 1984 Crime rate (Demo)

Nineteen (Demo)

Slam

Sisters Of Mercy (Alternative Mix)

A deluxe two CD long box containing the unreleased studio recordings by Phil Lynott's legendary post Thin Lizzy act Grand Slam, is due for imminent release. Featuring previously unseen photographs and informative sleeve notes. Compiled from Grand Slam keyboard player Mark Stanway's private tape archive, this is a must for Lynott/Lizzy fans. Mark says of this historic release:

"It has been a long and very pleasant experience going through all of my old cassettes (literally boxes of them!), and I am proud to be able to make a compilation of representative material for the genuine and discerning Phillip Lynott fan to enjoy."

£19.99 + P&P www.zoomclub.com  

The current Thin Lizzy band's management Coallier Entertainment have posted on their message board a series of tour dates in the US.

There is no mention of what the lineup will be this time around. 

The dates listed there looks like this:

OCT 9TH SAN FRANCISCO CA, McNEARS MYSTIC THEATRE CONFIRMED
OCT 10TH VENTURA CA, VENTURA THEATER CONFIRMED
OCT 11TH LAS VEGAS NV, HOUSE OF BLUES CONFIRMED
OCT 12TH LOS ANGELES CA, HOUSE OF BLUES CONFIRMED
OCT 13TH SANTA ANA CA, GALAXY THEATER CONFIRMED

OCT 16TH AUSTIN TX,THE BACK ROOM TBA
OCT 17TH SAN ANTONIO TX, WHITE RABBIT CONFIRMED
OCT 18TH CORPUS CHRISTI TX, CONFIRMED
OCT 19TH DALLAS TX, THE UNDERGROUND CONFIRMED
OCT 20TH ODESSA TX, AMIGOS BIO TBA

OCT 23RD TBA
OCT 24TH CLIFTON PARK NY, NORTHERN LIGHTS CONFIRMED
OCT 25TH BROOKLYN NY, LAMOUR CONFIRMED
OCT 26TH POUGHKEEPSIE NY, THE CHANCE THEATER CONFIRMED
OCT 27TH ASBURY NJ, STONE PONY CONFIRMED
OCT 28TH TBA
OCT 29TH ALLENTOWN PA , CROCODILE ROCK TBA
OCT 30TH DELAWARE TBA
OCT 31ST TBA
NOV 1ST JAXX VA CONFIRMED
NOV 2ND WANTAGH NY, MULCAHYS CONFIRMED
NOV 3RD HARTFORD CT, WEBSTER THEATER TBA  

Despite Management enthusiasm and public encouragement Eric Bell's Thin Lizzy played their last gig until further notice at a bikers festival in Norway July 27th. The festival itself was a huge success and the audience response was magnificent, the band were of course invited back to perform 2003 which they will attend playing their blues set - with a few chosen Lizzy songs - including Whisky ..... , The Rocker, Slow Blues and maybe a couple more. Many thanks to Norwegian tour promoter Jo who was excellent throughout and supplied lots of beer.                               

At this point we would all like to thank all of our many fans and friends that have supported us at the Lizzy shows/gigs/festivals/tours and would hope to see you all supporting us at our blues gigs in near future.     

Eric, Andy and Tony have decided to concentrate on the promotion of new blues album A Blues Night in Dublin and they will be touring the UK and Europe as The Eric Bell Band. In addition Chuck Berry's keyboard player Mark Stevens will be joining the band for some shows. The first of these dates will be in France 16 November at a guitar festival (Mark is playing at this one) and November 30th sees the boys as a 3 piece at Red Lion, Gravesend , Kent . Hopefully 2003 will see the release of new albums featuring Eric's own material.

As we are kicking off the site it is appropriate to make an update on what is happening with the various ex-members of Thin Lizzy.

Brian Robertson
Robbo has recently played a few dates in Scandinavia with the band 5-15 from Finland. It is a possibility that Robbo will tour with them again later in the year.

Robbo will appear at the Frankie Miller Tribute Night (in support of The Drake Music Project), Saturday 7th September, at the Glasgow Barrowland Ballroom. It will feature The Frankie Miller Band & Full House + Guests. Confirmed artists include Joe Walsh, Sensational Alex Harvey Band with Guest Vocalist Dean Ford (ex-Marmalade), Ray Wilson (ex-Genesis & Stiltskin), Nazareth and many more. The House Band will consist of Brian Robertson lead guitar, Chrissie Stewart bass, Ted McKenna drums and Hugh McKenna keyboards.

The Frankie Miller tribute CD, also featuring Robbo, with the title Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed but Most Definitely Blues! will be released Saturday 7th September. On it are too many bands and artists to mention.

Brian Downey
Downey is playing live every now and then with The Ben Prevo Band and with Blues Up Front. Next known gig is with Blues Up Front at The Music Room, The Plough, 28 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1 on August 24th, showtime 9.00pm.

Philip Lynott
The long awaited CD by Phil Lynott's post-Thin Lizzy band, Grand Slam, on the Zoom Club Records label, seems to be kicked off with a special limited edition (500 copies) CD single box set. It features A Whiter Shade Of Pale/Like A Rolling Stone, which is a medley of the classic songs by Procol Harum and Bob Dylan.

Gary Moore
Moore has started a new band, Scars, together with Darrin Mooney on drums (ex-Primal Scream) and Cass Lewis on bass (ex-Skunk Anansie). Theis debut CD is due out on Sanctuary in September. Early reports are saying it is a more rocking effort than the bluesy CDs Moore has put out the last decade. To promote the CD, Scars will make an extensive tour of Europe. (check www.gary-moore.com/Tour_Dates/tour_dates.html for up to date info).

The official Gary Moore web site tells us that a previously unreleased album track Livin' with the Blues, from the Back to the Blues sessions, is set for release on September 6th, on a charity compilation CD called Sound Minds. This CD has been produced to aid Wicklow Mental Health Association - an affiliate of Mental Health Ireland. It will be released on September 6th, on the Trend Studios label, ref. no: A060902. It will be on sale in the Republic of Ireland only. The CD should be available from all major record retailers in Ireland from September 6th and it is a limited edition CD of only 10,000 copies. Besides Gary Moore artists and tracks featured on this CD include Bob Geldof, U2, Van Morrison, The Cranberries, Chris de Burgh, Sinead O'Connor, The Corrs, Ash, Clannad and many others. Thin Lizzy fans might wanna check out the CD cover as the sleeve design was donated by the renowned Celtic artist Jim Fitzpatrick who has done several Thin Lizzy covers in the past.

Moore is also to appear on a John Lee Hooker tribute CD. The title will be From Clarksdale to Heaven - Remembering John Lee Hooker and the release date is set to September 24th, on Bluestorm Music. Gary Moore appears on two tracks (I'm In The Mood and Serve Me Right To Suffer) together with Jack Bruce and Gary Husband. Other artists on the CD are Jeff Beck, Gary Brooker/Andy Fairweather-Low, Mick Taylor/Max Middleton, Peter Green Splinter Group and many more.

Eric Bell
The Barrelhouse Brothers' CD Pick It Up, Pass It On will be released in October. The lineup consists of legendary rock musicians, and includes Eric Bell (Thin Lizzy, lead guitar), Noel Redding (Jimi Hendrix Experience, bass), Corky Laing (Mountain, drums), Colin Earl (Mungo Jerry/Foghat, boogie piano), John Coughlan (Status Quo, drums) and several others. You can find out more details about it and also how to order a copy of the brand new Eric Bell Band CD A Blues Night In Dublin at Eric Bell's official web site: web.jet.es/banshee.

The actor to play Philip Lynott in the forthcoming movie of his and his mothers life story, My Boy, has been announced. It is to be American actor Gary Dourdan, who is currently appearing in the Channel 5 series C.S.I (Crime Scene Investigation).

To read an interview with Gary from Radio Times, click on the photo on the right.