(i) Publishing Deal:
There was probably about eight or nine months of initial ground- work done before I even approached a publisher with this notion for a book on
Phil Lynott. I was just sussing out the possibilities. Phil Lynott and Thin
Lizzy, though respected, highly so in this country, Ireland, had been out of the public eye so long that very many publishers viewed the possibilities for the project with limited foresight.
I decided to try my hand locally, in Cork City that is and came across a publishing house by the name of Bradshaw's. They dealt primarily with poetry, still do, and as they seemed to be keen initially and were willing to cover expenses to a degree, it seemed ridiculous to turn it down. Big mistake, in hindsight as material was coming in very slowly, I hadn't really worked out a complete template of how I wanted to structure the project. In the beginning this project wasn't going to be anything other than a tribute.
I had read a book on the late Freddie Mercury called 'This Is The Real Life' and that was written by two guys called David Evans and David
Minns. They had quite simply decided to interview a lot of Mercury's closest friends and recall the man they got to know away from the stage. An intimate recollection of sorts and this was the road I was initially going down when I started this project. I thought the balance might be interesting considering the normal reasons
Thin Lizzy or Phil Lynott's name is mentioned in the papers these days.
Before I knew it I was running out of time and Bradshaw's out of patience, as they needed to see an early draft. The project was going to take far longer to complete than what was first thought and they couldn't afford to finance the project for another eighteen months. So, we parted company, I re-thought what type of book I wanted to write and before long agreed that if a Lynott book was going to be written then it should be a complete biography of not just
Lynott but the band he led, Thin Lizzy. In a way if Bradshaw's could have financed the project then a lot of the people that have appeared in this book probably never would have considered the type of book I was writing from day one.
So, then the real test began, trying to track down these guys like Mark
Nauseef, Gus Isadore, John Alcock, Robin George and David Mallet, all of whom played some vital roles. Then sometime in Summer of 2001 I heard about some guy who was just about to publish a book on
Lynott, 'Rockin' Vagabond' it was called. I don't even know how well it did, if at all but I do know the guy who wrote it died shortly afterwards. It was also around this time that another publisher was interested, whose name for the life of me I can't remember but the bottom line was that after agreeing the preliminaries the deal offered was too sketchy to follow up on. Plus I felt that there was still a little way to go with interview candidates and once again burrowed for another eight months.
In the end it paid off because in the summer 2002 terms were finally agreed with SAF Publishing, who are based in London England. I signed the contract sometime in August, submitted the final manuscript the following November and what came after that I'll discuss later on a bit. Their track record is good, they specialise in music bio's, having previously published books on the late George Harrison, Procul Harum and lately
Morrisey.
(ii) Writing Lynott/Lizzy Bio
Without back- tracking too much this project was previously intended, to be based solely on
Phil Lynott. The effect his impression had amongst friends and ultimately his achievements on an artistic level. I had originally titled it
'Still Alive', because in effect he always will be alive on record. All you have to do is watch a few of the documentaries produced on Lizzy and you'll see this via his friends' recollections, slipping into their dreams and their consciousness.
It did seem after a period of time that if this project were to get to a publishing stage then I would have to re-think the whole process, so I did. I'm thankful now I did as I feel its after pushing the quality and depth to such a degree that even now I'm pretty happy with the final cut as it were.
Various names were bandied about, one came in which I really like, 'Mr. Rock 'n' Roll', can't remember who suggested it but it’s the way a few people described Phil. Again as it was now an in depth Lizzy bio this was rendered void.
'Still Alive And Dangerous' didn't seem to cut any ice with anyone so I just forgot about a title for ages until the time came to finalise one. In the end it became
'Thin Lizzy- Soldiers Of Fortune', which I really like.
The best part about the whole process though was meeting, speaking, writing and generally getting in contact with so many people who were of a near equal talent to
Lynott. Some even more so in they're chosen fields. That I think in the end was my reward for this project.
(iii) Editing the
project
At various stages through the project I constantly went back when new information ran out and tried to re-vamp as much as I could especially since I had the publishing deal confirmed. A few friends in the early part of the project took a look at how it was shaping up and made their suggestions, of which numerous were utilised and then I suppose the final way it was presented came down to me. That is of course up until the final submission to the publishers last November.
That did cause its own set of problems in that there was quite an amount of material that I knew was going to arrive after the deadline which I had to work out and deem suitable. I hadn't quite figured on the late response from some people however, which in turn would cause heavy delays, this I'll cover later on.
I spent the next few months editing together the new material and fortunately there was quite an amount left over which I've already planned for a further release.
There are three people assigned to editing the project and also myself. But as with any other editing team, it isn't as much so aimed at deleting as it is about making the flow of the text a whole lot better.
(iv) Publishing Delays
This is almost like a continuation of the last point in that there are a variety of reasons for the delays, all of it is inter-twined. For instance my submission was double the specified quantity in the contract, I refer here to text, not a bad complaint to make but still one which requires more work.
A decision was taken to delay the release from March of this year to the latter part of summer to back track over a variety of things that were over-looked. For example, a lot of the text had been written some time before the submission and it had dated badly. In some cases the time line was contradicted by interviewees, which meant that, well in my opinion, memory isn't quite a teller of truths, it will play games, no malice intended, that’s just the way it goes, so things like these had to be corrected. This task fell to me in June this year and I spent the next eight weeks revising the text. As a point of interest, there isn't any reference made to
Philip Lynott's 'lost son' in this book, you wouldn't have wanted a book delayed even further would you?
To back up the book, the CD-ROM was delayed. As it is being used as a promotional tool it will be released nearer the time the book is on the shelves. I feel that is easily understandable, as a heavy delay in between availability mightn't have the desired effect.
So the delay overall is due to circumstances which are altogether for the better of the project, I can't see why anybody should be putting out a project which they feel they could have done better. I have long since cast aside the search for a 'definitive biography'. If that’s what people are after then all I can suggest is to pull out your record collection and listen to
Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy, that’s the only place where you'll find that divine definitive mix.
(v) Unused material
I've been wondering what to do about this for quite some time, but even now all of it hasn't been catalogued. It would be my intention in time to come to delve back into the Lynott magic, and perhaps drive from another alley. There is a substantial amount there and I have no doubt that over the next few years the market will be there to hear about the further unknown adventures of one
Johnny The Fox. But that really is a story for another day, and even if it does come together it sure as hell won't take as long to write as
'Soldiers Of Fortune'.
In the end the whole purpose of the project was to present as many people who had close associations with
Thin Lizzy in the biography format who had never before taken part. These insights I feel are as important if not more so than those who participated in previous biographies but that is only my opinion on what a real supporter of music wants, not just
Thin Lizzy's.
I want you to enjoy it, I loved almost every minute of doing it. But the peaks and troughs come hand in hand. Ultimately if the project brings home to anyone who reads it a sense of achievement by a man and a band who were against all the odds then I've successfully captured what I felt was the essence of a rock and roll band.
