Reeling With The Rocker

Summer 1996 and I'm listening to Phil Lynott's personal archive. The singer is ten years dead, but his stash of master tapes, demos and multi-tracks is in roaring good health. Just to make each listening experience all the more attractive, you get to see Philo's notes, written in that looping, elegant hand on each of the boxes.

The Thin Lizzy archive has an unusual history. For some years, the record company and management couldn't find the master tapes of 'the Boys Are Back In Town'. It simply wasn't there, and while various people went down to the store room (a secure part of London Underground, conveniently cooled by the deep location), there wasn't a sign. Then someone spooled up the contents of a tape box marked 'Kitty', and there it was, that famous invitation to party at Dino's Bar And Grill. A mocking engineer had figured that 'The Boys Are Back In Town' was terribly similar to the Springsteen tune, 'Kitty's Back', hence the inscription. But if truth be told, both Phil and Bruce were copping their stories of street corner soul from Van Morrison. That was the connection.

So anyway, I'm listening to the Lizzy archive, getting information for my book, the authorised story of the band. I've met a load of Phil's colleagues and friends, and this latest part of the journey has taken me to a bungalow in Southampton, where the tapes reside.

Even this is a bit of a story. Apparently when Phil's mother has been asked to leave her son's old home near Howth in Dublin, she had discovered a false wall, and behind it, the archive. Philomena had then passed on this trove of material to a super-fan, who was guarding it in his home on the English south coast.

He had met me at Southampton railway station, wearing an old Lizzy tour jacket. Then we got down to listening to the tunes on a vintage tape machine. It was a privilege and an exciting ritual, especially when we got away from the well known tunes and onto the unreleased material. Such was the furtive nature of all this, that I wasn't allowed to hear any of the rare material in full. But hey, I was happy enough.

Lizzy fans have waiting for decades to hear a fresh selection from the archive. But that will be partially amended next week with the reissue package of three albums: 'Jailbreak', 'Johnny The Fox', 'Live And Dangerous'. Now the likes of 'Derby Blues' and 'Blues Boy' will be in the public domain, along with session tracks and some of the coolest live tapes.



It may be that the Southampton archives have finally been unspooled. Then again, I wouldn't be shocked to know that they are they still under protection, holding back on their deepest treasures for another day.