Sometime in 1971. Sunderland Locarno upstairs bar. I see a tall black guy in the corner of the bar and wonder who he is. I go up and have a quick chat. An hour or so later the band take the stage and the same tall black guy is fronting them. They are called Thin Lizzy and are pretty good too! The black guy is, of course, Phil Lynott. I am 14, Phil is 21.
1973 and I’m watching Top of the Pops. Thin Lizzy appear, playing “Whiskey in the Jar” which is in the chart at the time. I go out and buy the single.
1975 – late 1970s. The Lizzy, with a new line – up featuring twin lead guitars, one of whom has really cool, long, blonde hair and is an American called Scott Gorham become absolutely massive. I see them many times at Newcastle City Hall and headlining the Reading Festival. They are an absolutely first class live band. “The Boys Are Back in Town” becomes an anthem for us all.
Early 1980s. Middlesbrough Town Hall. Quite empty. Phil Lynott’s Grand Slam are appearing. Phil doesn’t look well. His face is bloated. The performance is not very inspiring.
4 January 1986. Phil Lynott passes away. He is 36. The cause is heart failure and drugs. Such a waste.
10 years or so later. I visit Dublin once a month for several years through work. I proudly have my picture taken next to a statue of Phil. Somewhere along the way I lose the photograph. However, I include here an image of the start you courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Early 2000s. Thin Lizzy are headlining Newcastle City Hall again. This new version of the band comprises Scott Gorham, drummer Brian Downey and front man Ricky Warwick, who sounds quite a lot like Phil Lynott. They are surprisingly good and do justice to the Lizzy legacy.
2012 and Thin Lizzy become Black Star Riders after writing new material and the departure of Brian Downey. Somewhere along the way Scott retires and the band continues. The new material sounds true to the Lizzy style and they continue flying the Lizzy flag high. They have become the natural progression in the next part of the Thin Lizzy saga.
2023 and Black Star Riders are headlining Newcastle City Hall. It is their tenth anniversary tour and Scott has re-joined his bandmates for this tour. Support acts are Michael Monroe (formerly from Hanoi Rocks) and Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons (Phil Campbell was guitarist in Motorhead).
We arrived late and Michael Monroe was already on stage climbing up onto the balcony. By the time I said to my carer Jackie “Quick. Take a photo” Michael was hanging down from the balcony and dropping back onto the stage. He was just as I imagined, a manic blonde showman. I never got to see Hanoi Rocks but I can imagine them as a crazy glam punk power rock band. The closing song is Credence Clearwater Revivals’ “Up around the Bend”. I tell my daughter Ashleigh who was a big Hanoi Rocks fan. That’s a Hanoi Rocks song she tells me so I figure they must have recorded it! It gets a great reception from the crowd who probably also think of it as a Hanoi Rocks song rather than a classic by Credence Clearwater Revival. John Fogarty is one of my heroes and one of the best gigs I ever went to was seeing him at Manchester Apollo. But that’s a story from a past blog entry! I buy Ashleigh a signed Michael Monroe CD and she is over the moon with it!
After a short wait, at 9:30 PM spot-on time, the Phil Campbell backdrop disappears and is replaced by a very impressive Black Star Riders drop. I suppose I’m amazed how much of a following the band has amassed in its own right. This is not the remnants of Thin Lizzy or a Thin Lizzy tribute band. This is a fully fledged rock band of its own right, led by the very impressive Ricky Warwick who continue the Thin Lizzy legacy in their own way, producing new songs which hark back to Lizzy and yet have a significance of their own. Magical. Phil must be up there proud of how his legacy continues to thrive and move onward and forward.
A few songs in and they perform a wild heavy version of the Osmond’s “Crazy Horses”. Well, I always knew it was a heavy rock song! After a few more songs they are joined by Scott Gorham who looks older, and yet cooler and still playing great guitar. His long mane of blonde hair has somehow been transferred to the young guitarist in Black Star Riders. There really is some sort of magic in the air! At one point in the set, they are joined by Phil Campbell and later on Michael Monroe comes on for one song also.
A few more songs into the set and we are treated to Lizzy’s “Don’t Believe a Word”. Class; it all takes me back to the 1970s. Towards the end they play “Jailbreak”. One more song and then it is 11 PM and time to go home, content in the knowledge that the legacy of Thin Lizzy remains safe in the hands and voice of Ricky Warwick and the rest of Black Star Riders. You have done a great job Scott, continuing to fly the Lizzy flag and somehow, miraculously, managing to hand it safely over to the Black Star Riders. I wonder what that young 21-year-old Phil I chatted to over 50 years ago would make of it all? Happy days
Setlist: Pay Dirt; Another State of Grace; Better Than Saturday Night; When the Night Comes In; Riding Out the Storm; Wrong Side Of Paradise; Crazy Horses; All Hell Breaks Loose; Bloodshot; Soldierstown; Don’t Believe a Word (with Phil Campbell); Blindsided; The Killer Instinct; Before the War; Testify or Say Goodbye; Tonight the Moonlight Let Me Down (with Michael Monroe); Kingdom of the Lost; Bound for Glory; Jailbreak; Finest Hour.
Another night of memories and revisiting a band I followed many years ago. 
I first saw The Sweet live back in 1973 or 1974 when they were at the height of their fame and success, at Newcastle City Hall along with a good friend, Dave, who I have lost touch with and a hall full of screaming teenage girls. It really was a “Teenage Rampage” and lots and lots of fun! A few years later, after the hits had started to fade away, I saw them with my friend Norm and a few others on a very cold, wet evening at Sunderland Locarno. The venue was far from full but the show was excellent, very loud and quite heavy. Next time I saw them I was with my late wife Marie in a very empty City Hall. This was around 1981, and singer Brian Connolly had left the band to pursue I think a solo career. The Sweet continued as a three-piece band with Steve Priest taking on vocal duties and fronting the band. They still sang all of the hits but it wasn’t quite the same.
Roll-on 10 years or so and I saw Brian Connolly’s Sweet performing at Sunderland Polytechnic Students Union Wearmouth Hall at a packed Saturday night dance. This was Brian’s version of the band with a completely new set of musicians. Nevertheless, and of course, all the hits were performed well and the crowd went crazy. Then move forward another 20 years or so I saw Andy Scott’s Sweet performing as part of a 70s package tour alongside Slade (minus Noddy and fronted by guitarist Dave Hill alongside original drummer Don Powell).
The Boiler Shop is exactly what the name suggests, an old warehouse which in the past was an industrial workplace, situated behind Newcastle train station. My carer Jackie and I had a great view of the proceedings, sitting on a wheelchair platform overlooking the crowd with a direct view of the stage. Well by now, Andy Scott has achieved his dream and transformed The Sweet into a heavy rock band with new musicians around him all of whom look like they could have come from a true Hard Rock heavy metal band. Andy is the only surviving member of The Sweet. Brian Connolly sadly passed away in his early 50s, from alcoholism. Drummer Mick Tucker sadly passed away recently as did bassist and he of the bright ginger hair and crazy voice Steve Priest, who fronted his own version of the band situated in the USA.
So, Andy remains out on his own, to fly The Sweet flag high, having rejuvenated the band as out and out rockers, no longer closet heavy metal contenders. I buy a T-shirt and a couple of signed posters, one for me and one for my friend John in the USA. Soon the band take the stage and they are loud, heavy and I mean very LOUD. Great! They crash into “Action” and then follow this with a couple of heavier tunes. And that is the format for the evening: a hit followed by one or two heavier album or new tracks followed by another hit and so it goes onward.
Andy Scott looks great. All the heavy-metal hero with a long mane of pure white hair. Respect. He bangs away at his red Fender Stratocaster. “The Sixteens “(my particular favourite) soon follows and then we are treated to hit after hit. “Wigwam Bam”, “Little Willy”, “Hellraiser” and another classic “Love Is like Oxygen”. Just fantastic. Each one delivered in a new heavier, louder manner. These are no longer pop classics they are heavy metal songs!
Bear with me while I reminisce a little. I am in Sunderland Locarno in 1974. A band I have seen several times before, UFO, appear with a new guitarist. This guy is young, German, and with very long blonde hair playing a Gibson Flying V. His name is 
I am in Newcastle City Hall in 1978. Schenker has rejoined The Scorpions for a short period, reuniting with his brother Rudolf Schenker. The City Hall is packed, surprisingly I thought as this band were still largely unknown in the UK, and they were sensational.
support act 
song. Then “Rock Bottom”, “Shoot Shoot”, “Too Hot to Handle” and closing song “Only You Can Rock Me”. Fantastic. A great band, excellent UFO classic songs, and a wonderful performance by Michael Schenker on top form. It made an old man happy.
Well it has been more than 30 years since The Maiden and I touched base. Too long. I have many happy memories of 
They enter the stage to the music of UFO’s “Doctor Doctor” (great choice and clearly setting out their influences) and then straight into a set which draws from their entire back catalogue, and heavily from their new album The Book of Souls. There are lots of songs that are new to me, but they all sound great and when they go back to the early days and “Iron Maiden” and the first encore “The Number of the Beast”, I am on familiar territory. I was expecting “Run To the Hills” and they don’t play it, but hey you can’t always have everything. They leave the stage to the music of Monty Python’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”, which about sums the evening and the whole experience for me. My carer, Alan, was a Maiden virgin but really enjoyed the whole thing. A great night with a great band. It was like meeting old friends again. I was back on the rock ‘n’ roll rollercoaster; in a wheelchair, but still rocking away. Happy days are here again.
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