There are few bands I can honestly say had as much impact on me growing up as Thin Lizzy, but too young to ever catch them during Phil Lynott’s lifetime I never got to enjoy the definitive band ‘live’. The only man who was there with Phil all the way was Brian Downey – drummer on that very first album and still behind the drums for the final album ‘Thunder and Lightning’ in 1983.
We caught up with Brian to talk about Thin Lizzy on the eve of his homage to the legendary ‘Live and Dangerous’ album with his new band ‘Alive and Dangerous’ and end up taking about the genesis of the Black Star Riders and why he couldn’t be a part, those first days in London with Lizzy and memories of Phil…
Mark: Hi Brian, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today. I’ve had your music around me pretty much all my life so it’s wonderful to get the chance to talk.
Brian: Thank you, that’s excellent.
Mark: The main reason we’re calling is to find out about the shows you have coming up at the end of November to celebrate what many consider to be the finest ‘live’ album ever released ‘Live and Dangerous’ at Nell’s Jazz and Blues in London. How long had the idea of playing the ‘Live and Dangerous’ shows been on your mind?
Brian: Well the idea came about in 2015, the idea was going around my mind since the reunion band split in 2012-2013. Since that time I was trying to figure out how to get a band together, not necessarily to just play Thin Lizzy music, just to play as a band. So I had a friend here who played guitar, Brian Grace is his name, and we had a chat and over the period of a few months we developed the idea to get some kind of a band together and it so happened that the ‘Vibe for Philo’ was happening in Dublin around that period and I went down and had a look at a band that was playing called the Lowriders that Brian had recommended I should listen to. And when I heard all of those guys I was surprised to say the least because they sounded so good playing Lizzy songs. And I was invited up yo play with them so I played three or four numbers with them that night and from that we asked them to come down and do some rehearsing with us, in fact it was an audition,not really in the sense that we wanted to see how well they played as I already knew that but it was an audition to see how we would get on together in relation to the songs. To see if it would be feasible to get a band together to play that stuff on a regular basis really. So we went straight into rehearsals after that initial introduction. And that’s how the band actually came about. Doing the Live and Dangerous set was actually down to a friend of ours who suggested the ‘Alive and Dangerous ‘ name. Rather than just calling it ‘Live and Dangerous’ we just put a little inflection on it and called it ‘Alive and Dangerous’. So that really was the genesis of the band in 2015 and that sort of developed over the last year because we really started playing last January for another ‘Vibe for Philo’ we played all three nights at that concert. So the band really formed last January really.
Mark: Did you find yourself reflecting back to that album more so with the 40th Anniversary coming around next year?
Brian: I do yes, but the original idea wasn’t to do with the 40th Anniversary but it was pointed out to us that we were pretty close to the Anniversary and did we have anything else in mind, but really it was about something ongoing.
Mark: So is the idea to stick to the set-list from the album or cast the net wider?
Brian: Well the idea is to base it loosely on the set-list which is on the album. When I say loosely were not really consigned to play the whole album track-by-track, not as it appears on the album, but we will try and keep as close as possible to the running order and we do try to keep the spirit of the album in mind. Plus the fact that we can play from all the other albums as well, we’re not just confined to playing the ‘Live and Dangerous’ set but because it was such an important part of the bands set, the ‘Live and Dangerous’ set – we certainly keep to the spirit of it if not the strict order. But all the guys are well-versed in the back catalogue and it seems to me that they’ve grown up listening to these songs, and the guys are pretty young. Brian Grace is 48 so you might not class him as young but the rest of the band are between 24 and 26 years of age whose parents used to play Thin Lizzy in the house. So they grew up with Thin Lizzy songs so it was kind of easy in that respect to play with these guys. But the 40th Anniversary idea was certainly pointed out to us after the fact, but now that it has been pointed out we definitely want to capitalise on it, for want of a better word. We’ve taken it on board and that’s another publicity angle we can go for definitely.
Mark: So you’re looking to take this set on the road again after these shows and back again internationally?
Brian: Yes definitely, we just finished some shows in Germany a few weeks ago and we’ve done shows in France, shows in the Netherlands and also a short Irish tour that lasted a month but with shows spread out over a couple of months, so we’ve got a couple of tours under our belts already. at the minute we’re just looking forwards to playing at Nell’s Jazz and Blues in London for those two shows with the intention of hopefully getting more sows in the UK in the New Year. Hopefully those two shows will allow us to get a proper UK tour up and running in the New Year.
Mark: That’s wonderful and something a lot of people like myself would absolutely love to get out to see. Thin Lizzy’s music means so much to so many people and it’s great to see especially you out there playing it again. What was your take on the reformed Thin Lizzy after Phil’s passing, I know you were initially part of that first reunion but you left the band for the first time after those initial shows.
Brian: Well I was a part of that initial reunion as you say, I was on board for a few years and previous to that Scott and John Sykes had a version that I think had a few drummers on board like the drummer who used to play with Ozzy (Tommy Aldrich) and that went on for ten years, maybe even longer than the original band as going. So I did the early incarnation of that band and that tour in 1998 I think it was but after maybe a year of that I discovered they wanted to do more shows and really I wasn’t too interested in doing any more. I’d become involved initially really just to pay my respects to Phil back in ’97, ’98 but when I heard they were going to carry on dong it I really want interested in doing any more if it meant constantly touring and playing because I was think of doing something else with some musicians here and some in the UK I had in mind as well which sadly never materialised, but at that time I wasn’t to know that. So that was one of the reasons I didn’t want to go on – I just thought it wasn’t necessary to carry on touring after doing the initial shows dedicated to Phil Lynott. So Scott went on with John Sykes for another ten, twelve years.
Mark: And that was just a lull…
Brian: Yes, when the reunion happened again in 2011 without John Sykes this time and with Marco Mendoza on bass, Daren Wharton on keyboards and Vivian Campbell on guitar initially, but when he went back to Def Leppard we got Richard Fortus in from Guns N Roses and when he went back to Guns and Roses we had Damon Johnson came in from Alice Cooper at the end and it was at that point that the band was supposed to release a new album but because of the fact that we were trying to call ourselves Thin Lizzy that was rejected by Phil’s estate. So then really after that no one was really interested in carrying on after finding out we couldn’t record as Thin Lizzy. But really I think I was the only person who wasn’t really too put out about that because I suggested that we just carry on playing as Thin Lizzy. But everybody really didn’t want to know, I was the only one, and I ended up saying “Look if it’s not Thin Lizzy I’m not really interested.” When they decided to change the name, and I didn’t even know it was going to be called Black Star Riders at that time I just made it known that I wasn’t really that interested in changing the name and I just decided to step aside and let them replace me with a new drummer. And that’s exactly what happened, they then went on to become Black Star Riders. Even though I played in the demos on their first album, those demos were going to be the demos for the Thin Lizzy album that never happened. So I played on the demos but didn’t carry n to play on the album as I left at that particular stage.
Mark: There’s so many questions I want to ask you I could be here all day!
Brian: Well let’s keep talking then the next interview’s not for a while. Just carry on asking me questions!
Mark: OK just let me know if I start to bore you and I’ll stop!
Brian:(laughs)
Mark: You were one of just two people involved in every Thin Lizzy album so must have a pretty unique perspective on the legacy, I was lucky enough to get to ask Scott this a couple of years back and his answer was an interesting one,do you have a favourite Thin Lizzy album?
Brian: Favourites is a really hard question to answer, a favourite album out of all the albums Lizzy made is pretty hard to pick out , but I like the early albums, the Decca albums with Eric Bell.Maybe even the very first Thin Lizzy album called ‘Thin Lizzy’ could be my favourite album. I think it’s because the band was brand new at the time we were just really cruising around England, particularly London, playing all kinds of different venues. It was really exciting coming from Dublin to London, a much bigger City with a massive music scene, you know. So that was very memorable for us and I think for that reason I could pick that first album as my favourite because I can remember very vividly that whole period. You know, leaving Dublin on the boat, meeting John Peel when we were going over, then Kid Jensen picking up on the first album and playing it on his Radio Luxembourg Show every night for about six months, which was incredible. To see that period in the bands existence when major DJ’s in the UK were playing our songs constantly was just an incredible feeling.So maybe for that reason alone I can nominate the first album as my favourite.
Mark: It’s an incredible album. You just mentioned Eric Bell, it’s great to see he has a new album out too this year, then there’s your show, Scott and the Black Star Riders have a new album on the way and there’s just been a big Gary Moore retrospective that we’ve been to – there’s a lot of Thin Lizzy connected activity in 2017.
Brian: There is yes. It is incredible to think about it and a bit of a coincidence that we have three off-shoots of Thin Lizzy but that’s the case, and Darren Wharton’s band Dare is another offshoot. But it’s incredible to think that after all these years, and Phil is over 30 years dead now, that there’s a whole new generation coming up now discovering the band, discovering the albums, and them selling so well these days. It’s just incredible to thank that could happen but that’s exactly what has happened there’s been a huge rediscovery of Thin Lizzy music over the past 5, 10 years you know. Phil would be well proud of that. he’d love that fact that after all these years the music that he wrote is still so popular.
Mark: The music is absolutely timeless. After Thin Lizzy you played of course on Phil’s solo albums, you also played on John Sykes’s solo album…
Brian: Yeah I played on John’s, I played on Gary Moore’s as well.
Mark: I guess what I was driving towards was you’ve played on a lot of solo albums by other members of the band are you looking at doing, or over the years have you thought about your own solo record?
Brian: Well yeah that was one idea that was knocking about only a few weeks ago that we talked about. The initial idea when we formed this band was definitely to record new material after the initial touring that we’re going through now. So I think I said this on the introductory documentary that we made on the internet at the start of the year that yes there was definitely talk about it between me and Brian Grace that we would go into the studio and record some new material. But being a drummer it;s kind of hard to compose anything without learning too much guitar or anything else so I kind of depend on other players to come up with some ideas that we could throw about in the rehearsal studio. I personally couldn’t do it myself, write songs alone that is, so I do need collaboration with Bran and the guys t be able to write some stuff. And that’s what we intend to do in the next couple of months maybe,maybe after the UK Tour finishes, maybe in Springtime next year, that is if the UK Tour comes together. But we do intend to some time next year start writing new material and hopefully get into the studio before too long. At present though we’re just concentrating on the tour that’s coming up and hopefully some more dates in Europe because we were asked back at all the gigs in Holland and France and Germany as well.
Mark: If you could have been a fly on the all for the creation of any great album to see how the magic came together, what would you have loved to have seen?
Brian: Well the band really back in the early 70’s were really influenced by artists like Jimi Hendrix, Cream, bands of that ilk around that time, those two were certainly big influences, maybe not on Eric Bell, but certainly me. I was playing in a band the Sugar Shack before I joined Thin Lizzy and we were steeped in the Blues and playing the Clapton album with John Mayall, the first Hendrix album ‘Are You Experienced?’ was a big influence on me at the time. So those two albums spring to mind immediately. I would have been in my element if I’d been there and been playing with Hendrix on that first album even though its a complete pipe dream and Mitch Mitchell was incredible on that album. And to me that’s what makes that album the drumming and, not to take away from Noel Redding’s bass playing, Jimi’s playing – the affinity between those two instruments is just incredible. My fantasy would have been to play on that album and hopefully Mitch wouldn’t have minded (laughs) I had massive ambition back then! (laughs). And also with the Cream albums Fresh Cream was the first Cream album and I would have been in my element playing on that as well even though Ginger Baker was a king on that first album! There’s other albums as well, some of the early Deep Purple albums – ‘The Book of Taliesyn’ was a big influence on early Thin Lizzy as well.
Mark: Some wonderful music there Brian, and we always try to end with the easiest question: ‘What is the meaning of life?”
Brian: (laughs) Well that is a good question and I’m still trying to figure that out after all these years! (laughs) That’s the kind of question you could sit here till doomsday trying to figure it out and it might never hit you. But I think inspiration comes through life and the more inspiration you get the more you can appreciate life and all the good and the bad. I think that might e what you strive for and not to be too critical of life and to not be too judgemental is a good criteria to get through life, and take things as they come rather than try to avoid them, you know. Take everything in your stride basically, the bad and the good. I suppose that’s my recipe, maybe? The meaning of life is not easy to find but finding the recipe to live your life might be the way to go, you know.
Mark: That’s got me thinking now Brian, a great answer. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to The Rockpit today for me personally Thin Lizzy meant a huge amount growing up and I’m so happy to see you out there again playing the songs.
Brian: That’s wonderful Mark and hopefully if you’ve nothing to do on the 24th and 25th you can come down and see the show and we’ll put you on the guest list.
Mark: That would be amazing, what you’re doing is wonderful, keeping that great music alive that you were such a vital part of I can’t wait t see those dates all over the UK and hopefully further afield too.
Brian: Thank you so much Mark it was great speaking to you.
www.briandowneysaliveanddangerous.com
Brian Downey’s “Alive And Dangerous” – Original founding member of Thin Lizzy to perform the 40th anniversary of Thin Lizzy’s seminal live album Live at Nell’s Jazz & Blues, London
Friday 24th November 2017 and Saturday 25th November 2017
24 Hour Box Office: 0871 220 0260
Book Tickets Online: www.seetickets.com
