The boy is back in town – Eric Bell for city gig
Eric Bell, a founding member of Thin Lizzy and a true legend of rock music, plays Monroe’s Live on Thursday, June 25. He played with Phil Lynott and Lizzy in Salthill back in 1970 and remembers a place that was a little rough around the edges.
“I do remember standing onstage and Philip coming over to me saying, ‘dig the light show’. And there was one electric bulb on top of the stage!
Life was far from glamorous for the Thin Lizzy members before the band became an international powerhouse, according to Eric.
“There were a lot places in Ireland that we played in early days that didn’t have their own PA system,” he says. “So we had to bring our own sometimes. I remember we did our second audition for Decca records in The Speakeasy in London. It was in the afternoon and I remember Philip and I carrying his bass cabinet down this very narrow corridor and scraping our knuckles going on to the stage.”
Born in Belfast in 1947, Bell was taken with music from a very early age. The skiffle singer Lonnie Donegan, also beloved by Van Morrison and the Rolling Stones, was a seminal early influence.
“Oh, Lonnie Donegan was like God,” Eric says. “The first time I heard him on the radio, Rock Island Lime, I think it was and I’d never heard anything like it. He just went totally insane in the vocals. To this day, I think he’s one of the best singers that ever lived.”
Eric shared the stage with someone who, some would argue, was also like a god. Phil Lynott looms large over Irish music still, even though it’s almost 30 years since he died. What did he have that was so special?
“Obviously, being a black Irishman, for a start – that’s pretty unique,” Eric says. “Now, he was a good-looking guy and he knew how to dress. He pushed himself a lot. He had an incredible amount of energy and determination and was always working on what he wanted.”
For more, see this week's Connacht and City Tribune