Artist: Thin Lizzy 
   Title: UK Tour '75
   Label: RSK

Could this be the album that gives Thin Lizzy a new army of fans from the ranks of the young rock fans looking for some older bands to check out?  Everyone knows the classic Lizzy songs, but on this live album you that something bit special which is the possible birth of fans favourite, ‘The Cowboy Song’, as it hadn’t even been written properly at the time of this gig at Derby College. You get Phil Lynott literally ad-libbing as the song goes along compared to what it ends up in its best known form we love today.

You also get something completely different to the usual live album, and that’s the sound check session from the band done before the fans were there, with both Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson each trying guitar solos to get warmed up for the gig.  Once the album kicks off it seems that if you close your eyes you feel like you’re actually at the concert, because along with the onstage banter from Lynott (possibly the coolest frontman ever?), it’s the fact that any slight mistakes made aren’t taken out or disguised by the engineers and the crowd noise throughout isn’t toned down from the music, giving the listener the true sense of a live album, and that’s where ‘Live and Dangerous’ comes that bit short for me.

The ‘classic’ line-up of Lynott (bass guitar\vocals), Brian Downey (drums), Scott Gorham (lead guitar) and Brian Robertson (lead guitar) are on top form here from start to finish, giving you the gems that are ‘Rosalie’ that sounds more rough-edged, even better than the 1978 version, that jumps into a blistering ‘Rocker’ where Lynott makes you really believe he is!

Downey sounds like he’s having a whale of a time on the drums racing along with the manic guitar solo just to let people know he’s there, and he really is on ‘Sha La La’, with its choppy guitars, but it’s the drum solo that steals the song from the rest of the band. You have to hear it to realise just how good a drummer he is, and how he doesn’t get a mention along with other so-called greats is beyond me.  No wonder the crowd went wild!!  Mind you, they were ever so quiet for Lizzy’s most famous love song ’Still In Love With You’, that still does the job now when played live.  Here it’s a longer version than usual, but who cares?

Compared to that though is ‘Suicide’, which rips the silence apart with its heavy blues\rock formula, Gorham and Robertson playing off each other as Lynott growls out his vocals as comforting as ever!  The band prove how much of a tight unit they are no more than on ‘Me And The Boys’, a raucous, fast bluesy\rock n roll song where everyone has their moment at some point that leaves you breathless by the end.  You wouldn’t believe that around this time Thin Lizzy were facing the prospect of being dropped by their record label as they weren’t ‘delivering the goods’, and it wasn’t until 1976s ‘Jailbreak’ album and the now legendary single ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ where they shoved it back in their bosses faces.

If ‘UK Tour ‘75’ proves anything then its that maybes all of Lizzy’s albums should have been live, as it shows the band at their very best, an exciting, powerful rock band who loved playing for the fans, where as in the studio they seemed to be stagnated and not quite enjoying themselves.  This album has the possibility of being as successful as ‘Live And Dangerous’ even these days so don’t be surprised if it ends up being so, ‘cos it’s a cracker!  

Review by: Bob

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