So there I was sitting in Technical Drawing class at school, must've been about 14 or 15 at the time, and my mate Crawford - who sat opposite me - says from over the drawing board "My older brother can't make it so I've got a spare ticket for Thin Lizzy at the Glasgow Apollo, do you fancy it?"

Now I must admit I didn't know much about Lizzy at the time (Whiskey In The Jar anyone?) and they weren't particularly trendy (not helped by the aforementioned tune - and that's not to belittle that particular song and it's impact in any way). I was into Bowie etc and punk was about to explode in a fireball of safety pins and spit which would leave an indelible mark on me - and probably everyone else, however 'Boys Are Back In Town' was a recent hit and it sounded kinda rocky, also gigs were 'it' for us (I mean, I played guitar in a band don't you know, but then everyone did in those days!). So suitably enticed (I could never resist the Apollo - now gone and sadly missed) I said yeah, okay, and the following week off we went to see Thin Lizzy...

You'll gather from the fact I'm writing this article that I was a tad impressed by my first Lizzy gig ;-) it really was a special experience, I was a young wannabe rockstar/guitarist type person (like everyone else I guess!) and Robertson/Gorham just left me speechless. Robbo in particular was an inspiration, after all he was from my home town of Glasgow and he was actually THERE, DOING IT! He was the guitar hero we all wanted to be, it was an incredible thing to behold. I went out and bought the Jailbreak album, fell in love with that whole concept storyline thing (which seemed to be what happened with albums in those days - post Ziggy etc) and realised that I absolutely MUST have a cherry sunburst Les Paul, Marshall stack, and long hair :-) Now the first two were not quite in the price bracket of a Glaswegian teenager financed solely by a Sunday paper round, however the long hair I duly grew, though not for a few years after I'd 'de-punked' ;-) Then I set about losing it, something to do with going bald... indeed these days I sport an acceptance haircut: a number 2 all over, well, that's a bit optomistic, round the sides, arf! ;-)

Anyway, after that first gig I saw Lizzy probably another 4 or 5 times at the Apollo, if they played 2 nights I went to both, and they were some of the BEST gigs I've seen, in fact the Robbo/Scott gigs were probably THE best I've ever seen, but that's not to underestimate the later ones with Gary Moore, because they were also astounding. On the subject of Gary Moore: I'm in the Robbo/Scott camp when it comes to comparing the different Lizzy 'flavours'. Gary Moore is an unbelievable guitarist, technically outstanding, but I just always got the impression he was from the "why play one perfectly placed note when you could squeeze another three in..." school of thought. Okay, so I'm probably gonna get my arse flamed over that, but I just thought I'd lay my cards on the table folks! Anyroadup, for various reasons I lost track a bit after Black Rose, but Thin Lizzy had made their mark and the music stayed with me, it inspired and encouraged, consoled and caressed, throughout the different musical avenues I've subsequently visited down the years.

Fast Forward 2002: I became 40 years old in the July. In the January prior, Paula (my partner for the last 20 years) and I made our first visit to the Vibe, why it was the first I'm still not sure, we just didn't really know about it I guess, but the internet is a wonderful thing! Anyway, we were there at the Submarine in Crumlin (and the pre-Vibe in the Isaac Butt) and had a great time, we immediately knew we'd be back the following year. Seems like a good time to add a link to the official Vibe website, THE place to go to find out what's going on, you can now buy official merchandise etc thanks to the hard work of Fluffs, the Vibe Webdude:

Vibe 2003: The Pilgrimage.
Click the title above for the personal story of our trip to the Vibe, including the details of how I ended up playing at the pre-Vibe!, the photo's didn't turn out too good unfortunately - might've been something to do with the fact we were pished most of the time ;-)  but I'll post the 'best' anyway and I've started adding some, in the meantime here's a wee collage of piccy's and also the MP3's associated with our trip to the pre-Vibe.

Any comments, thoughts or retorts please email: john@johnbell.co.uk