The band's
first two albums, "Thin Lizzy" and "Shades of a Blue Orphanage",
were considered flops. In 1973 though, the band had
a momentarily success, when their single "whiskey in the Jar",
a rock version of the old Irish folk tune, did very well
in the charts. The success was partial though - Bell was
afraid of it and left the band. Toward the next album the band signed two new guitarists - Scottish Brian 'Robbo' Robertson and American Scott Gorham. This lineup recorded 5 albums, with Moore helping out occasionally as a guitarist. Moore can be seen throughout Lizzy's career, filling in the guitarist spot on various ocassions. While the first three albums were not very focused, and sounded as a mixture of folk, blues and hard rock, with the entrance of Gorham and Robertson,
the band found
it's distinctive hard rock sound, along with beautiful
ballads. The two guitarists were developing a "twin guitar
sound", and were attracting the attention of music listeners
and rock critics. But the first two albums still didn't
get the band into the 'big league' of rock music. In 1976, the band released two more albums, but it's the first of them, "Jailbrek", which contains Thin Lizzy's biggest hit ever. "The Boys are Back in Town" was initially written on soldiers coming back from war to their hometown. It's in this song that you can hear the distinctive hard rock sound that is the rocking Thin Lizzy. With the success of this song the band became famous, and went for bigger tours including big tours in america. But success has an ugly face as well, and in the world of music it often means drugs. Lynott and Gorham started to use drugs on a very frequently basis , and developed an addiction that would eventually bring to the break-up of the band and the death of Lynott.
In 1978 Robertson was fired from the band after he was involved in a fight, cut his hand, and couldn't play guitar as a result. Moore was hired again as a replacement, and featured on the "Black Rose: A Rock Legend" album, but left the band soon, in the middle of the tour supporting the album. For the recording of the next album, "Chinatown", the band hired guitarist Snowy White, later known for the hit song "Bird of Paradise".
White also played on the
"Renegade" album, which featured a keyboardist for the first
time, in the form of Darren Wharton. By this time the band's
music was beginning to attract negetive responses and was
clearly on the way down. For it's final album, "Thunder and Lightning",
the band had another personnel change in the guitarist
spot, with John Sykes replacing White. Lynott issued two solo albums, 1980's "Solo in Soho" and 1982's "The Philip Lynott Album", and was working in a tight partnership with Ultravox's Midge Ure, as can be clearly heard on the single "Yellow Pearl". But by 1986 Lynott's health deteriorated badly, and on January 4th, 1986 he died of a heart failure and pneumonia, after years of a heavy drugs abuse.
