New Thin Lizzy re-issues released

Deluxe re-issues of the classic Thin Lizzy albums Nightlife and Fighting, together with a previously unseen live DVD, were released on Monday March 19.

Both albums come with bonus discs of b-sides, demos and previously unreleased material.

Nightlife, originally released in 1974, was Lizzy’s fourth studio album and marked the start of their classic era featuring Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson, alongside founders Philip Lynott and Brian Downey. This re-issue comes with a BBC session from that October, three demos recorded with the late Gary Moore, the previously unreleased Showdown and an unreleased alternate take of Still In Love With You.

It was followed a year later by Fighting. This edition again features a mixture of previously unreleased tracks alternate takes, as well as a three-song BBC session from May 1975.

The DVD - Live at the National Stadium Dublin - is a package of never-before-released archive material from Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE. It features the concert of the same name, which features the classic four-piece line-up and is the only live footage of much of the classics from the Fighting era, with the original audio newly restored and remastered. The package also features two documentaries: Renegade - The Philip Lynott Story, an in-depth, fly-on-the-wall discussion with Phil himself, offering an amazing personal insight into Phil’s creative work, as well as the only known live footage of his solo band, and The Sun Goes Down, shot in Ireland during the band’s Thunder and Lightning tour in 1983 and featuring exclusive behind-the-scenes footage as well as two live tracks, Are You Ready from the show in Belfast and The Sun Goes Down from Dublin. Two other special bonus features are 6/5 Live, a special RTE TV performance featuring two live tracks, Are You Ready and Whiskey in the Jar, and the promo video for the Lynott solo track, Old Town.

The current incarnation of Thin Lizzy – featuring Gorham and Downey, alongside Northern Ireland born frontman Ricky Warwick – kick off an eight date British tour in Coventry on May 15. They also headline the Belsonic festival in Belfast on August 18, with The Darkness also on the bill.

Devilish Truckers

Over the past year or so, there is one band name I have seen on flyers, posters, etc., which has meant that, whenever I go to see them, they guarantee me one helluva fucking good time. And that name, of course, is Trucker Diablo.
Finally, the party hard quartet have released their debut opus, The Devil Rhythm - and, by fuck, has it been worth the wait!
Put quite simply, this is ten blistering beer-, diesel- and whiskey-soaked powerhouse tunes which roll out of your speakers with the demonic intent of... well... a beer- and whiskey-soaked trucker - and then some.
Tom, Simon, Glenn and Terry set out their stall with the opening bars of the self-explanatory 'Drink Beer, Destroy', with its catchy suvern blooze infused hooks and equally catchy, nay infectious, chorus. The band are as tight as fuck, with Tom and Simon's guitars both complementing and bouncing off each other as required, while Glenn and Terry provide a backdrop tighter than a nun's crack! 'Juggernaut' features the band's old friend Ricky Warwick, who parties just as hard as the rest of the band.
Other highlights include the live favourite 'Big Truck', the bluesier 'Voodoo', the wonderful 'Dirty Love' and closer 'Rattelhead', which features the best banjo intro I have heard on a rock song since Blackfoot's seminal 'Rattlesnake Rock n Roller'.
And the Blackfoot comparison is a fair one. The album has the overall feel of 'Marauder' era Medlocke, coupled with the rawness of early ZZ Top, the catchiness of the Black Crowes and the passion of our own Thin Lizzy. And its all perfectly delivered thanks to a great production by Frankie McClay - clean and crisp but with enough dirt on its boots to capture the spirit of TD's always superb live shows.
This, quite frankly, is essential listening.
Available directly from the band @ www.myspace.com/truckerdiablo