Thin Lizzy - the boys are back in Wolverhampton

When the latest incarnation of Thin Lizzy hits Wolverhampton Civic Hall in January it will mark two important anniversaries in the band's illustrious history,

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The first is, of course, the untimely death of Thin Lizzy's iconic frontman, Phil Lynott, 25 years ago.

The other one is more esoteric but no less important for fans. For it was at Wolverhampton's famous Lafayette club that the legendary guitar pairing of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson made their live debut.

Speaking on the phone from his home in Ireland, founder member and drummer Brian Downey says: "That was the very first gig they played. It would have been '75, around that time. The very, very first time the two guys played with us was in the Lafayette in front of about 25 people!"

The other Wolverhampton connection Downey remembers is going out as support act to Slade.

"We became very good friends with Noddy and the guys. They helped us out fantastically on that tour, just before Whiskey In The Jar. We were nobodies on that tour. Suzi Quatro was on the same bill."

It is a quite different Thin Lizzy line-up that will tread the boards at the Civic, with Downey back on drums, Scott Gorham and Def Leppard's Vivian Campbell on guitars, Darren Wharton on keyboards, Marco Mendoza (Whitesnake/Ted Nugent) on bass and lead vocal duties taken by Ricky Warwick from The Almighty.

"It will never be Thin Lizzy really without Phil," admits Downey. "But what it does have is, it has the basic quality that we used to have."

He explains how the tour came about: "I got a call from Scott and we just had a little chat and we decided maybe we should do something for the 25^th anniversary. And this is the result of it.

"Vivian Campbell has been around for quite a while. He actually played in a bad called Sweet Savage who supported Thin Lizzy back in the day. He's a friend from Belfast we've known for quite a long time. He plays with Def Leppard as you know, he was off the road and we were scheduled to do this tour and he was doing nothing in those two months

"The original idea was to get Robbo (Brian Robertson) back believe it or not. I still have contact with Brian. But he was kind of busy doing something on his own, recording his own album and thinking of going out on tour with his own band. So that didn't really happen the way I wanted it to happen. The best alternative would have been Vivian. He's a great guy and a friend and also a big Lizzy fan. He knew all the songs and he knew all the basic solos we used to play so he was the obvious choice.

"We went out to Los Angeles for a couple of weeks rehearsal and it sounded fantastic.

"I think Ricky did a great job at rehearsals. He's got his work cut out to get these songs together. We didn't want him to be a carbon copy of Phil, he has his own way of singing these songs. Most of the time he interprets the songs the way he wants to do it, and that's fine with me. But there are some parts where you have to phrase them right and he's got that pretty down to a 'T'. So he does bring his own stamp to the songs as well."

So what can fans expect from the tour? Downey runs through a whole list of 24-carat rock classics: The Boys Are Back InTown, Are You Ready?, Waiting for an Alibi, Jailbreak, Whisky In The Jar, Rosalie and Bad Reputation. The list goes on.

"You can expect all sorts of hits plus album tracks in there and I think everybody hopefully will enjoy it," he says.

We get to talking about memorable Midlands dates. The Lafayette comes to mind for Downey, as does Wolverhampton Civic and also Stafford's Bingley Hall.

"I remember Bingley Hall very well. That was a big gig for us at the time," he says.

"A huge amount of people came to see us. I remember we were up and coming then and obviously we'd had a hit with Whiskey in the Jar and the Boys Are Back In Town and up to that time we were playing much smaller venues.

"Bingley Hall was a big venue for us and that's why it sticks in my mind because it was one of the bigger venues that we happened to play in the UK at the time. I remember driving in to the venue and there was this big crowd, this big queue of people waiting to get in and that sticks in my mind."

As well as the tour, 2011 also sees the release of some remastered and expanded classic Thin Lizzy albums in the shape of Jailbreak, Johnny The Fox and Live And Dangerous, which have been remixed and tweaked at Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott's home studio.

"I went down to Joe's and had a listen, in fact I was in there remixing some stuff with Scott and Joe and everything sounds pretty good. The drums come out really, really strong. In the 70s the drum sounds seemed to be hidden back in the mix so now we've brought them out a bit more. It sounds fantastic to me. "

The studio rereleases are packed with rarities: " Yeah, 'Scott's Song' is on there, which I haven't heard in ages and I think that was originally called Song For Jessie. And there are one or two other little gems in there which haven't seen the light of day for quite a while. I think the fans are going to be completely mesmerised by it. "

Listening to the discs you can't help wondering about what might have been had Lynott's drug and alcohol problems not led to his death from heart failure and pneumonia on January 4, 1986.

"I think Phil would have been out there with us and doing it if he was still around," insists Downey.

"I don't think there's any doubt about that because before he died he was talking about getting the band back together. We had a meeting in London about six months before he died.

"Unfortunately nobody knew how bad he was but at that particular meeting I had with Phil he was very positive about getting the band back together again. Unfortunately that didn't happen - he passed away six months later.

"If he was around today he would have been on the road doing this tour with us."

• Thin Lizzy play Wolverhampton Civic Hall on Friday January 14, 2011, with support from The Union. Tickets cost £23.50 plus booking fees where applicable.