The Life Of Brian

Glasgow-born Brian Robertson was just 18 years of age when he landed the gig as Thin Lizzy co-lead guitarist in 1974, but the acclaimed Scottish rock ‘n’ roller doesn’t have especially strong memories of his first meeting with the band’s enigmatic frontman.

“My recollections of my first meeting with Phil are fairly cloudy,” he admits. “I was always a bit of a fan of the band. I’d met him a couple of times before I auditioned for Thin Lizzy, when I was playing in support bands or whatever. So when I met him at the rehearsals in London, it wasn’t actually the first time. But at those rehearsals we didn’t really speak an awful lot, we just got up and played. We didn’t really start writing until after we’d been on the road for a bit. We clicked at the first rehearsals, but writing-wise we didn’t really start until we’d been on the road for a while.”
Robertson toured, recorded and partied with the band from 1974 until 1978, over the course of which he contributed to no less than five studio albums, from Nightlife to Bad Reputation, as well as the classic Live And Dangerous.
“I’ve loads of other memories of my time with Lizzy,” he says. “Playing Wembley for the first time was quite weird. I remember doing seven days on the trot in Hammersmith, which was pretty crazy. I guess the Hammersmith gigs probably stick in my head more because it was seven days in the same venue.”
Seven gigs in a week must have been pretty tough going. Did he have any time to sleep?
“Sleep?” he laughs, dismissively. “Not in those days, mate. I was a bit younger then. We were partying hard but it was the nature of the beast.”
Needless to say, sleeplessness was probably only one factor in his occasionally fractious relationship with Lynott.
“We got on great, but we also had our little spats, as I’m sure you know. But that was just the nature of our relationship, really. He was like a big brother to me.”
Despite his eventual departure from the fold (he was replaced with Gary Moore, whom he had originally replaced in 1974), Robertson remained good friends with Lynott right up to his death. Indeed, he saw his old bandmate at his Kew home in Richmond-Upon-Thames just a few days before he died.
“I’d actually seen him the night before he got taken to the hospital,” he says. “I went down to give him his Christmas present. I went down to his house with Ronnie Wood’s son, actually. I was living with his ex-wife and his son at the time, just up the road. So I went down and Philomena opened the door of the house. She was a bit upset. So I went up to his bedroom to see him, and he was a mess. I told her, ‘You better get a doctor in quick, this is bad’.
“And I was in the house up the road when Big Charlie rang me and told me what had happened, just as it was coming up on the TV. It was a bit of a shock.”
Given his bacchanalian lifestyle, did he always feel that Phil was going to go young?
“You never do, really,” he says, shaking his head sorrowfully. “You never expect that sort of thing. I knew he was in pretty bad shape. Like I say, I didn’t live far away from him so we were always in contact and always seeing each other, so I kind of knew he was not in a great way. But I didn’t realise he was as bad as he was. I hadn’t been on the road with him or anything for quite some time, so I only really saw him at home.”
Since leaving Thin Lizzy, Robertson has gone on to have a fairly illustrious rock ‘n’ roll career as guitar gunslinger for hire, playing with everyone from Motörhead and David Bowie to Shane MacGowan and Wild Horses.
“I played on a lot of stuff – so much I can barely remember,” he laughs. “Years of rock ‘n’ roll sort of blend into each other, if you know what I mean.”
Robertson has reunited with his former Lizzy bandmates for a number of Lynott tribute shows over the years, and he’s played at several of the annual Vibes For Philo in Dublin.
“Over the years I’ve done a fair amount of them. I think he would’ve appreciated them. I know his mum does. So if she was happy then he would be. I think he would’ve been quite amazed it’s gone on so long, to be honest.”
Robertson’s recently released debut solo album, Diamonds And Dirt, features covers of three original Lynott compositions.
“We do ‘It’s Only Money’, ‘Running Back’ and ‘Blues Boy’, which was a track we used to do live. On the live set, we’ll do five altogether.”
His band is a supergroup of sorts, comprised of several big names from other major rock acts.
“My fabulous band,” he smiles. “They’re all just friends actually, to be honest. It just sort of happened this way. Ian Haugland on drums, he’s from the band Europe, and I’ve known him for years. He also does a radio show in Stockholm, where I spend a lot of my time, so I used to do his live shows with him in the mornings, pick records and all sorts of stuff. So he’s the drummer. Bass-player is Namme Pahlsson. He plays bass for Treat. He plays with Ian a lot, too, so we’ve got a really tight rhythm section.
“Our lead singer is a guy called Leif Sundin, and he’s with the Michael Schenker Group; Chris Laney is playing rhythm guitar; and a girl called Liny Wood is doing my second vocals and backing vocals, and doing a bit of percussion for us. And that’s it.”
As someone who co-wrote numerous songs with Lynott, what’s Robertson’s all time favourite Lizzy track?
“I really like ‘It’s Only Money’, always have done,” he says. “Obviously ‘Still In Love With You’ is up there as a favourite. Mainly because I get to play a lot on it!”
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt after a lifetime in rock ‘n’ roll?
“Ah, there’s so many,” he sighs. “Just to keep going, I guess. Don’t give up on it and stick to your guns, basically.”