Brian Downey (drummer)
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Brian Downey (drummer)
Brian Michael Downey (born 27 January 1951) is an Irish drummer. He was a founding member of the rock band Thin Lizzy and the only other constant in the band aside from leader Phil Lynott until their disbandment in 1983. Downey also co-wrote several Thin Lizzy songs. Allmusic critic Eduardo Rivadavia has argued that Downey is "certainly one of the most underrated ock drummers!-- don't remove the brackets around "rock drummer"; the brackets indicate that the words "rock drummer" are not in the original cited quote but can be inferred by the context of the quote. --> of his generation". Career Growing up in Crumlin, Dublin, Brian's early musical influences came from his father who played in a local pipe band and loved jazz, and also from his 1960s heroes: The Kinks, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. In his youth, Downey met friend, co-founder and bass guitarist Phil Lynott, who attended the same school. Before forming Thin Lizzy, Downey had been in numerous school bands, be ...
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Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 census it had a population of 1,173,179, while the preliminary results of the 2022 census recorded that County Dublin as a whole had a population of 1,450,701, and that the population of the Greater Dublin Area was over 2 million, or roughly 40% of the Republic of Ireland's total population. A settlement was established in the area by the Gaels during or before the 7th century, followed by the Vikings. As the Kingdom of Dublin grew, it became Ireland's principal settlement by the 12th century Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest in the British Empire and sixth largest in Western Europe after the Acts of Union in 1800. Following independence in 1922, Dubli ...
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Darren Wharton
Darren Leigh Wharton (born 25 December 1961) is a British keyboardist, singer and songwriter. He has fronted his own band, Dare, since 1985, but first came to attention as a member of Thin Lizzy. His son, Paris, is also a musician. Biography Wharton was born in Failsworth, Lancashire in 1961. He was playing keyboards for a band in London clubs when he auditioned for Thin Lizzy. Thin Lizzy had not had a permanent keyboard player since their early gigs, but following the final departure of Gary Moore from the band on 4 July 1979, Midge Ure (who had prior plans to join Ultravox) stepped in to help Thin Lizzy complete their touring commitments. Before a tour of Japan beginning in September 1979, Dave Flett joined the band to enable Ure to switch to playing keyboards where necessary. Ure was still acting as a temporary keyboard player at gigs during early 1980, but when he left to be with Ultravox full-time, Lynott decided to look for a permanent keyboard player. Wharton got the job, ...
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Vagabonds Of The Western World
''Vagabonds of the Western World'' is the third studio album by Irish hard rock band Thin Lizzy, released in 1973. It was the band's last album with original guitarist Eric Bell and the first to feature the artwork of Jim Fitzpatrick, whose work would appear on many subsequent albums by the band. Reception Pitchfork reviewer Stuart Berman remarked how Thin Lizzy were "starting to kick out the jams with greater confidence and consistency" on this album, with Lynott producing "the sound of a spiritually adrift musician ecstatically discovering his true calling." Canadian journalist Martin Popoff remarked the album's "crusty sound quality and style-searching waywardness", mixing influences ranging from American blues, to Motown, to early metal. He rated ''Vagabonds of the Western World'' the lowest of all Thin Lizzy's albums for four tracks which "seem either simple and out-of-character or dated", "bearing scant few traces of the high class Lizzy imprint."Eduardo Rivadavia of AllM ...
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Shades Of A Blue Orphanage
''Shades of a Blue Orphanage'' is the second studio album by Irish rock band Thin Lizzy, released in 1972. The title is a combination of the members' previous bands: Shades of Blue and Orphanage. "Sarah" was written for Phil Lynott's grandmother who raised him when his mother, Philomena, was unable to do so. This song should not be confused with the 1979 song of the same name, for Lynott's daughter, included on '' Black Rose: A Rock Legend''. A remastered and expanded version of ''Shades of a Blue Orphanage'' was released on 11 October 2010. Reception Stuart Berman of Pitchfork stated that Thin Lizzy "weren’t lacking ambition at this stage, but rather direction", criticizing songs such as the album opener for its "early, clumsy stab at heaviosity from a band that, at this point, had a much better grasp of intimacy", but praising "Lynott’s lyrical voice" as a "sturdy anchor" to the band's output. Martin Popoff defined ''Shades of a Blue Orphanage'' "a honest work", showing ...
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Thin Lizzy (album)
''Thin Lizzy'' is the debut studio album by Irish rock band Thin Lizzy, released on 30 April 1971. The album was followed by the EP ''New Day'', produced and recorded by Nick Tauber at Decca Studios on 14–17 June 1971 and released on 20 August 1971. The songs from the EP were included in later editions of the album. Background and recording In the autumn of 1970, Brian Tuite and Peter Bardon took over the management of Thin Lizzy. Lynott told Tuite: "we've got twelve songs at the moment that we'd be happy enough to record". after listening to some of the songs Tuite tried to find a record deal for the band. Since he had a good friendship with Decca Records's A&R man, Frank Rodgers, tried to arrange a gig for Thin Lizzy and another of his acts, soul singer Ditch Cassidy. Cassidy lacked his regular band, and so Tuite put Thin Lizzy as his backing band. After watching Thin Lizzy's performance at the Zhivago Club on 12 November 1970, Frank Rodgers showed his interest in them rat ...
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Close As You Get
''Close as You Get'' is sixteenth solo album by Northern Irish blues guitarist and singer Gary Moore. The album reunited Moore with his former Thin Lizzy Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Their music reflects a wide range of influences, including blues, soul music, psychedelic rock and traditional Irish folk music, but is generally classified as hard rock or som ... colleague, drummer Brian Downey who played on all the tracks. Track listing Personnel *Gary Moore - vocals, guitar, dobro on "Sundown" * Brian Downey - drums *Vic Martin - keyboards *Pete Rees - bass * Mark Feltham - harmonica on "Hard Times" and "Checkin' Up on My Baby" *Produced by Gary Moore and Ian Taylor *Engineered and mixed by Ian Taylor, assisted by Jonathan Tayler-Webb. *Recorded and mixed at Sarm Hookend, except "I Had a Dream" backing track, recorded at Sphere Studios by Franco Cameli, assisted by Joshua Blair. References 2007 albums Eagle Records albums ...
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Gary Moore
Robert William Gary Moore (4 April 19526 February 2011) was a Northern Irish musician. Over the course of his career he played in various groups and performed a range of music including blues, blues rock, hard rock, heavy metal, and jazz fusion. Influenced by Peter Green and Eric Clapton, Moore began his career in the late 1960s when he joined Skid Row, with whom he released two albums. After Moore left the group he joined Thin Lizzy, featuring his former Skid Row bandmate and frequent collaborator Phil Lynott. Moore began his solo career in the 1970s and achieved major success with 1978's "Parisienne Walkways", which is considered his signature song. During the 1980s, Moore transitioned into playing hard rock and heavy metal with varying degrees of international success. In 1990, he returned to his roots with ''Still Got the Blues'', which became the most successful album of his career. Moore continued to release new music throughout his later career, collaborating with ...
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Black Star Riders
Black Star Riders is a hard rock band formed in December 2012. The band began when members of the most recent line-up of Thin Lizzy decided to record new material, but chose not to release it under the Thin Lizzy name. While Thin Lizzy continues on an occasional basis, Black Star Riders is a full-time band, described as "the next step in the evolution of the Thin Lizzy story". The band's first album, '' All Hell Breaks Loose'', was released on May 21, 2013, and the follow-up album, ''The Killer Instinct'' was released on February 20, 2015. The band's third album, '' Heavy Fire'', was released on February 3, 2017, and reached number six on the UK Albums Chart. Black Star Riders is fronted by Ricky Warwick, and originally featured lead guitarist Scott Gorham and bass guitarist Marco Mendoza. Mendoza was replaced by Robbie Crane in 2014. Drummer and founding member Jimmy DeGrasso left the band in March 2017, and was replaced a few weeks later by Chad Szeliga. Another founding membe ...
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Richard Fortus
Richard Fortus (born November 17, 1966) is an American guitarist. He has been a member of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he has recorded one studio album, since 2001. Fortus has also collaborated extensively with The Psychedelic Furs frontman Richard Butler and fellow Guns N' Roses bandmate Frank Ferrer. Aside from lead singer Axl Rose and keyboardist Dizzy Reed, Fortus is the longest-tenured member of Guns N' Roses, having been with the band continuously since 2002. Alongside his work in Guns N' Roses, Fortus is a former member of Love Spit Love, Thin Lizzy, and The Dead Daisies. Career Early life and beginning career Fortus was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He began learning violin at 4 years old and the drums a year later. Fortus studied at the Conservatory of the Arts in St. Louis and Southern Illinois University and also played in several youth symphonies in the St. Louis area. The Eyes/Pale Divine (1984–91) Fortus founded the band The Eyes in 1984. The ...
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Damon Johnson
Damon Rogers Johnson (born July 13, 1964) is an American guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter, currently a solo artist and member of Thin Lizzy. In the 1990s he co-founded Brother Cane, and later joined Alice Cooper's band as lead guitarist. He was also the lead guitarist and co-songwriter for hard rock group Black Star Riders from 2012 to 2018. Johnson has also released several solo albums and his songs have been recorded by many artists including Stevie Nicks and Carlos Santana. Early career Johnson lived in Monroeville, Alabama during his grade school years. It was there that he became obsessed with guitar and formed his first garage band, called Renegade, with other 8th grade friends, Pat Buskill, Mac Baker, Allen Nettles and Troy Dobbins. He later moved with his family to Geraldine, Alabama where he graduated high school, all the while playing in various bands in the northeast Alabama area. He played with Pat Upton's band Headline to large crowds in Upton's bar, P.J.'s Alley ...
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Ricky Warwick
Ricky Warwick (born 11 July 1966) is a Northern Irish musician and the lead singer of the rock bands Black Star Riders and Thin Lizzy. He is also the frontman for the Scottish hard rock band The Almighty, with whom he achieved chart success in the UK throughout the 1990s, although the band is currently on hiatus. Warwick has released several solo albums and performed with a variety of other bands and artists, and also fronts his own band, The Fighting Hearts, to showcase his solo material. Early life Warwick was born in Newtownards, County Down, where he spent his formative years, and got his first guitar at 14 years old. He was soon playing along to songs by various rock and country acts such as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. Warwick quickly migrated to the music of more harder-edged acts such as Motörhead, MC5, Stiff Little Fingers and The Clash. He later reminisced that "Those artists gave me a voice", adding that "...when no one would listen to a fourteen ...
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The Almighty (band)
The Almighty were a Scottish hard rock/ heavy metal band from Glasgow formed in 1988. Three of the founding members, Ricky Warwick, Stump Monroe and Floyd London were friends who met at school. Although the band members musical roots were in punk, the Almighty adopted a more heavy metal/hard rock oriented musical direction in their early years. Later albums saw the band's musical style move towards the band members' original punk roots. They have released seven studio albums, two anthologies and one live album. History 1988–1993 The Almighty were formed in Strathaven on 19 January 1988. Most of the musicians came from a punk background. Lead singer Ricky Warwick had previously done some session and tour work with New Model Army, although not on any of their recordings. Ricky, drummer Stump Monroe and bass guitarist Floyd London were friends at school and had previously played together in a local band called Rough Charm. The three were joined by guitarist Andy 'Tantrum ...
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