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I'm on the Woodstock road Belfast, at Jocelyn Street, to capture the unveiling of a new piece of street art, that celebrates the fact that rocker, Eric Bell, founder member of the band Thin Lizzy, grew up on there!
Eric played with Thin Lizzy as guitarist between 1969 and 1973. He played on their first three albums/LPS. Their third LP cover, created by artist Jim Fitzpatrick, has been recreated as a tribute to 76 year old Eric Bell on a gable wall of Jocelyn street where Eric Bell grew up.
Eric Bell, born in 1947, went to Orangefield boys' school. In 1962 he left school at 16, to become a motor mechanic but his heart wasn't in it. He tried numerous jobs, even becoming a lamp lighter, for all of 10 days! All he wanted to do was play rock 'n' roll and the blues!
A couple of years passed and he found himself playing in the last reincarnation of Van Morrison's Them.
Next up and Eric Bell joined the showband scene and played with the Dreams. He had moved to Dublin. His stint with the Dreams was short lived and soon the money was running out.
'I was asking a lot of musicians to form a group with me but no one was interested. Forming Thin Lizzy almost happened by accident. One night I went to this club with, (Belfast organist for Them and later Thin Lizzy), Eric Wrixon. This band walked on stage called the Orphanage. I thought, "Wow". Philip (Lynott, future Thin Lizzy frontman), was out front singing. Brian Downey on the drums was incredible. When they finished I was talking to Philip. I kept saying to him, "I'm looking out for a bass player and drummer". I was just about to walk out of the changing room and Philip called me back. If that hadn't happened there would have been no Thin Lizzy.
Eric Bell is credited with giving Thin Lizzy their unique name.
'I got this very profound idea that people in Dublin talk differently from people in Belfast. They don't pronounce their Hs, they say 'Tick' instead of thick.
So I had this idea of a female robot out of the Dandy called Tin Lizzy. I said,
"Why don't we call the band Tin Lizzy, but put an H in it and people in Dublin will still pronounce it the same way?"
Thin Lizzy first big hit was, Whiskey in the Jar, and Eric Bell composed the guitar section. 'It was a complete shock because we didn't want to record it. It was done as a joke. It was our first single for Decca Records, called Black Boys On The Corner, and we wanted that as the A-side, but we had no B-side. Our manager suggested we try, Whiskey in the Jar. We hated it but he said, "Why don't you try it anyway?" They gave me a cassette and asked me to work out some guitar work. It took me forever, about five or six weeks. It was the most difficult piece of music I'd tried to make something up for, in my life.'
After 4 hectic years on the road with Thin Lizzy, Eric Bell suddenly walked away from the band in 1973. He says, it was something of a relief.
'If I hadn't have left I'd be either dead or a junkie and alcoholic, take your pick. I was going off the rails - an awful lot of drink, drugs, taking acid, Valium from the doctor. I was like a basket case basically. I was only about 21 or 22. I wasn't happy with my playing either and I had stopped practicing. Everything came to a head that night. I was just out of it, I didn't know where I was, who I was, or what I as doing. This little warning voice inside me said: "Eric, you've gotta get out of here. You've gotta leave tonight! So I listened to that voice and physically took my guitar off and threw it in the air and kicked all my amplifiers off and staggered off the stage.' Eric Bell was temporarily replaced by another Belfast guitarist........... called Gary Moore.
There was life after Thin Lizzy though. Eric went on to play with The Noel Redding Band, (the famous bass player for the Jimi Hendrix Experience).
He followed this by joining saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith's eight-piece blues rock ensemble, Mainsqueeze. They toured Europe, recorded a live album in 1983, and later toured as Bo Diddley's backing group, recording the Hey... Bo Diddley: In Concert album in 1986.
During the 1990s and 2000s Bell continued to perform and record with the Eric Bell Band. They released several albums. He also recorded with the Barrelhouse Brothers.
In 2005, he joined Gary Moore onstage to perform "Whiskey in the Jar" at the Phil Lynott tribute concert "The Boy Is Back in Town" in the Point Theatre, Dublin. This was released on a DVD called One Night in Dublin: A Tribute to Phil Lynott.
In 2010, Bell moved from London where he had lived for many years to his new home in West Cork, Ireland. In latter days he has returned to Co Down and now lives in Carrowdore.
Today 76 year old Eric Bell is back where it all started on Jocelyn Street, being honoured by his own people!
And here's the man himself doing it all again! Still going strong!
Eric Bell ....Whisky In The Jar
• Eric Bell ....Whisky I...