Eric Bell

Eric Bell founded Thin Lizzy even though he missed the band’s most celebrated stretch in the mid- to late ’70s. Born September 3, 1947, in Belfast, Ireland, he spent the ’60s playing guitar with several local groups, among them Them and John Farrell & the Dreams, while supporting himself as a street gas-lamp lighter and as a worker in both pickle and shirt factories. In 1969 he attended a performance by the Dublin-based Orphanage, whose lineup included bassist/singer Phil Lynott and drummer Brian Downey. Bell soon moved to Dublin and joined forces with the pair to launch Thin Lizzy.

His bluesy, Hendrix-esque leads aligned with the hard-rock path Lynott and Downey envisioned, securing the trio a deal with Deram. Over the next three years the label issued Thin Lizzy’s self-titled debut in 1971, Shades of a Blue Orphanage in 1972, and Vagabonds of the Western World in 1973; the last of these introduced the early signatures “Whiskey in the Jar” and “The Rocker.” Also in 1973, Bell, Lynott, and Downey recorded under the name Funky Junction, releasing the aptly titled A Tribute to Deep Purple. Growing dissatisfied with the group’s tightening arrangements—he preferred the earlier era of open-ended jamming—Bell undermined a key Dublin show through erratic, drunken conduct and was dismissed.

The demands of life in a touring rock band prompted several years away from group work. By the time Thin Lizzy had scored international success with replacement guitarists Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham, Bell felt ready to return. When former Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding began a solo career, Bell joined as guitarist, appearing on 1975’s Clonakilty Cowboys and 1976’s Blowin’. Throughout the remainder of the decade he contributed to a self-titled album by Brush Shiels and a Lynott-produced single for Ron McQuinn. Past tensions with his ex-bandmates had eased, allowing a one-off flexi-single, “Song for Jimi,” for a European magazine and a guest appearance with Thin Lizzy on the final 1983 tour, later captured on the double-disc set Life.

In the early ’80s Bell tried to establish the Eric Bell Band, yet only a four-track EP surfaced in 1981 before the project stalled. He then played with blues-rock outfit Mainsqueeze on their 1983 album International Blues Rock Revue; the group briefly backed Bo Diddley on a 1984 European tour that yielded the live recording Hey Bo Diddley/In Concert (also issued as Bo Diddley/Screamin’ Jay Hawkins). Late in the ’90s Bell resumed activity under the Eric Bell Band banner, issuing Live Tonite...Plus! in 2001, Irish Boy in 2008, and Lonely Nights in London in 2010. He returned in 2016 with the studio album Exile, mixing original songs with a cover of Little Richard’s “Rip It Up.” The following year Standing at a Bus Stop appeared, again featuring new material alongside Howlin’ Wolf’s “Back Door Man” and Elvis Presley’s “Mystery Train.”