Page 22 - Classic Rock (January 2020)

GRAND SLAM

Thirty-odd years after former Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott’s new band got on to the runway

but never really got off the ground, a new line-up returns with a new album, and they’re flying.

Words: Ken McIntyre

here are many lost futures in the ever-twisting history in the industry, that a record deal would be easy enough to
of rock’n’roll, and Grand Slam is perhaps one of the procure. But this was not the case.
most tantalizing. After the sudden and shocking “Unfortunately, in the UK there was a lot of press about Phil’s
dissolution of Thin Lizzy in 1983, Lizzy frontman and drug use,” says Acher. “They were running drug-related double-
T hero to us all Phil Lynott rebounded with a new page spreads in the newspapers about Phil’s drug use all the
band full of friends old and new, including then-current Lizzy time. So the record labels were really concerned because of
members Brian Downey and John Sykes, and Magnum all this coverage in the mainstream press. We just couldn’t get
keyboard player Mark Stanway. Grand Slam was a fresh start a deal made.”
after a decidedly rough patch for Lynott, who was deep in a drug Worse still, Archer found that all these negative press reports
haze that he desperately wanted to climb out of. Sykes famously weren’t exactly inaccurate. In 1984 Lynott was essentially
left to join the revamped, hair-tousling version of a phantom of his former self.
Whitesnake, and an old acquaintance of Phil’s, “I went to the States and had started recording
Stampede guitarist Laurence Archer, was brought in. “The newspapers some stuff with Huey Lewis,” explains Archer. “I did it
The band wrote new songs and played familiar under the premise that Phil was gonna come out and
venues, but nothing much ever came of it. A few live were running sing on it. But he couldn’t get to America because his
tapes made the rounds in the tape-trading circuits, visa had run out, and he wasn’t going to be getting
a demo or two, but that was it. There was no album. Phil double-page spreads another one because of the drug stuff. In the end
did a couple of solo things and then, in 1986, he passed about Phil’s drug he was able to find an old Irish passport and was
away. And that was that. Until it wasn’t. somehow able to get through.
In 2016, a reinstituted Grand Slam played the Sweden use… We just “The tracks sounded great, but when Phil got there…
Rock festival. Emboldened by the positive response, couldn’t get a deal.” he just wasn’t in a good state. He was coughing a lot. He
Archer decided to form a new, stable line-up, both to wasn’t really well, and he just wasn’t performing very
ensure the band’s legacy and to pave the way for a brave well at all. When I listened back, I realised that we just
Laurence Archer
new future. Both are on display in their debut album, Hit couldn’t release it as is. I didn’t bow out on Phil, but I did
The Ground, which comprises five revitalised ’84-era Grand Slam tell management that I didn’t think it was a good idea to release
songs and five brand-new tracks. Old and new mesh perfectly, and anything with Phil in this state. It just wouldn’t have come out well.”
in a rare best-case scenario the album manages to sound classic
and contemporary at the same time. eartbroken over the whole affair, Archer went on to
As we speak, his band are in an undisclosed film studio, record a solo album and then, eventually, left the music
working on their new music video. It involves lion cages and Hbusiness for a few years. Meanwhile, several of Grand
people jumping out of planes. “We’re going large on this one,” he Slam’s songs, including 19 and Military Man, were re-recorded and
says with a laugh. released as Lynott solo efforts, without any input from Archer.
“I met Phil when I was in the band Wild Horses,” Archer recalls. “I was still a kid at the time, and very naïve about the industry,”
“We had the same management. A few years later says Archer. One of his songs, Dedication, was even
I was in a band called Stampede, and he asked me passed off as a ‘lost’ Lizzy track on their 1991 ‘best of’
to come down to the studio to do some stuff with GRAND SLAM compilation. I actually wrote Dedication for Stampede,
him. He actually asked me to be in Lizzy, but I was 38 Hit The Ground MARSHALL and they used it as this lost 1976-era Thin Lizzy track
NWOBHM almost-weres Stampede were signed
too into the stuff I was doing at the time. It seems After Thin Lizzy, Phil for the music video,” he says incredulously. “I had no
a little ridiculous now, but at the time it seemed like Lynott forged ahead idea. A friend of mine called me up and said: ‘Your
Lizzy was waning a little, so I stuck with what I was with Grand Slam, song is on the radio.’ I said: ‘What song?’ So I turned
doing. But yeah, we knew each other for some time forming fruitful on the radio, and it’s Dedication. They lifted the vocals
before Grand Slam.” songwriting from a session Phil and I did of it. It was the only time
partnerships with
Thin Lizzy demo.”
to Polydor Records, but managed to release just Laurence Archer (UFO) and Mark Stanway he ever sang that song. They disguised it as an old
one EP, in 1982, before mismanagement cut them (Magnum), but lack of label interest In 2002, a collection of Grand Slam demos, The
off at the ankles. meant their music would only be Studio Sessions, was released. Poorly recorded and
“They didn’t have any A&R men in the company preserved in demos and live tapes. Here, shabbily presented, it did nothing to honour the
at the time,” Archer sighs, “so we were just waiting Archer and a fired-up new formation tear band’s legacy. Archer had already lived a lifetime in
around for something to happen. I had the option into five vintage Slam tracks and five rock’n’roll by then, having spent a few years in UFO
to jump ship, so when Phil called me I did.” vibrant new numbers offering a similar and forming various other bands along the way
Archer got to work on writing songs with Lynott. combination of grit and melody. RD before leaving music behind for a decade. But the
They assumed, given the Lizzy frontman’s stature Killer track: Hit The Ground. demo release stuck in his craw.

22 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM