Laurence Archer

“Thin Lizzy” and “Grand Slam” are bands that everyone knows. The man behind both was Phil Lynott, who died far too young. I recently sat down with Laurence Archer - who not only played guitar in both bands but also co-wrote many of the songs with Phil Lynott.

Born in the UK in 1961, one of Archers first bands was “Lautrec” with his stepfather, before moving on to perform in and write for “Wild Horses”, “Stampede”, UFO and later X-UFO. He has lived with Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), toured with “Saxon” on the original “Wheels Of Steel” tour, worked worldwide in the film industry and is now back with the second coming of “Grand Slam”

Laurence, you have been associated with many bands over the years – Wild Horses, Stampede, UFO, Grand Slam and probably most notably – Thin Lizzy.

Yes, “Think Lizzy” and “Grand Slam” is who most people associate me, but also UFO and now the new “Grand Slam”. Over the years I have been in many bands and back in the early days we supported “Saxon” on the “Wheels Of Steel” tour. That band never had a proper record deal, but we had great management and put out independent releases -  that was back in 1979 / 1980. That was my starting block for the future.

How did you meet Phil Lynott and become part of “Thin Lizzy”

I met Phil because just before the “Stampede” era I played with a band called “Wild Horses”.  Jimmy Bain, who was the bass player from “The Wild Horses” and “Rainbow” asked me cover for Brian Robinson who had left the band, which was also managed by the same management company as Thin Lizzy.  Phil came to see three of shows that we did with “Wild Horses” one gig at the old marquee Phil got up on stage with and that’s really where I got to know him. He immediately asked me to come down to the studio where they were recording “China Town”.

I spent time in the studio with him, just playing and that's when Lizzie management approached me and said Phil wanted me to be the next “Thin Lizzy” guitarist.  Every project I have ever been involved in, I have been a major part of the writing, production and arrangement.   From an early age I have loved being in the studio – so it wasn’t long before I was writing and getting involved in the production with Phil as well.

The first time I played with “Thin Lizzy” was in Ireland, being a young man – everything blew me away! I was in awe of Phil and the whole entourage as well.  For me it was a new thing, it was almost an out of body experience! It was great fun, and we had a great connection because he saw my vision as a writer, rather than just a guitar player. That come through even more as I wrote a lot of the material for “Grand Slam”

We would spend days in the studio he had in his back garden, sitting there for hours writing, re-writing until we were happy with it, we would rehearse it and then go out and play it live. Out of all of it, my best memory of that time is my writing connection with Phil.

Then came “Grand Slam” – tell me about that.

There was a gap between “Thin Lizzy” ending and “Grand Slam” starting. At the time Phil had a solo project he was working on, when John Sykes went off to join “Whitesnake” Phil called me and said let’s do this new project (Grand Slam) together. We immediately went into the studio and start writing and rehearsing, then came lots of recording and I moved to Dublin for 6 months and I lived in Phils house with Phil and his mum in Hove. We were using the village hall in this tiny fishing village to rehearse and hone the set.

After that we did 6 or 7 shows around Ireland as “Grand Slam” We didn’t know what to expect when we got to the venues, but when we got there it was crazy! We couldn’t get into the venue ourselves because there would be 2 or 3 thousand people outside trying to get in!  This is when I first realised “Grand Slam” could be a really big thing, the response was incredible. I will never forget those days of because of it, Ireland will always be a very special place for me.

I still find it very emotional to think about Phils death. Just before he died, I went to America to record some songs for the “Grand Slam” project and Huey Lewis was going to produce it so. I ended up in America with “Huey Lewis and The News” doing the arrangements. Phil at that time didn't have a current passport and because of the convictions he had with being caught with drugs he couldn't get a visa to come over. I ended up spending some time playing with Huey and then Phil eventually did come over on an out of date an Irish passport. I still don’t know to this day how it did it!

This is the first time I really realised that Phil was not in a good way – he was smoking heavily, his voice wasn’t in good shape, he was coughing and overweight, still using drugs. We tried to record a track, but it didn’t really work out. Phil wasn’t in great shape and his voice just wasn’t working.

We came back to England and I went to the management company and I said “I really don’t want these tracks to be released” and I discussed having another project whilst we assessed how Phil was progressing. However, the management company used the songs to get a solo artist recording deal for Phil and recorded the track “19” which I co-wrote. I wasn’t very happy with that.

Then I am getting a telephone call from Jimmy Baine saying he cannot get into Phils house - he had gone there for Christmas, along with Phils ex-wife and children. This is when Phil was found unconscious in his bed. That was late December 1986. Then shortly afterwards he died in hospital – he had overdosed, and his body just started shutting down.

At that age, I wasn’t used to losing friends, it was a really hard to comprehend.

Jumping forwards 30 years to 2016 – you and Mark announced you were reforming “Grand Slam”

The story behind that is that the promoter of “Sweden Rock” is a massive “Grand Slam” and “Thin Lizzy” Fan, so he phoned me and Mark up and asked if we would play the festival in 2016.  So we put a band together and it was a fun thing to do, we didn’t really have any plans for it to be a long term thing.  However, it did get me thinking about re-recording the songs I had written with Phil, so that the fans could hear them as we had planned for them to sound. Various people along the way have released bootlegs of our material and labels have released Boxsets, of unfinished material tracks - all of varying quality and not how they should sound.

In 2017 I did a 3G guitar show where I performed with two other guitarists and in my set, I played songs I had written with UFO, Stampede and Grand Slam – and the band I put together to perform it essentially became “Grand Slam”. I had Benji Reid on drums, David Boyce on Bass (the original “Grand Slam” bassist) and Mike Dyer singing. The band sounded good, and the “Grand Slam” material sounded great, so Mike and I went through all the old material new stuff I had written, the band went into the studio, and we recorded the “Hit The Ground” album!

We had no idea what where it is was going as a project and we didn’t have a record deal or management. It was a big investment for us and quite an emotional thing to do – we were all apprehensive that people might accuse us of trying to jump on the “Phil Lynott” bandwagon. Then we got management interest, and a record deal came along – we released the album and things started to progress. In many ways I wished I had called the band something else! We have people wondering is this a retrospective band or is this a new band? This is a new band, and the new album “Wheel of Fortune” has only one track that we wrote when Phil was alive.

The “Wheel of Fortune” Album has been a fantastic project so far.  Rocky Newton has replaced David Boyce on Bass – me and Rocky have crossed paths in many bands and worked together in X-UFO.  We wrote the songs here in Spain and have produced and most of the music videos for the individual tracks here as well.

As a band we have a great relationship and strong friendship - we all get on really well, there are no egos in “Grand Slam” One thing that was really important for me from the start was that I wanted all the band members to be on the same wavelength, to get along and be happy with what we are doing together.  We all have out strange quirks, but the most important thing for us is the music and when we play live it comes across that we are passionate about it, and we all get along together. We recently did a Spain and Portugal tour and the reception was just fantastic, it really cemented us together as a band.

We are all looking forward to 2025, with a concert in Dublin in January then in February we are off on a 25 date European tour, supporting “Saxon” - which we are really looking forwards to. It’s taking us into new territories, so we are hoping it expands the fanbase of the band and introduces us in countries we have not played before.  For me personally its quite special – I toured with them on the original “Wheels Of Steel” tour and to be doing again is really something special.

We are writing new tracks for the new album, recording new videos to support the tracks. We have just released our version of “Whiskey In The Jar” - I never thought I would ever be recording it myself. We did it as a special release to celebrate Phils birthday.  We were worried we were going to get criticized for doing it, but we have had nothing but positive feedback from it, it’s already got 250k views on YouTube!  The record label is going to release it as a limited edition with some special artwork on it – which will be amazing for the hardcore fans.

We will be releasing the new album; we have a charity concert coming up to raise money for victims of the DANA.  2025 is going to be a really busy year, because we still feel we are catching up from the two years everyone lost because of the Covid pandemic.

Aside from “Grand Slam” My solo album from 1986 is being re-released with some bonus tracks and new material. That’s being released on a record label in Japan, because in 1986 it went to number one in Japan and number five on the import charts in the UK.

Yeah - the music industry is “do or Die” and that’s what we are doing, putting our heart and soul into it and giving it our everything!!  I’m not into star signs, but I am hoping 2025 is the “Year of the Archer”!

Interview & photo: Rhyan Paul