Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy at Trend Studios

“Trend Studios first opened its doors at 10 Hagan Court Lad Lane in September 1968. Over 40 years ago. Initially the Showbands who dominated the Irish music scene were wary of recording at the new facility lest they should offend the then dominant Eamonn Andrews Studios, the only other recording studio in Ireland. So at first it was mainly young rock groups who recorded at Trend. Generally these groups were creative and doing original material but they were usually chronically short of cash.

In early 1970, having left Skid Row, Phil Lynott brought his new group Thin Lizzy into Trend anxious to try out their new 8 Track recording machine which was the only one in the country. On that session were Phil, Brian Downey on drums and Eric Bell and Gary Moore on guitars as well as some other musicians. The recordings were engineered and produced by studio owner John D’Ardis.

The sessions lasted a few days and one of the tracks ‘The Farmer’ became the first ever record release by Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy. The Farmer was released by EMI records in July of 1970 and sold poorly. The company pressed only 500 copies of the 7”single, and it has since become a much sought after and expensive collector’s item, currently fetching over 1,000 euro.

Flash is required!

The other songs recorded on the sessions were Mama and Papa, Saga Of The Ageing Orphan, It’s Really Worthwhile, Dublin, and The Friendly Ranger at Clontarf Castle none of these were released.

In 2006 John D’Ardis spoke with Phil’s mother Philomena about making these tracks available to Phil’s fans and with her approval he approached Niall Stokes the editor of Hot Press who was very supportive of the idea.
It was decided to issued a CD of the remastered tracks called ‘Lost Recordings’ and to give it away free with the August 2006 edition of Hot Press.
Only 22,000 CDs were pressed and the CD immediately became a collector’s item

To read the fascinating article in the August 2006 Hot Press giving the background to the original recording session and carrying interviews with some of the musicians who played on the sessions 40 years before Download Hot Press article [PDF 9MB]here