Music Monday - "Dublin" Irelands Music City

Today its time to decide who are the best group/song to come out of Dublin a city probably not on the music map but here are three monster groups to choose from.

So here are the three I've picked :-

Thin Lizzy - Formed in Dublin in 1969 by Bassist Singer Phil Lynott one of the first Black Men to front a Hard Rock Group. The origional group was made up of Lynott, guitarist Eric Bell, Electric Organist Eric Wrixon and Drummer Brian Downey. Although they didn't stay together long and over the years the group have had many changes in personnel. At one stage Ultravox front man Midge Ure was one of their guitarists.
Anyway in 1971 the group moved to London due to lack of success in Dublin and two years later they had their first chart hit with the guitar classic "Whiskey in the Jar" which reached No6.
They had to wait another three years for their 2nd hit when they reached No8 in 1976 with "The Boys are back in town". From this time they had many other chart successes but surprisingly never had a number one hit.
Over the years Thin Lizzy have been credited as the first group to use "The double Lead Guitar Harmony techqnique" on their songs. This fact isn't quite true as it was first used by Wishbone Ash although Lizzy did make it well known. Some Americans groups including Lynard Skynard and The Allman Brothers use a similar teqnique.
Sadly Lynott died of an Drugs overdose in 1986.
I'm choosing their first hit "Whiskey in the Jar" as the song to play.

Boomtown Rats - The pioneers of Irish Punk Music where actually a very good act in the days before Sir Bob Geldof became a politition. They had numerous hits in the UK Between 1977 and 1984 including two number one's.
Their first chart succes was with "Looking after No1" but the it was their first song to hit the top spot that made history in 1978, the song "Rat Trap" made them the first Irish group to top the UK chart.
Their 2nd No1 "I don't like Monday's" caused a little controversy the following year as it was about an American Schoolgirl who had flipped, took a gun to school and murdered her fellow pupils.
As well as Geldof the other members of the group are on keyboards Johnny Fingers who always wore his pyjammas on stage, Guitarists Garry Roberts & Gerry Lott, Bassist Pete Briquette plus drummer Simon Crow.
In recent years Geldof's music has somewhat been overshadowed by his charity work but the Rats were a very good group.
I've chosen their first No1 "Rat Trap" to play.

U2 - When talking about top notch Irish Groups you can't leave out U2. They actually started out around the same time as The Boomtown Rats as a small unknown Dublin group called "The Hype". The soon changed their name and the rest lets say is history and they are still one of todays top groups.
However it wasn't while 1981 that they had their first chart hit with "Fire" which only reached No35. Their first top ten hit was in 1983 with "New Years Day" but despite many more top ten success it wasn't while 1988 before they topped the chart with "Desire".
Despite the success of their singles its in Albums that U2 stand out with 6 US and 9 UK No1's. World wide they have sold over 170million albums more than any other act, they have also won an amazing 22 Grammy awards.
The group of Bono (Paul Hewson), The Edge (Dave Evans), Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jnr are listed No22 on the all time great groups by Rolling Stone Magazine.
The song I'm choosing is my favorite U2 song "Angel of Harlem" which reached No9 in the UK chart in 1988.

So Listen, enjoy then tell me which you like best of the three following tracks.