Scott Gorham (Thin Lizzy)

Life on the Fretboard with Michael Watts

Lord of the Les Paul and Mariscal of the Marshall Stack, Scott Gorham shot to worldwide prominence with the legendary rock band Thin Lizzy. He created what would become known subsequently as “The Twin Guitar Attack” - a harmonised lead guitar style developed alongside players such as Brian Robertson and Gary Moore, driving home the larger-than-life persona of frontman and bass player Phil Lynott.

At the height of their powers, Thin Lizzy were a world-straddling colossus of a band - hard rocking for sure but real songwriters, too. And just incredible live!

I caught up with Scott at what used to be Olympic Recording Studios in Barnes (Led Zeppelin, Queen, Lizzy ... they all made records there). It’s now a cinema complex and restaurant with a private members club hidden away for those in the know.

We talk about Scott’s early exposure to the guitar and live music, his relocation from California to London, and an audition for Thin Lizzy which I suspect would have broken most of us.

We discuss the iconography of Gibson’s Les Paul model. In particular, the heavily supervised shopping trip for the mini-humbucker Deluxe model with which Scott has become synonymous. We go deep on the semantics of scratch plates, amplifiers the size of a family SUV, and what happens when your guitar gets famous without you.

But it wasn’t all gold tops, champagne and caviar, life in Thin Lizzy could be tempestuous and Scott is candid about the darker times including how golf helped with the pain of recovery from addiction. Hey, if it works… right?

We talk in depth about Scott’s secret double life as a visual artist, discuss two of the rarest materials in the universe and share a fond hope that benevolent extraterrestrial life might just have our backs after all.

Now, what no-one knew - because he had kept it a secret from the world - is that Scott Gorham is an extremely skilled artist and some of his extraordinarily detailed pencil drawings from the Thin Lizzy period have been rediscovered and are now available as fine art prints. He’s had his first gallery showing and it’s all going rather well.

You can see more here: https://scottgorhamworld.com Take a look at Pain, Curiosity and Apocalypse, three works that we discuss in detail.

Be advised - the language gets a little fruity as we progress. It doesn’t get too awful, but listeners with delicate sensibilities or the under-fives should proceed with caution.

This episode was brought to you by the kind sponsorship of Guitar Tech Courses. Founded by British luthier James Collins (himself a graduate of the prestigious Galloup School of Guitar Making in Michigan) and an accredited repair technician for Gibson guitars for several years now, Guitar Tech Academy offers an online archive of instructional videos covering the maintenance and set-up of just about every modern guitar design from the wrap-around bridge of a '54 Goldtop to Bigsbys, Strat and Tele bridges, acoustics and archtops, too. It’s all there.

James will guide you through the theory and practice of setting up your guitar for your playing - follow this link https://www.guitartechcourses-academy.com and sign up today - you will never have sounded better!

Join me next time for a chat with Superstar auctioneer Claire Tole-Moir of Bonhams London, who has been responsible for the sale of iconic instruments used by Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Slash, Ian Curtis and many more!

A Fretboard Journal Podcast.

https://www.fretboardjournal.com