Greece’s Rockpages has conducted an interview with Grand Slam’s Laurence Archer and during the course of the chat, Archer slams the release of unfinished Grand Slam demos stolen from Phil Lynott’s studio.
An excerpt below:
Rockpages.gr: So you’ve got a new album which is called Wheel Of Fortune. To tell you the truth, when I when I hear the words “Wheel Of Fortune”, it reminds me of the famous TV show. But, that’s not the case here, right?
Laurence Archer: Well, it is to some extent. It’s not about the TV show itself, but it’s about the jeopardy. The title song, “Wheel Of Fortune” is actually written about the people that when I reformed Grand Slam wanted to jump on the bandwagon, the people that were sort of ripping us off and taking money and not doing what they said they were going to do and trying to be deceitful. So, the whole message is it’s really about, “look what you could have done”, which is which is essentially a phrase in another game show. So, in the in the song, there’s many references to game shows and it’s about the guys that basically messed up and tried to take advantage of our situation. They’re no longer with us because of that situation.
Rockpages.gr: Did you think that some people might say that you are trying to take advantage of Phil?
Laurence Archer: Well, I mean, they can say what they want, but that’s not the reason I did that. You’ve got to understand, I waited 30 years before I did the album. In fact, longer. When Phil died, I got asked to do many tribute shows, you know, “The Vibe” in Dublin and various other things. And I refused doing those for like six, seven years. I didn’t want to jump on any bandwagon of the Phil Lynott thing, he was a good friend to me and a good mentor and a good fellow musician and writer. He taught me a lot and I had a great relationship with him. I didn’t feel comfortable that people were potentially making money out of Phil’s legacy. I don’t have that feeling because essentially, I wrote those songs with Phil and if I was going to do that, what I would have done…
Naming no names, what a couple of other people have done is actually rerelease work in progress, demos that was basically stolen out of Phil’s studio where we used to work and write. They basically sold those tapes to record companies for their own benefit. I could have done that at any point, but I had no ambition to do that. My whole goal for this was to have proper representation of the songs that we wrote back in the day, rather than all these awful demos that were being put out. That might be third or fourth generation on cassette, or whatever they were, and some of them were just literally work in progress demos. They were not finished songs.
So, that’s why I wanted to do it, not for my own benefit. And certainly I haven’t benefited out of it in any way at all. It cost me huge amounts of money to do it.
Rockpages.gr: The question is, would you be interested to be a member of Thin Lizzy back then?
Laurence Archer: At the time, I was a young man and I, I thought, “I have my own vision and my own career.” I had ambitions of my own and in hindsight it would have been a good career move for me. But, at the time I thought Lizzy were waning in their popularity. When they had Snowy [White] in the band, for example, I didn’t think it was the best of Lizzy. So, thinking back I wish I had pursued it.
It’s a difficult question, because when you are trying to forge your own career ahead you think it’s a better idea to do your own thing and be in control of that. But, it was probably a silly thing not to pursue it in some respects. Obviously, I’d always wanted be a member of Thin Lizzy.
Rockpages.gr: Did you feel any emotion from Phil trying to protect you from all that, since you were much younger and since he was deep into that lifestyle?
Laurence Archer: Yeah, I did feel that a lot, yes. The main thing, the main discussion that Phil and I had at the time was that Phil was trying to get away from all that. He was trying to clean up that side of his life. And I think it was another reason that we got on so well. Compared to him, I was the boy next door. I was young, fit and quite normal, you know, compared to a lot of people he knew…
Phil did his utmost to try and straighten up. Unfortunately, when you’ve gone down that path, as we all know, it’s a difficult path to get out of, it’s being put in front of you all the time and with Phil’s celebrity and being an icon and whatever, it would be put in front of you all the time. So, it was very hard for him to see it through. And it’s just a shame, really. I know that some were taken out of the equation, because of the connection with drugs and his history with drugs, myself, the management, the road crew we were all trying. Some of the road crew would change because of their long term history with Lizzy. From what I gather, quite a few of the road crew was as bad as the band. So, we changed quite a few of the crew to try and keep it away from the Grand Slam arena when we were playing and when we were home. But, it was very difficult.
Grand Slam’s story has been a true journey of destiny, one where early unions ended up leaving unfinished business on the table, and one which finally sees the band attending to said business with the brand-new album Wheel Of Fortune. From Archer’s faultless, fearless fret-driven song architecture on “Spitfire” to Dyer’s swagger and style on “There Goes My Heart”. There are moments such as “Come Together (In Harlem)” where the moody strut of original co-founder Phil Lynott is unmistakable, yet the multi-layered steamy swing of “Pirate Song” makes it very clear Grand Slam is firing forward with all guns blazing. Joined by Benjy Reid on drums and Rocky Newton on bass, the creative vigor and will to propel Grand Slam is stronger still, with the new album Wheel Of Fortune being the true statement to this.
“We have a direction that is in my heart, it’s a tribal thing,” Dyer explains, “and the Wheel Of Fortune album is Grand Slam in big boy pants without any scaffolding. This band is something very special; I’m slightly biased I know, but God, I’m really proud of that.”
Wheel Of Fortune was released in digital and physical formats on June 7. Order here.
Wheel Of Fortune tracklisting:
“There Goes My Heart”
“Starcrossed Lovers”
“Come Together (In Harlem)”
“Trail Of Tears”
“Feeling Is Strong (Jo’s Song)”
“Spitfire”
“I Wanna Know!”
“Pirate Song”
“Afterlife”
“Wheel Of Fortune”
“Spitfire” video:
“There Goes My Heart” video:
Grand Slam will also re-release their debut album, Hit The Ground. Originally released in 2019, the record has been given a makeover.
“I stopped playing for a while and started a film career,” recounts Archer of Hit The Ground. “In 2018 I was working on location in Guadalupe, and I arrived at the decision to record the Grand Slam songs properly, because essentially, what has been out there has not really been representative of what we did back then. Phil and I had done some work-in-progress demos in his backyard studio, and unfortunately, someone stole them and released them. So, it’s always been a goal of mine to re-visit those songs and do them properly, and I had been thinking about showcasing them fittingly for over 30 years, instead of hearing these horrible demos that people put out.”
Re-mixed, re-mastered, and featuring new artwork, Hit The Ground – Revised is out now and can be ordered here.
Hit The Ground – Revised tracklisting:
“Gone Are The Days”
“Nineteen”
“Hit The Ground”
“Military Man”
“Crazy”
“Dedication”
“Long Road”
“Sisters Of Mercy”
“Crime Rate”
“Grand Slam” *
* not available on vinyl
Grand Slam are:
Mike Dyer – vocals
Laurence Archer – guitars
Benjy Reid – drums
Rocky Newton – bass
(Photo – Frank Noon)