Watch Thin Lizzy and Saxon as you’ve never seen them before

It’s July 1980. Workers at the State Aviation Works in Świdnik, near the Polish town of Lubin, start a series of strikes that’ll eventually lead to the formation of the Solidarity labour movement and the democratisation of the nation.

In the US, former California Governor and actor Ronald Reagan becomes the Republican nominee for U.S. President at the party’s National Convention in Detroit,  and in Russia, the opening ceremony of the heavily-boycotted Moscow Olympics is held.

Meanwhile, in Britain, Saxon and Thin Lizzy have been lined up to perform on the July 9 edition of the nation’s favourite music TV show, Top Of The Pops. Saxon will play 747 (Strangers In The Night), while Thin Lizzy will perform Chinatown. 

Except neither band are anywhere to be seen. 

We’re presuming Saxon were in the US at the time (the internet tells us Saxon played at the Towson Arena in Towson, Maryland on July 8. And Thin Lizzy? Who knows?  

But rehearsals must go on, so the director goes ahead with a dry run of the show, with BBC staff standing in for Phil Lynott, Biff Byford and the other band members. 

They’re not very good stand-ins. And we have some questions.

1. Why do Saxon have a keyboard player?
2. Why do Thin Lizzy have a keyboard player?
3. Surely they could have found a more convincing Phil Lynott? And why does he look so lost?
4. Is that Bill Gates?
5. Why is the otherwise excellent Saxon guitarist playing an upside-down Telecaster?

Disappointingly, the final version of the show was never shown because of a BBC musicians’ strike, and this particular edition of Top Of The Pops was lost to the world forever. But look on the bright side: now that this footage has surfaced, we’ll always have not-quite-Phil Lynott.  

Saxon’s performance begins at 1’09”, while Thin Lizzy are on at 7’30”. 

Source: loudersound.com