Skid Row (blues-rock band)
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Skid Row was a Dublin band of the late 1960's and early 1970's fronted by Brendan "Brush" Shiels (born 1952 in Dublin, Ireland). It was guitarist Gary Moore's first professional band.
The band was originally comprised of Brush Shiels on Bass, Noel Bridgeman (currently with Van Morrison) on drums and Phil Lynott on vocals. Shiels later replaced Lynott with 16-year-old Gary Moore. By way of compensation, he taught Lynott to play bass, and Lynott went on to international fame as the founder, bassist, primary song writer and lead vocalist for Thin Lizzy.
Skid Row played support to many of the great rock groups of the sixties, including Fleetwood Mac. Moore was influenced by Peter Green, who appreciated Gary's guitar playing and introduced him to a record company. The band released its first album "Skid", in 1970. A second LP, entitled "34 Hours" - so entitled because it took them a mere 34 hours to record it - was released in 1971. Gary left the band (he was replaced by Paul Chapman) and later played with Thin Lizzy. The rest of their recorded material was released in 1990 and '91, a time when Gary released his "Still Got the Blues" LP, which saw him return to the pure blues style he played in the early '70s, as opposed to the Hard Rock/Heavy Metal he played through the late '70s until 1990.
Although the group had little success outside Ireland, its influence on Irish rock music (and consequently on rock music in general) was huge.
The American heavy metal group Skid Row has no connection with this band, and Brush Shiels has always been unhappy at the group 'stealing their name'.
