<P> Eric Robin Bell (born 3 September 1947 in East Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a Northern Irish rock and blues musician, best known as a founder member and the original guitarist of the rock group Thin Lizzy . After his time in Thin Lizzy, he briefly fronted his own group before joining The Noel Redding Band in the mid-1970s . He has since released several solo albums and performs regularly with a blues - based trio, the Eric Bell Band . </P> <P> Bell began his career with local groups around the Belfast area, including the last incarnation of Them to feature Van Morrison, between September and October 1966 . He also played with a number of other bands including Shades of Blue, The Earth Dwellers and The Bluebeats, before joining an Irish showband named The Dreams . He left in 1969 having tired of the showband format, and at the end of that year he formed a band with local musicians Phil Lynott, Eric Wrixon and Brian Downey . Bell named the group Thin Lizzy, after Tin Lizzie, a robot character in The Dandy comic . </P> <P> Wrixon left Thin Lizzy after a few months, and the remaining trio later secured a contract with Decca Records . As lead guitarist, Bell played on Thin Lizzy's first three albums Thin Lizzy, Shades of a Blue Orphanage and Vagabonds of the Western World, as well as their hit single "Whiskey in the Jar". He co-wrote a number of songs with Lynott and Downey, including "The Rocker" which became a live favourite throughout the band's career . He also composed one song on his own, "Ray Gun", from their first album, Thin Lizzy . </P> <P> Although Thin Lizzy gained in popularity during the early 1970s, the pressures of recording, touring and the excesses of the rock star lifestyle began to take their toll . He left the band after a New Year's Eve concert in 1973, after throwing his guitar into the air in the middle of the concert, pushing the amplifiers into the audience and storming off stage . He stated later that he had no regrets about leaving: "I really had to leave because of ill - health . It was exhaustion, and the majority of things that were available to me...I couldn't really handle it ." He was temporarily replaced by Gary Moore . </P>

Who played lead guitar on thin lizzy whiskey in the jar
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