This 2011 budget-priced U.K. collection offers up a nice balance between Thin Lizzy’s radio hits ( "Boys Are Back in Town", "Whiskey in the Jar", "Killer on the Loose", "Dancin’ in the Moonlight") and overlooked gems like "Soldier of Fortune", "Opium Trail", and "King’s Vengeance". Twenty tracks strong, Waiting For An Alibi: The Collection holds its own against other single-disc overviews like 2004’s Greatest Hits and 2006’s Definitive Collection (2002’s exhaustive box set Vagabonds Kings Warriors and Angels still provides the most bang for the buck) and provides the perfect gateway for listeners looking to get their first fix of Ireland’s first heavy rockers.

Jailbreak was such a peak that it was inevitable that its follow-up would fall short in some fashion and Johnny the Fox, delivered the same year as its predecessor, did indeed pale in comparison. What's interesting about Johnny the Fox is that it's interesting, hardly a rote repetition of Jailbreak but instead an odd, fitfully successful evolution forward. All the same strengths are still here – the band still sounds as thunderous as a force of nature, Phil Lynott's writing is still graced with elegant turns of phrase, his singing is still soulful and seductive – but the group ramped up the inherent drama in Lynott's songs by pushing them toward an odd, half-baked concept album. There may be a story within Johnny the Fox – characters are introduced and brought back, at the very least – but it's impossible to tell. If the album only had an undercooked narrative and immediate songs, such digressions would be excusable, but the music is also a bit elliptical in spots, sometimes sounding theatrical, sometimes relying on narration.

After achieving a reluctant Top Ten hit with a rock version of the traditional Irish pub ballad "Whiskey in the Jar," Thin Lizzy began work on Vagabonds of the Western World – their third, and ultimately last album for Decca Records. The single's surprise success gave the band bargaining power to demand more money and time to record, resulting in their first sonically satisfying album. The environmentally-conscious R&B of "Mama Nature Said" kicks things off with Eric Bell leading the way on slide guitar. The overblown "The Hero and the Madman" and the tepid "Slow Blues" threaten to derail the proceedings, but all is well again when the band break into their first bona fide classic "The Rocker."

Shades of a Blue Orphanage is the second studio album by Irish band Thin Lizzy, released in 1972. The title is a combination of the members' previous bands: Shades of Blue and Orphanage. "Sarah" was written for Phil Lynott's grandmother who raised him when his mother, Philomena, was unable to do so. This song should not be confused with the 1979 song of the same name, for Lynott's daughter, included on Black Rose: A Rock Legend. Now it been digitally remastered and expanded with the addition of 9 bonus tracks, including the full-length hit single "Whiskey In The Jar" (plus it's B-side "Black Boys On The Corner"), 3 songs overdubbed and remixed in 1977, and 4 songs recorded during the BBC Radio 1 John Peel Sessions.

Thin Lizzy found their trademark twin-guitar sound on 1975's Fighting, but it was on its 1976 successor, Jailbreak, where the band truly took flight. Unlike the leap between Night Life and Fighting, there is not a great distance between Jailbreak and its predecessor. If anything, the album was more of a culmination of everything that came before, as Phil Lynott hit a peak as a songwriter just as guitarists Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson pioneered an intertwined, dual-lead guitar interplay that was one of the most distinctive sounds of '70s rock, and one of the most influential. Lynott no longer let Gorham and Robertson contribute individual songs – they co-wrote, but had no individual credits – which helps tighten up the album, giving it a cohesive personality, namely Lynott's rough rebel with a heart of a poet.

Going by this album, Phil Lynott would have had a lot in common with Bob Geldof, with both of them writing songs that strove for memorable hooks and related to growing up in the rough end of Ireland. The Philip Lynott Album has some surprisingly sweet moments, considering Lynott's hard-rocking past with Thin Lizzy. It generated a bona fide European pop hit in a remodeled version of "Yellow Pearl" (co-written by Midge Ure of Ultravox), a sarcastic attack on Asian marketing methods.

The 1978 concert in Australia features an array of fan favourites including ‘Jailbreak’, ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’, ‘Bad Reputation’ & more. Although this has been out before on VHS, Laserdisc and DVD this new edition features remixed audio, restored visuals, and includes five additional performances from the concert that have never been officially available…