The Royal Ulster Constabulary must have been looking for an easy win when they decided to bust Thin Lizzy for drugs – it almost seems too simple, like getting the Gallagher brothers to carry round a swear jar. It was 1980 and Phil Lynott’s mob had a new guitarist to bed in, with blues virtuoso and sometime Pink Floyd six-stringer Snowy White recently joining.
White’s first jaunt with his new bandmates was a tour of Ireland, and he must have wondered what he’d let himself in for when the group and their entire touring party ended up at the headquarters of the RUC in Enniskillen. The late music journalist Harry Doherty was there and recounted the scenario in Classic Rock: “The RUC had put roadblocks up to stop the band as they headed for a gig in Co. Antrim,” he wrote.
