After Eric Bell famously left Thin Lizzy (paving the way for the band’s Gary Moore era) he was thrown something of a lifeline when he received a call from Noel Redding – the Jimi Hendrix Experience bass guitar player, who was putting together a new band.
As the story goes, Redding called Bell when the latter was in a liminal position – however, it's safe to say that joining Redding's group came with... well, certain terms and conditions.
“I remember that I was using one of Noel’s amps,” he recalls in a new interview with Guitar World. “I had programmed the amp, and we’re playing away, and Noel looked over, and said, ‘Wait a minute… what’s that fucking tone?’
“I looked down and said, ‘What?’ He started fiddling about with the controls on the amp, and I thought, ‘Will I tell him to stuff his fucking band now, or will I stick around?’” he chuckles. “I stuck around.”
It was a shaky start, but things would eventually get better: “It was very strange,” Bell recalls of those early days with the Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist.
“It was this house in the middle of nowhere. One day, I’m lying in bed reading a book, and Noel comes in with the drummer, and the keyboard player, and says, ‘Right, we’re going down to the pub. Come on.’ I said, ‘I think I’ll just take it easy.’ He went, ‘Fuck me, he’s reading a book...’
“I just looked at him, and thought, ‘What the fuck have I let myself in here for?’ I thought, ‘This guy’s fucking mad.’ I said, ‘Right, I’ve had enough. Fuck this.’ I got a lift back to the train station with this farmer and got on the train from Cork to Dublin.”
He continues, “A few days later, Noel phoned me and said, ‘Right, mate. We’re having another rehearsal next week…’ I said, ‘Fuck it. I’m not. I’m gone.’ So, the two managers, who turned out to be crooks, though we didn’t know at the time, phoned me and said, ‘Eric, what’s this all about?’
“I said, ‘I can’t figure this guy out. That guy’s a fucking nut. I’ve been through this with Lizzy, I’m not gonna do it again.’ So, they said, ‘If I fly you out, will you have a meeting with us and Noel at a hotel?’ So, I went to the meeting, we had a long discussion, and Noel shook my hand.”
Under the moniker The Noel Redding Band – also known as The Clonakilty Cowboys – the folk rock supergroup, which comprised vocalist and keyboard player Dave Clarke and drummer Les Sampson (later replaced by Dave Donovan), alongside Redding and Bell, released two albums in ’75 and ’76, before disbanding in ’78.
Speaking to Bass Player in 1993, Redding spoke about why he left the Jimi Hendrix Experience – and revealed that he received no royalty money from the Hendrix estate for his contribution to Jimi's lucrative catalog.
Guitar World's full interview with Eric Bell will be published in the coming weeks.
