Peter Smith: "Thin Lizzy are like a religion where I'm from"

“Which one’s Phil?” cracks a local passerby, as actor Peter Smith poses aside the cold-cast bronze tribute to one of Dublin’s most famous sons outside Bruxelles pub on Harry Street.

At first glance, the likeness is obvious. Smith is mixed-race with thick, black curly hair, and he's well able to pull off an earring and leather jacket.

The similarities stretch far beyond appearances. Smith describes himself as being an old-fashioned rocker, a fan of "anything with guitars”. He cites The Smiths, Nirvana and Audioslave as some of his favourites, and even fronts his own hard-rock outfit, Sonic Brothers.

Furthermore, he was raised in a working-class, single-mother household in Dublin 12. It was kismet then, that one band engrossed his imagination.

“Thin Lizzy are like a religion where I'm from,” Smith professes, over a sit down at the Grafton Hotel. “All my uncles, obviously with how I look, would have been like ‘Right, this is what you need to be into’.

”So I was always acutely aware of when Philip and Thin Lizzy were on the radio. My first memory of liking a Philip Lynott song was ‘Old Town’ and then ‘The Sun Goes Down’ - that song is just seminal. I've gone through the backlog for my research.

"The sensational thing about Thin Lizzy's music is that it doesn't age. To say that [Lynott] was ahead of his time is an injustice. He was a man of all times. I think that's why Irish people miss him so much.”

The research in question is for Smith’s upcoming portrayal of Lynott in Moonlight: The Philip Lynott Enigma, a stage production taking over Vicar Street for three nights next April. A project of the like has been in the making in various formats down the years and while the 46-year-old appears a natural shoo-in for the role, it wasn’t that straightforward initially.

“John [Merrigan, writer of the production] reached out to my agent looking for another actor, not looking for me at all,” Smith reveals. “But my agent insisted that he had a guy from Drimnagh, beside Crumlin. After an hour-long online meeting the deal was more or less done.

“If it's meant for you, it'll never pass you by. The most important thing is my focus as an actor. I'm not interested in doing a tribute or putting my own spin on it. It's about getting it right, getting it exact, because this man's a legend. He’s a legend as a writer, as a poet, and as a songwriter and singer.

“Our mission is to propel Philip to his rightful place in the pantheon of great Irish writers alongside Brendan Behan, Oscar Wilde and James Joyce. Philip should be spoken about in those terms and if we can contribute even just a little bit towards people having those types of conversations, we'll be doing something good.

Keen to underline Lynott’s underrated abilities as a poet, is there a lyric which particularly resonates with the actor?

“Yeah, the line in ‘Dublin’: 'I swore that I'd leave Dublin / And in that line I'd left behind /The years, the tears, the memories and you.' That personifies what it is to be an Irish artist trying to make it. Most of us don't want to leave Dublin but we have no choice.”

Smith himself has crossed the Irish Sea in search of musical fortunes, appearing on ITV’s Popstars: The Rivals in his 20s - a reality talent show best known for birthing Girls Aloud. He would go on to form Phixx, a boy band concocted of runner-ups from the series, who enjoyed a number of top 20 UK hits in the mid ‘00s.

“It was surreal“, he says. “In those days, when you're a teenager, if Louis Walsh didn't like you it's almost like you didn't exist. But in order to get out of Dublin and try and get a gig that was seen as the only route. I wish I could go back there and shake myself and say: ‘Listen man, you're a rocker. You don't need this in your life.’”

Now based in Spain, Smith has switched his primary focus to acting, enjoying some substantial successes as of late. He featured as one of the main villains in the Netflix hit Who is Erin Carter? - which topped the streaming service’s charts in 82 countries . He's also set to play a role in Guy Ritchie’s recently-wrapped In The Grey.

Re-adapting to the realm of stage acting for his role as Lynott brings with it its own set of unique challenges.

“It had to be a theatre piece,” Smith says. “There's a lot of great bands out there playing Thin Lizzy’s music, keeping it alive. That's their job. It's my job to bring people closer and have a conversation with him from the stage and to tell John's story, to tell Philip's story about what was going on in Dublin around the time of his artistic development.

“There's no second takes. We’ll have three or four weeks of rehearsal to get it right. With something of such heavyweight musical significance as playing Phil Lynott, not only do you have to be passable, you have to get people off their seats. People will see immediately how much work and research you put into it, because Philip was the real deal as a performer and a writer, so I’ve got to tick all those boxes."

The reaction to Moonlight upon its announcement provides additional motivation. The first two dates quickly sold out, with a third show being added due to the demand.

“It’s amazing,” Smith reflects. “But it's nothing to do with us. The subject matter is of huge interest.

“We've had people from all over the world reach out, asking if we can bring the show to Japan. In my interactions over the last few weeks with Lizzy fans, and from talking to Scott Gorham, it’s clear that people miss him as a person. That's the part that I want to get to and make sure we do justice -  to give people a glimpse of Philip again, if only for two hours a night. There’s a responsibility there, more so than pressure.”

Helping Smith suspend disbelief will be Eric Bell, Thin Lizzy’s legendary founding guitarist.

“He's going to come and play some surprise bits and pieces. He's obviously going to play ‘Whiskey in the Jar’ - It just wouldn't work if he didn't. Eric is a gift, he made those songs, those poems, so musical. He's such a gifted musician.”

Smith's interactions with those close to Lynott don't stop there, with the actor meeting the Lizzy frontman's mother Philomena shortly after the script for Moonlight first came around.

“She sat with me for about 15 minutes, just looking at me. It was bizarre,” he shares. “Then she said, ‘Right, I need to speak to your mother’. I gave her my number and she went out into the hall and huddled off like it was nothing.

“She spoke to my mam for about two hours. She wanted to know how much Phil and I actually had in common, if me and him had the same struggle.

“I really admired her, she was a very smart lady, probably smarter than a lot of people thought she was. My only regret about this musical is that she's not here to see it. I'd give anything for that, to be honest. It's hers. It belongs to her. He exists, he has a name, and has art because of how brave she was. She's not going to see it, and that stings.

“The older you get, the more you realise that life takes things away from you. But it also gives you unique experiences that nobody else will ever be able to touch into. Being able to meet that woman when I did was a gift, because I think my mum felt that she wasn't alone."

Finally, as a Black Dubliner set to portray and celebrate the life of another, I ask Smith if he feels the production carries extra weight amidst the backdrop of city where racist rioting took place just a year prior.

"I think it's important people understand that people of all races, colours and creeds have contributed towards Irish society," Smith says. "When you go to the United States for example, you could use the example of Frederick Douglass who goes way further back than Philip does. People of colour, which I am, have always contributed positively to societies all over the world and I think it's important from that viewpoint to remind some people of that. Some people, obviously."

Our conversation takes place just days before a recently-concluded general election where immigration was one of the key talking points. Outside, the lampposts are littered with posters, many professing crude and reductionist anti-immigrant sentiment. According to Smith, the vitriol is misguided.

"The price of a cup of coffee here is 6 euros. What the fuck is that about? It's robbing people and it's not right," he says. "I know artists, directors, good people that work contract to contract, who can't afford to buy houses here. The answer is not to blame foreign people. It's too easy.

"We need to sit down and look at the facts - do we have a property surplus? I think the answer is yes. How can we make it affordable for people to buy homes and to own homes? It's essential to our Irishness that we own where we live. I think that's almost uniquely Irish, because it was something that was denied to us for the guts of 800 years.

“So I understand [the frustration], but we need to ask questions of the right people, not poor, unfortunate people coming in trying to survive. We need to ask questions of the powers that be."

• Moonlight comes to Vicar Street in April 2025. For more information and tickets, click here.