Phil Lynott lookalike gets rave reviews for one man show about legendary rocker’s life

An actor who bears a striking resemblance to Irish rock icon Phil Lynott is bringing his one man show about the Thin Lizzy legend to Ireland.

Miles Malambo says that when he gets told he looks like someone he is glad that it is someone as cool as Lynott.

Malambo is a huge fan of the Dublin star and received critical acclaim after taking his play ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ at the Edinburgh Fringe festival.

A photo of him wearing a ‘More Blacks, More Dogs, More Irish’ shirt went viral due to many people thinking it was actually a lost photo of Lynott.

Malambo told the Irish Sun: “I’m flattered people would mistake me for the real Phil.

“If people are going tell you, you look like someone else, it’s great if it’s someone as cool as Phil, and it’s bringing me publicity for my show I could never dream of getting.

“I know people love the T-shirt too which is a fantastic update. Reclaiming and re-purposing oppressive tools is very important.”

The English actor and writer spent four years extensively researching and creating his play, with a little help from director and former comedian Chris Gates.

He said: “I got into Thin Lizzy as a teenager after hearing albums like Jail Break and Fighting.

“I was always looking for a one-man play I could do as an actor so when I grew a moustache and people said I looked like Phil, the idea started to form in my head.

“I read every book and online piece I could on him, and even came over to the Vibe for Philo [an annual commemoration of all aspects of Lynott’s career] to try and understand his background better, and ended up in the graveyard where he’s buried.”

Dancing in the Moonlight tells the story of Lynott’s early years, which Malambo says sets it apart from many biographies of the star.

He said: “There was a movie planned, it was going to concentrate more on drugs. I wanted to do something that painted Phil as a complete character.”

It will include passages that deal with Lynott’s feelings about the son he never met.

Lynott had a son before he shot to fame but he was placed into adoption after Lynott split from the child’s mother.

That child, Macdaragh Lambe, only found out who his father was when was 35.

Malambo said: “We bumped into the comedian Stewart Lee in Edinburgh and he told us he had just come back from a tour of Ireland, and Phil Lynott’s son, Macdaragh had been his roadie.”

Following the success at the Edinburgh Fringe, Malambo and Gates are taking the play on tour across Ireland and the UK.

He said: “I’m a foreigner coming into a country to tell a story about a national hero? Of course it’s daunting.”

Gates had some words of encouragement though.

He said: “We’ve already had a lot of people reach out from Dublin and other parts of Ireland asking us to bring the play to them.

“Phil’s story and his music means so much to so many people and it would be a joy to bring him home. Something I think about Phil is that he was like one of the first astronauts in space.”

The director added that audiences in Edinburgh had been delighted with the way Malambo had played the iconic star.

Gates said: “As a director, I wanted for people to feel like they were in the room with Phil, not just watching an actor play him.

“The fact that Miles looks so much like Phil is a huge help, but it’s more than that. Phil had such an easy charm to him, you can see it in interviews, he’s a really down to earth and personable guy, so as the audience came in, I had Miles sitting at his ease in a chair on stage, greeting everyone as they took their seats; asking them how they were, talking about the weather, that kind of thing.

“It was a joy to watch these men and women suddenly seeming like happy kids meeting Mickey Mouse.

“A few of them would even wait to speak with Miles after the play, to shake his hand or to give him a hug, to say hello to Phil. It was lovely to watch.”

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