THE applause reached a crescendo as Philomena Lynott joined the east on the stage of the Samuel Beckett Centre in Trinity College last night at the end of CoisCeim's part-tribute to, and part-evocation-in-dance of Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy.

Back in Town opened with one of Lynott's poems before swinging into The Boys are Back in Town, with the boys in the black silver-buttoned band uniforms recreating the physicality of Lynott's performance to the admiration of the girl groupies in Helen McCusker's sexy costumes, each endeavouring to impress with bold body language.

This was contrasted with the gentle romanticism of solos by Simone Litchfield and Ella Clarke in turn as Sarah, before returning to hard-edged rock numbers in which James Hosty, Karl Sullivan and David Bolger were now performers, now clamouring audience, with Litchfield, Clarke and Jenny Roche hurling themselves at their idols, before Dancing in the Moonlight with ecstatic whirling turns. But Back in Town is the work of David Bolger, whose forte is to create humour in dance, so his admiration of Lynott did not prevent him raising laughs at the egos, rivalries and image-making of the rock world.

Back in Town was preceded by a revival of Liz Roche's elegant Dragons and Tonics, with Clarke in the role previously danced by the choreographer, at present in France on the prestigious Europa Dance project. Seeing this for the third time, I was even more impressed by its power to evoke images seen through the mists of memory, greatly helped by Denis Roche's haunting music.