The band decided to release a live album after their producer Tony Visconti did not have enough time to work on a full studio session.

The band had scored hit singles and developed a strong live following, including headlining the Reading Festival.

[2] The group planned to make a new studio album at the start of 1978, helmed by producer Tony Visconti, with whom they had created the successful Bad Reputation.

[3] The album's sleeve notes credit two concerts as its source: Hammersmith Odeon, London, England on 14 November 1976 (part of the tour for Johnny the Fox, released earlier that year), and Seneca College Fieldhouse, Don Mills, Toronto, Ontario, Canada on 28 October 1977 (part of the tour for Bad Reputation).

[1] Visconti later revealed that shows at the Tower Theater, Philadelphia on 20 and 21 October 1977, a week earlier than the Toronto gig, had also been recorded.

[5] Thin Lizzy biographer Mark Putterford believes the majority of recordings on the finished album are from the Hammersmith show.

[6] He claims to have created some audience sounds from a keyboard-triggered tape loop in a similar manner to a Mellotron or sampling keyboard.

[3] However, manager Chris O'Donnell said the album was 75% live, with overdubs restricted to backing vocals and a few guitar solos to "clean the sound up".

He has said the album is almost all live, and the sound levels on stage would make overdubbing impossible due to the lack of acoustic separation between instruments.

He claims a recording of "Still In Love With You", featuring a guitar solo he felt was better than the one at the gig that was eventually released, could not be used due to phaser noise on the bass.

[16] Some pressings of the record sleeve include a montage photograph in the studio containing a mirror, straw, razor blade and a rolled up five pound note (as an overt reference to cocaine consumption).

[21] The band began touring to promote the album, but after a one-off gig in Ibiza, Lynott and Robertson had an acrimonious argument.

Robertson subsequently quit Thin Lizzy permanently to form Wild Horses with former Rainbow bassist Jimmy Bain.

[23] The March 1978 footage from the Rainbow Theatre concert was released a first time in 1980 on VHS by VCL Video and as a 60-minute edit by Castle Communications in 1994 and titled Live & Dangerous.

[24][25] The footage was released on DVD in 2007, with other group performances including a show from their farewell tour on 26 January 1983, and four Top of the Pops clips from the 1970s.

[31] Stuart Bailie in his review for Classic Rock magazine praised the quality of the music and played down rumours of studio overdubbing.