Philip Lynott Sculpture. Sanguine on board. 1998.

Study for a proposed sculpture of my friend the late Philip Lynott of Thin Lizzy.

Back in 1998 it was announced that there was to be an open competition for the design and execution of a new sculpture of black Irish rock icon Philip Lynott of Thin Lizzy.

Philip died tragically of a mixture of drugs, alcohol and despair in 1986 but his memory was kept alive by Thin Lizzy fans, friends and admirers worldwide. Even the likes of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen paid tribute to his influence as did so many others in the music industry.

The Man and his Music

Walking down Grafton Street was probably the first thing Philip did once he arrived back in Dublin. I loved being with him when he did his ‘promenade’ as I used say to tease him. Even when he was an unknown singer he attracted endless attention, especially female attention; he would walk along one side of Grafton street and myself on the other long before we were formally introduced my by then football teammate Frank Murray, Philip’s closest and most loyal friend.

He always acknowledged me from day one. We would nod towards each other as we passed on opposite sides on Grafton Street for some, to me, unknown reason* (see note).

70s Dublin

I was this freckly pale redhead with hair down to my shoulders and he was this cool black dude; both of us were the same build and height, we wore flares, platform shoes, the works, but Philip had the X factor -extraordinary charisma.
You could bottle it, it was so powerful. Even I, and I’m a very self-confident person, felt it and loved it. He just had an aura. That is the only way to describe it.

 

Philip was marvelously charismatic and loved to strut his stuff down Grafton -he loved the mostly polite, quiet adulation, he laughed at the occasional shriek and boy, did he love to get the girls giggling and pointing over at him. Above all he loved the vibe of 70s Dublin and he loved the vibe of Grafton street and the young people, all decked out in their colourful best and he milked it. Not for ego, simply for the people, the vibe from being home in Dublin and to be so beautifully acknowledged, I believe, gave him strength and renewed his prodigious energy. Dublin was home, he loved it and it loved him back tenfold and still does to this day.

Nothing felt better than a walk with Philip in town. He was immensely proud of his Dublin roots and was quick to tell people that when he was in England that he was from Ireland, when he was in Ireland he said he was from Dublin, when he was in Dublin he was from Crumlin and when he was in Crumlin he proudly said he was from xxxxxx Street.

He was one special, cool black Irish dude and we will never see the likes of him again. We were all very lucky to know him and spend so much time with him -and I was especially blessed to work with him so closely and for so long.

Now I know why!

NOTE: *Now I know the reason why Philip always acknowledged me as we passed each other on Grafton back in the day.
I spoke to Horslips drummer and former Tara Telephone beat poet, Eamonn Carr, only last week about the late 60s and early 70s and we were talking about the wildly graphic quasi-psychedelic poster poems I produced for both himself and Peter Fallon for Tara Telephone, plus all the mad poetry book covers I drew for their publication Capella.

It seems Philip was in Eamonn’s small flat one night and was absolutely gobsmacked when he noticed two of these poster poems of mine and told Eamon the absolutely loved them and their very different and pretty radical psychedelic graphics.
Philip wanted to know who the artist was and Eamonn told him it was that long redhead fella he pointed out to Philip one day on Grafton street way back.

Philip found it hard to believe that these posters were produced in Dublin, Ireland and that the artist was a local Dubliner whose work he was aware of without knowing it’s origin.

We won’t mention Captain Americas 1971… another story 🙂

The Sculpture

I had been one of the founder members of the Philip Lynott Trust and it was formed to keep the memory of Philip and his music alive. Over the course of many meetings, it was decided that his memory would best be served by the creation of a new statue in his honour in his native city, Dublin, Ireland and by a fund to help young musicians learn and record their music.

I resigned from the Trust around that time myself and when the statue project was moved I was notified and asked to submit a design for consideration. I felt it would be correct, to avoid a conflict of interest, that this competition the Trust should have a proper art authority vet the conditions for creation, advise on any contractual matters like ownership of the final image or images derived thereof, and to put this in legal language that would be binding on the winner and the Trust or it’s representatives once the winner was decided.

Let the Best Win

As far as I was concerned I had as good a chance as anyone else and probably an unfair advantage due to my close friendship with Philip and my track record of design and artwork for so many images for Thin Lizzy, Philip Lynott, and his record company and management.

I also knew from a friend that the Irish Arts Council had a rather biased view of myself as a maverick, self-taught ‘outsider’ artist who never was properly trained, attended their art colleges or exhibited in their annual get-togethers. Instead, everything I did was very much for public consumption, out there and in your face where my work still belongs.

For them, as long as I have been on the planet, I was simply NOT quite of the same mind as the elite who ran the snobbish Irish Arts scene of the time. I was always perhaps too political and radical for them but who knows? And who cares? I certainly do not, in fact, I quite enjoy being outside their little tent.

It’s not that that vaguely disapproving attitude has even changed slightly to this day

Artists Need To Get Paid Too

When the Irish Arts Council luvvies drew up this hugely important contract for this commission they made no allowance in this contract for any royalties for the artist/sculpture/creator for any reproductions or facsimile or copies of any size, including small maquettes of the statue, I called the Arts Council directly upon sight of this crucial and important omission and drew a complete blank. I was told they had been ‘instructed’ to omit any reproduction rights for the creator, contrary to the Berne Convention on copyright and I expressed my total opposition to such a violation of creator’s rights. I found it extraordinary, and still do, that the Irish Arts Council would be party to such a scheme that denied the very thing they were supposed to care about and enforce: creators rights and artistic integrity of contractual agreements in this instance.

I informed them that the creator cannot in law be denied such rights anyway as they are clearly outlined in EU law also and in common copyright law -and these rights are honoured in every court in the western world.

As a consequence, I withdrew both myself and my sculpture design that was so far only in two-dimensional form as a drawing (above) and so I reluctantly withdrew from the competition.

A Wonderful Tribute

It is worth noting that the present sculpture off Grafton Street beside one of his favourite haunt, Bruxelles Pub, that the Lizzy fans are familiar with was designed by artist and sculptor Paul Daly and I think it is a wonderful tribute to Philip so I have no axe to grind there.

If Paul Daly, the artist who did the sculpture now outside Bruxelles off Grafton Street, Dublin, had received his proper royalties for his cool creation he would properly have a nice pension by now for all the little models sold. I read in a newspaper article that he was well aware of this but had not the money to bring this to law and sort his due royalties out which seems so terribly unfair and wrong to me.

One thing I can say with absolute certainty is this: Philip would be appalled, he was vehement about the rights of artists and performers and true to his beliefs he personally always made sure I was well rewarded for my creative work for Thin Lizzy.

Anyway, I like his sculpture too, it’s more immediate than the one I was proposing and the fans love it too, which is what matters. I wanted a more artistic Philip leaning against a door on South Anne St where we always met at night before we headed to the Pink Elephant.
I wanted it dark and moody and almost blending into the doorway just as I remember the man himself.
Maybe one day somewhere in Dublin we will have a second Philip Lynott sculpture meanwhile enjoy the one we have.

-Jim FitzPatrick. August 2018