Description

KILLER ON THE LOOSE. Link to print

This was probably as controversial as it gets: Philip was even accused of exploiting the Peter Sutcliffe Ripper murders of the early ’80s and the record came out smack in the middle of a manhunt if I remember correctly. ‘Killer on the Loose’ is one great song too, rocking stuff with a memorable beat and superb chorus. Lizzy at their best and I still play it to rev me up for work.
Strangely enough, I just saw this single and its title a great excuse to use my back cover art from the ‘Chinatown’ album art and Philip and the band agreed, mind you this was Philip’s own idea he passed on to me and my only reservation after the controversy was with the pool of blood under the lettering -but I was just making a quiet jokey reminder of the blood on the rose in my ‘Black Rose’ artwork.
Jack the Ripper 2 was far from my mind, that rubbish all came later from the tabloids who used anything they could to make another Ripper headline
The artwork worked great then and now, but the timing was not the greatest. Then again it’s fuckin music, not real life. No one was harmed in the making of this music or art.
‘Killer on the Loose…. Ladykiller on the loose’… etc? Great writing, so Philip, so Lizzy and unconnected to that moron Sutcliffe who murdered real women, all innocent.

THIN LIZZY. BAND PORTRAITS.1981. Link to print

Back when Philip was working on an as yet untitled album, later titled ‘Renegade’, he asked me to come over and stay with him in his house in Kew Gardens, London, for a for days so we could catch up and discuss new work and ideas.
Tex, his driver, picked me up from the airport and Philip was at home waiting for me, ready to go out: ‘Hey Jim, let’s take a walk and talk’. I always enjoyed the serious side of Philip and I could see he was dead serious. He was having problems with the record company at the time and needed me to do some work for him directly rather than through them, as I was used to.
He wanted me to produce a series of serious and realistic portraits of the band. At that point in time the ever-changing line-up had settled and was pretty stable: Philip Lynott, Scott Gorham and the ever-present Brian Downey, Philip’s mate from school days plus the new addition, the wonderful Snowy White, who was also part of Pink Floyd when they toured and performed.

THIN LIZZY LIZZY KILLER ALBUM COVER Link to print

Philip had always wanted me to do a painting of Thin Lizzy in action and asked me to echo the colours of a Japanese compilation album that used my logo and added beautiful pinks and blues to it. The artwork was a detailed pencil drawing and the colour was added by airbrush. It took ages too but I was happy with the result and I thought I had a real ‘live’ feel to it. Philip was happy with it too and he wanted to continue with artwork rather than photography and he wanted me on board to continue the look he felt I gave the band. The end result was spot on –a real labour of love -but before it was due to be released another major English band brought out a ‘Killers’ album so we were dead in the water. It got buried for years until Jorgen Holmstedt of Universal Music, Sweden spotted it on my website in 2000 and used it on a superb compilation double album, titled ‘ The Boys are Back in Town’ –it is my own favourite Lizzy compilation album too.
It was absolutely wonderful to see it used so beautifully all of twenty years later.

THIN LIZZY THE ROCKER POSTER ART. Link to print

Thin Lizzy The Rocker Signed and numbered Limited Edition Print. The Rocker was one of the singles from ‘Vagabonds of the Western World’ and one of the best of Philip’s vocals and lyrics.

PHILIP LYNOTT. RED PORTRAIT.1981. Link to print

Here’s the man himself from the Renegade poster.
Wish I had the time to draw and paint the missing legends of the Lizzy gang set: Robbo, Gary and Eric. Fingers crossed… one day soon -Jim.
PS. I found my pen and ink on cell template for this portrait this morning after a root around. The register marks allowed me to place this outline over my drawing and painting to make sure i did not give him cross eyes or a fat face 🙂 or worse…
Old style technology circa 1980s

THIN LIZZY NIGHTLIFE. PANTHER LOGO. 1972. Link to print

This artwork was for the back of tour jackets; I have no idea if it was ever used but a few years ago, while I was hanging out with my daughter who lives in Milan, I saw it for sale as a very expensive leather jacket with the Panther Thin Lizzy logo printed in purple. I couldn’t afford it myself but it looked stunning. Probably pirated too. C’est la vie.

I’m well used to that one by now. I must be one of the most pirated artists in history. I quite like seeing my work all over the place. It’s flattering…kind of…