Phil Lynott
Phil Lynott (1949–1986) was an Irish musician best known as the frontman, bassist, and principal songwriter for the legendary rock band Thin Lizzy. Born in West Bromwich, England, to an Irish mother and Brazilian father, Lynott moved to Dublin at a young age and was brought up by his grandparents. With Thin Lizzy, he crafted a unique sound blending hard rock, folk, and Celtic influences, achieving international success with hits like "The Boys Are Back in Town" and "Whiskey in the Jar."
Lynott's soulful vocals, poetic lyrics, and charismatic stage presence made him a revered figure in rock music. Despite his untimely death, his legacy continues to inspire musicians worldwide.
Clifton Grange Hotel
Lynott’s mother Philomena, had come to England to find work, and met Phil’s father, an immigrant from British Guiana, in a dancehall attached to a displaced persons hostel in Birmingham. Phil was born in 1949, and seeking a place where the single mother of a mixed-race baby would be accepted, Philomena ended up in Moss Side.
“Moss Side then, was beautiful – leafy avenues, Alexandra Road, the park, everything,” she says. When Phil was four, Philomena’s mother took him back to Dublin. “And I ended up taking three jobs so I could send my mother money for keeping him,” says Philomena. “I worked in a dress shop near Lewis’s on Market Street, and all the clothes had film star names in them, like Rita Hayworth. “Then I took a job as a barmaid, and on Saturdays I helped on a market selling beautiful Dannimac coats that were seconds.”
But in 1966, she took charge of the Clifton Grange Hotel in Whalley Range. “It had a nickname, the Showbiz Hotel because around that time all I took was showbiz people,” she says.
The guests – singers, dancers, comedians, contortionists – played the cabaret clubs of Manchester. Because of their working hours, the Showbiz’s bar did not usually open until 2am, bedtime was 6am and breakfast midday. So the night-time drinking sessions began to attract footballers – it was a home from home for George Best – and the group of criminals dubbed the Quality Street Gang.
On his visits to Manchester, Phil Lynott met and befriended these characters.
He even wrote songs about this colourful fraternity – one song called Clifton Grange Hotel, another Johnny The Fox Meets Jimmy The Weed. Thin Lizzy’s enduring song The Boys Are Back In Town is also believed to be a reference to the Quality Street Gang
“All of those people came in my bar and Philip liked them. They were characters,” says Philomena
One of the most enduring memories of the Clifton revolves around the infamous Sex Pistols gig that took place at The Free Trade Hall in 1976. Considered to be “The Gig That Changed The World“, the Sex Pistols themselves struggled to find somewhere to stay in the city afterwards. So, the lads ended up traipsing all the way to the Clifton Grange in Whalley Range after the gig, rocking up to Philomena’s door late at night, soaking wet. They were quickly given the five-bed room aptly named ‘The Barracks’ and Philomena herself remembers them fondly – “They were the nicest-mannered… I’ve never forgotten them.”
Philip Parris Lynott was born on 20th August 1949 in West Bromwich, near Birmingham. The son of Philomena Lynott, a white Irish Catholic and Cecil Parris from Brazil, Phil was initially brought up in Moss Side, Manchester and moved to Ireland at the age of four. He lived in Crumlin, Dublin, with his maternal grandparents.
His teenage years saw him join his first band, 'The Black Eagles', as the lead vocalist. Moving on, Phil then joined Brush Sheils' group, 'Skid Row' during which time he also began learning to play the bass. When Brush Sheils decided to reform the band as a 3-piece, Phil left to start his own group, 'Orphanage' with Brian Downey on drums, Pat Quigley on bass and guitarist Joe Staunton. They were now also performing original material. By the end of 1969 they were approached by experienced musician Eric Bell who suggested forming a new band with Phil and Brian, and together with Eric Wrixon on keyboards, the first configuration of Thin Lizzy was created.
With fluid membership and inconsistent output, the band's inspired take on the traditional folk song Whiskey In The Jar saw them flirt with early fame, but it wasn’t until 1976’s Jailbreak and the dazzling The Boys Are Back In Town that they found success in the US. It was fickle fame at that, and the only time they’d fly so high in America.
Phil remained the leading creative force behind the group and his mixture of poetry and rock proved to be as distinctive and original as the twin-guitar sound they pioneered to deliver their work.
The early 1980s saw Phil produce two widely acclaimed solo albums, 'Solo In Soho' and 'The Philip Lynott Album' and when the band eventually broke up in 1983 his post-Lizzy band, Grand Slam, propped him up as a live fixture at festivals and club gigs throughout 1984, and he’d even record a hit in 1985 with his old Lizzy sparring partner Gary Moore, with the rousing anti-war anthem Out In The Fields.
While these musical cameos flickered in and out of life, Lynott was spiralling slowly out of control. Heroin and alcohol dependency made for a shambolic figure shuffling through Soho. His sporadic appearances at the Marquee Club through 1985, as a punter propping up the bar – not the musical firebrand storming the stage with a mirror scratch-plate on his bass guitar – caused quiet concern among the regulars.
There was a suggestion that Lynott was working on a new album, but what was clear was that as Christmas approached, Lynott was retreating in on himself, drinking and drugging on a daily basis. Lynott's body finally gave in on Christmas Day. He collapsed at home in Kew, was taken to hospital and diagnosed with septicaemia as well as kidney and liver damage. On January 4 1986, he died of pneumonia and heart failure at the hospital's intensive care unit. He was just 36.
Phil Lynott's funeral was held at St Elizabeth's Church in London five days later, and was followed by a second service at Howth Parish Church in Dublin, on January 11. He was buried in St Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton, Dublin.
Born in England and raised in Ireland, Lynott always considered himself to be Irish. His friend and Thin Lizzy bandmate Scott Gorham said in 2013, "Phil was so proud of being Irish. No matter where he went in the world, if we were talking to a journalist and they got something wrong about Ireland, he'd give the guy a history lesson. It meant a lot to him.” In the early 1980s, he purchased properties on the Howth peninsula north of Dublin, one of which, White Horses in Sutton, was a 50th birthday present for his mother.
Lynott’s legacy as a Black Irish rock pioneer has been long lasting. In 2005, a life-size bronze statue of Lynott was erected in the centre of Dublin, and in November 2019, the Central Bank of Ireland issued 3,000 €15 silver commemorative coins as part of the 'Modern Irish Musicians' series, commemorating the 70th anniversary of Lynott's birth.