Thin Lizzy unveil first ever music video for 'Whiskey In The Jar'

Over half-a-century after Thin Lizzy released their era-defining single 'Whiskey In The Jar', the first official music video for the track has been unveiled.

Originally released as a single in 1972, the band's classic rendition of the traditional Irish song topped the charts in Ireland, and reached No.6 in the UK. After two fine but commercially-unrewarding albums, the single marked a major breakthrough for Thin Lizzy – then made up of Philip Lynott, Eric Bell and Brian Downey. However, they chose to leave it off their next album, 1973's Vagabonds of the Western World. It has since been added to the Super Deluxe Edition of the LP, released to mark its 50th anniversary – available here.

Watch the video for 'Whiskey In The Jar', animated by acclaimed graphic and motion designer Harry French, and produced by Dave Hudson & Forward Slash Studios, below:

Eric Bell on 'Whiskey in the Jar':

"The way it came about was very strange. We were rehearsing upstairs in this pub and we couldn’t get any inspiration. I was actually reading a book I was so bored. Then Phil picked up a Fender Telecaster and started singing all these Irish songs. He was doing, ‘Wild Rover’ and stuff like that, just for a laugh. I’m just thinking, ‘When are we going home?’

"Then Phil started on ‘Whiskey In The Jar’ and I picked up my guitar and played along. Our manager, Ted Carroll, who had come in with a new amp for me to try out, asked what was that song we were playing. Phil said we were only messing about, but it was ‘Whiskey In The Jar’. Ted then said, ‘Have you got a single yet?’ and we said, ‘Yeah, ‘Black Boys On The Corner’ So he said, ‘Why not put ‘Whiskey…’ on the B-side?’

"Anyway, we recorded it – that was the biggest challenge of my life – I didn’t know how to approach it as it was an Irish ballad. We were used to doing rock and blues, not Irish ballads. Myself and Philip played acoustic guitars on it and after that was finished they all looked at me and said, ‘What are you going to do?’

"I tried a few things that were really corny, so I took a cassette home and worked on it and came up with the solo. We recorded it and released it as a double A-side, so the DJs got the choice of which side to play. It had been out for about two months and we never heard anything about it. We were saying, ‘We told you it was a load of bollocks’.

"Then we did this horrendous tour of Germany, doing wine bars and clubs. We got this telegram to our German hotel. One of our roadies Frank Murray came in and said ‘Whiskey In The Jar’ is No. 22 in the UK charts. We thought, ‘We’ve got to get back to England’, so we cancelled the rest of the tour, went back and ended up on Top of The Pops."