The Specials poster

“Whiskey in the Jar” poster, A3 size (297mm X 420mm), printed on matt paper and designed and drawn by Phil Lynott’s old friend Tim Booth [singer/guitarist in the Irish band Doctor Strangely Strange].

The Whiskey In the Jar and the Randolphs Tango posters are printed on matt paper and were designed and drawn by Phil’s old friend Tim Booth [singer/guitarist in the Irish band Doctor Strangely Strange].
Back in 1972, 8 weeks after its release, the promotion people employed by Decca Records and Pippin the Friendly Ranger music were struggling, trying to break the single ‘Whiskey In the Jar’. We’d had just one play on Radio One, although Radio Luxembourg was playing it [thanks Kid Jensen] and the single had gone straight to No 1 in the Irish charts just before Christmas 1972.
We decided to re-promote the single and I had the idea of asking Tim to create a comic strip of the lyrics. In addition, in the 10th frame he showed a close-up of the label of the whiskey bottle and he gave us separate matching artwork for this label.
We re-serviced the BBC with the single in a special promo package on 27th December; the promotion package consisted of the edited version of the record, a Thin Lizzy biog, photo of the group, the ‘Whiskey In the Jar’ lyric comic strip in both A4 and A3 sizes AND a miniature bottle of whiskey with the special label.
Immediately we picked up several plays and the record went on to become a big hit. When time came for a follow up, we didn’t want to do something too similar and chose ‘Randoph’s Tango’ which is a great record and catchy enough, we thought, to be another hit, so we commissioned Tim Booth to create another cartoon strip from Phil’s lyrics to help promotion.
Ted Carroll

These comic strip posters are not original, but are limited editions taken from the original artwork.

The Straight Music posters are taken direct from the original artwork used for promotion of records and gigs.

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