A new animated video for Thin Lizzy's 1976 single Jailbreak has been launched. The vizualiser, which is based on Jim Fitzpatrick's iconic cover art for the album of the same name, arrives as UME prepare to release new mixes of both the Jailbreak album and Johnny The Fox, released later the same year.
In the new issue of Classic Rock, which looks back at Jailbreak and the band's campaign to break North America, guitarist Scott Gorham, who'd joined the band in time to play on the preceding albums Nightlife and Fighting, looks back on the making of Jailbreak.
"Our first two albums were dismal failures," says Gorham. "For the third, Jailbreak, we literally had everyone saying to us: 'You’d better do it on this one or there’s the door.' Record company, management, I even think what few fans we had at that point were saying it. So we doubled our efforts. We demoed and demoed and demoed and wrote and wrote.
"That’s why Jailbreak and Johnny came out in the same year. We wrote probably two and a half albums’ worth of songs. Also, The Boys Are Back In Town was so big worldwide, we pretty much knew we were gonna be on the road constantly. We didn’t know if we’d have time to make another album in the space available to us."
The Jailbreak single was released in August 1976 and reached number 31 in the UK chart. It has subsequently been covered by the likes of Jon Bon Jovi, Fu Manchu, Blue Öyster Cult, Supersuckers, Dropkick Murphys and Anthrax.
The 2024 remixes of Jailbreak and Johnny The Fox are both released on September 28. UME are also releasing a 5CD+Blu-ray box set, 1976, on the same date, which includes the original and new mixes of both albums, plus two discs of outtakes. The fifth CD features Live In Cleveland, a WMMS live radio broadcast captured in May 1976. The box set also includes a Blu-ray disc featuring the new and old stereo mixes, plus Atmos and 5.1 mixes of both albums.
