Phil Lynott — Old Town Video

JUL 01 1982 · 12:00

Phil Lynott — Old Town Video (1982) Director: Gerry Greg Era: Early Music Video Era (1982) - Pre-MTV-dominance period when UK/Irish broadcast television, not dedicated music channels, served as the primary vehicle for promotional clips; produced through national public broadcaster RTÉ during a transitional moment for the form. Exceptionally high. This video is a primary document of both Irish music video history and early-1980s Dublin streetscape. Directed for RTÉ before the music video became a globally standardised format, it captures Phil Lynott — one of Ireland's most iconic rock figures — in an intimate, location-authentic portrait that no studio clip could replicate. Its 16mm warmth, observational pacing, and real Dublin locations give it lasting archival value beyond its musical context. Context: Filmed in Dublin in 1982 and broadcast on RTÉ's 'Anything Goes', this video operates as both a pop promotional clip and an unintentional time-capsule document of Dublin's urban landscape before major redevelopment. Lynott — already internationally famous as Thin Lizzy's frontman — is presented here in an intimate, demythologised register: strolling his hometown streets, having a pint, flirting with passersby. The choice to shoot on 16mm at real locations rather than on a performance stage reflects both production pragmatism (RTÉ infrastructure) and a genuine aesthetic alignment with the song's lyrical themes of homecoming, romance's end, and personal nostalgia. The video predates Ireland's full absorption into the MTV-era music video economy, making it a document of a specifically Irish television-music production culture. Director notes: The video was produced by Dave Heffernan for the RTÉ programme 'Anything Goes' and first broadcast on 30 October 1982. It was shot on 16mm film by an RTÉ staff cameraman across multiple Dublin city centre locations: the Ha'penny Bridge, Grafton Street, the Long Hall pub on South Great George's Street, and the Great South Wall/Ringsend Pier area. The production involved a location recce with an art director (Brigid Timmons, per Come Here To Me blog sourced from RTÉ production records). The video was made in the days before music videos were commonplace in Ireland, and its RTÉ broadcast context meant it functioned simultaneously as a TV programme segment and a promotional clip. A 2018 RTÉ documentary, 'Phil Lynott: Scéalta Ón Old Town' (dir. Brian Reddin), examined the making of the video in depth.