Thin Lizzy Members Decide to Stop Touring, Won't Release New Album Under the Moniker

Robert John/ThinLizzyBand.comSay good-bye to Thin Lizzy. Sort of.

Members of the band's current incarnation have announced that they'll stop touring under that name after the end of the year. In addition, longtime Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham reveals that the group won't release the new album its recording under the moniker, as they'd initially planned.

In a lengthy message posted on the band's official website, Gorham says, "Out of respect to [late frontman] Phil Lynott and the legacy he created, we have decided that we should not release a new album under the Thin Lizzy name."

Gorham goes on to explain that the decision was a hard one because the group "put a lot of time and effort into re-building the Thin Lizzy brand" during the last several years. He further reports that the group has penned 20 new songs he and his band mates "believe Phil would have been proud of," while acknowledging that recording as Thin Lizzy without Lynott is "a touchy subject" with some fans.

Gorham says the group intends to release that new material soon, using a different name, because "we really want the quality of these songs to be heard by everyone without any judgment or prejudice." Gorham promises that the band "will announce future plans early in the new year."

Meanwhile, current Lizzy frontman Ricky Warwick explains in his own statement, "Without a new album to gain new press and keep the momentum we have built up over the past two years, we are worried the Thin Lizzy brand and all it stands for will diminish to a point we would never want to see. Therefore our regular touring as Thin Lizzy will cease at the end of this year after our European tour."

The singer also notes that the band may still "play odd shows in 2013 and beyond [as Thin Lizzy] if people want to see us."

Thin Lizzy's last planned European tour is scheduled to run from a November 9 concert in Athens, Greece, through a December 13 performance in Lynott's hometown of Dublin, Ireland. Visit ThinLizzyBand.com for more information.