Just spent an emotional 2 hours solid watching and listening to You-Tube recordings of Rory Gallagher from 1968 right up until his last recorded appearances in 1994. Some rock stars achieve legendary status through their “lifestyle” death, but Rory was a legendary no-nonesense talent that sadly died on 14 June 1995.
Only saw him twice, Newcastle in ’73 and Hammersmith around ’78, but also have (had) five of his (vinyl) albums too, Blueprint, Tattoo, Against the Grain, Calling Card and Live in Europe. Mentioned seeing a tribute concert with Gary Cox on the anniversary of his death back in Perth, WA the year before last.
Funny after picking up on “Blister in the Sun” recently, to hear Rory playing “Blister on the Moon” back in his ’68/’69 Taste days – a title I’d forgotten. Anyway, thanks to hours of recordings available, lots from The Marquee, from Montreux Jazz and from RockPalast, not to mention Dublin, Belfast and Cork and the original Isle of Wight festival and several excellent renditions of “Shadow Play“, the old rocker will never die (1979 Montreux version – how much can one guitar make out of a 3 chord riff ?).
Apart from a Tele (or Super Tele ?) used for some slide work, the acoustic and a steel resonator for the trad acoustic blues numbers, the battered Strat seems to have accompanied him right from 1968 to the end, looking as battered in ’68 as it still did in ’94. Gerry McAvoy there on bass for 90% of it too. Good to see people like Slash, Johnny Marr, Bono and The Edge paying tribute on the documercial for this “Big Guns” greatest hits collection. If Rory is not someone you know, start there and check out the official web-site too.
The man who got me back into the blues.
Eric Clapton
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