Rory Gallagher (Official Thread)

[Nai Noswad]

my penultimate Rory gig...

 

[E-Z]

my penultimate Rory gig...
View attachment 230470

Yeah I saw him on that 1988 UK tour when he was promoting the Defender album released the year before as well Ian. I saw him and the band at the Kentish Town Town And Country club in north London and it was classic Rory giving it 100% for about 2hrs-30mins that evening.

 

[BluesRocker]

Exactly 30 years ago to this very day that Rory sadly passed away...best guitar player i ever saw..RIP to the G-Man. God bless ya Rory.

 

[E-Z]

Exactly 30 years ago to this very day that Rory sadly passed away...best guitar player i ever saw..RIP to the G-Man. God bless ya Rory.

I remember hearing of Rory's passing on the BBC 6:00 pm 30-mins news programme on Radio 4 on a Wednesday evening from memory saying something like 'Blues/rock guitarist Rory Gallagher passed away in a London hospital today aged 47 after undergoing a liver transplant' or words to that effect.

In one of several obituaries the following day one that I recall possibly either in the Guardian or Times newspapers said something to the effect that many people will be thinking of Rory Gallagher today but how many people were thinking of Rory Gallagher yesterday with the implication that his time had passed?. Funny but personally I WAS THINKING OF RORY the day before his death was announced and became public knowledge and in fact I can recall actually singing to myself some of the words to his slow blues I should have learnt my lesson (from the album Deuce released in 1971) which was on the day of his passing..

 

[E-Z]

I have been chatting lately over the last maybe 2-months to a 'quiet and unassuming' guy at my local tube station during the early morning rush hour or for our American cousins 'subway station' and during our conversations about classical and rock music primarily from the early 1970s he mentioned that he is a 'music teacher' at a school just outside London and a few days go he 'DROPPED A BOMBSHELL' when he told me that he had played on stage with Rory Gallagher!!. WHAT!!!!!??. Anyway it is true I have seen the pictures and this was towards the end of Rory's time circa 1992-1993 before Rory sadly passed away in 1995 and this morning he mentioned that he had played some keyboards on Rory's final London gig at the Kentish Town Town and Country club back in October 1992 a gig that I attended myself but he didn't usually speak about it being a fairly quiet individual. It just goes to show you the most unlikely people had a story to tell..

Anyway I asked him what was Rory like before going on stage and he said that Rory would be alone away from the other guys in his band until it was time to go on stage also Rory had asked him if he wanted to have a play of Rory's 'trade mark' battered 1961 Stratocaster but he told Rory that he wouldn't want to hold it because it was Rory's guitar but he thanked Rory all the same for the offer.

The guy I am referring to in my post above is an Italian guy named Roberto Manes a musician and music teacher who's primary instrument is the violin (and electric violin) although he does play guitar and some keyboards as well. Roberto told me that back in 1992 he was playing a 'pub gig' in south west London in a pub on the Fulham road in the area of London where Rory was living back then and Roberto was playing with his small ensemble of musicians with himself on electric violin and apparently after the set Rory who was in the audience came up and had a chat with Roberto telling him that he liked his violin playing and inviting Roberto to play four up coming gigs with Rory's band with Roberto playing his electric violin on stage with the band. Anyway after about four days of rehearsals in a central London rehearsal studio Rory and his band along with Roberto played the 4-gigs one of which was in Glasgow (Scotland) at a open air festival performing in daylight back in 1992 and in fact I have seen the picture with Rory standing centre stage as was his usual position and Roberto standing to Rory's far left on the stage with the violin tucked under his cheek with the bow sliding over the strings!.

Roberto told me that his favourite musical style is Jazz/Rock although we talk a lot about late 1960s & 1970s US & British rock.

 

[BluesRocker]

I remember hearing of Rory's passing on the BBC 6:00 pm 30-mins news programme on Radio 4 on a Wednesday evening from memory saying something like 'Blues/rock guitarist Rory Gallagher passed away in a London hospital today aged 47 after undergoing a liver transplant' or words to that effect.

In one of several obituaries the following day one that I recall possibly either in the Guardian or Times newspapers said something to the effect that many people will be thinking of Rory Gallagher today but how many people were thinking of Rory Gallagher yesterday with the implication that his time had passed?. Funny but personally I WAS THINKING OF RORY the day before his death was announced and became public knowledge and in fact I can recall actually singing to myself some of the words to his slow blues I should have learnt my lesson (from the album Deuce released in 1971) which was on the day of his passing..

i was living in Hong Kong when he died...i had no idea that he had become seriously ill, his illness was kept pretty quiet and not many knew about it...i only found out that he had passed away about 3 or 4 weeks after his death..there was no internet then, and living in HK i couldn't really keep up to date with the music press etc etc...it was in a small music pub venue in HK when i found out, there was a 3 piece band of British lads playing covers of classic rock and blues rock songs and at the end of their set the guitarist said we would like to finish with a tribute to Rory Gallagher, god bless him, and they played 'Tattooed Lady,'...When the band had finished the guitarist came up to the bar for a beer, so i walked over and thanked him for the music they had played and also a big thanks for playing the Rory song..He was from Stoke-on-Trent and like me he was a massive Rory fan..i said to him that its not often you hear bands playing Rory songs and he then told me that he had died..i was gobsmacked and really devastated with the news..the two of us then instructed the barman to fetch down a bottle of Scotch, and the both of us sat there for the next 2 hours until closing time demolishing the entire bottle and discussing nothing but Rory, his music, his albums and his live shows..The Stoke guitarist told me that he had seen Rory in concert over 20 times throughout the years, i had seen Rory a dozen times..first time i saw him was at Liverpool University in 1981 when his 'Jinx' album was being released, he was doing a tour of the UK playing at all the big city universities/polytechnics, and it was dubbed as his 'University Challenge Tour.'..he was fantastic, and even to this day i say its the best concert i have ever been to..last time i saw him was in 1989, just before i went overseas..it was at a small one day rock n blues festival inside Mildenhall Speedway Stadium in Suffolk, right next door to the big American airbases of RAF Lakenheath and Mildenhall in the summer of 1989...it was the East Anglia rock n blues festival, Rory headlined with Stan Webbs Chicken Shack and Uriah Heep on the bill with lots of lesser known rock n blues bands from around the UK..the event was poorly advertised and Mildenhall is out in the sticks so there wasn't that many in attendance, Rory had put on weight by now and his drinking and health were becoming a problem,but nevertheless he was still brilliant as ever..The Stoke guitarist was making me jealous coz he had seen Rory back in the 70s, just a tad before my time,,lol.

 

[Nai Noswad]

I was putting a new roof on the house here in Ireland when my late MIL shouted me down off of the scaffolding to see the news on TV.
It was a really big deal here.
Folded up early and I got shitfaced in the Hideout Bar.
I'm convinced a valve AC30 and 150 gauge Fender strings...help create his unique sound.
{Lovely and Live here:}

A Million Miles Away.

 

[Nai Noswad]

i was living in Hong Kong when he died...i had no idea that he had become seriously ill, his illness was kept pretty quiet and not many knew about it...i only found out that he had passed away about 3 or 4 weeks after his death..there was no internet then, and living in HK i couldn't really keep up to date with the music press etc etc...it was in a small music pub venue in HK when i found out, there was a 3 piece band of British lads playing covers of classic rock and blues rock songs and at the end of their set the guitarist said we would like to finish with a tribute to Rory Gallagher, god bless him, and they played 'Tattooed Lady,'...When the band had finished the guitarist came up to the bar for a beer, so i walked over and thanked him for the music they had played and also a big thanks for playing the Rory song..He was from Stoke-on-Trent and like me he was a massive Rory fan..i said to him that its not often you hear bands playing Rory songs and he then told me that he had died..i was gobsmacked and really devastated with the news..the two of us then instructed the barman to fetch down a bottle of Scotch, and the both of us sat there for the next 2 hours until closing time demolishing the entire bottle and discussing nothing but Rory, his music, his albums and his live shows..The Stoke guitarist told me that he had seen Rory in concert over 20 times throughout the years, i had seen Rory a dozen times..first time i saw him was at Liverpool University in 1981 when his 'Jinx' album was being released, he was doing a tour of the UK playing at all the big city universities/polytechnics, and it was dubbed as his 'University Challenge Tour.'..he was fantastic, and even to this day i say its the best concert i have ever been to..last time i saw him was in 1989, just before i went overseas..it was at a small one day rock n blues festival inside Mildenhall Speedway Stadium in Suffolk, right next door to the big American airbases of RAF Lakenheath and Mildenhall in the summer of 1989...it was the East Anglia rock n blues festival, Rory headlined with Stan Webbs Chicken Shack and Uriah Heep on the bill with lots of lesser known rock n blues bands from around the UK..the event was poorly advertised and Mildenhall is out in the sticks so there wasn't that many in attendance, Rory had put on weight by now and his drinking and health were becoming a problem,but nevertheless he was still brilliant as ever..The Stoke guitarist was making me jealous coz he had seen Rory back in the 70s, just a tad before my time,,lol.

looked a great gig man,Dumpy's Rusty Nuts and the band from Chlie..Fahrenheit were equally as good!

 

[BluesRocker]

I was putting a new roof on the house here in Ireland when my late MIL shouted me down off of the scaffolding to see the news on TV.
It was a really big deal here.
Folded up early and I got shitfaced in the Hideout Bar.
I'm convinced a valve AC30 and 150 gauge Fender strings...help create his unique sound.
{Lovely and Live here:}

A Million Miles Away.

hi Nai, i posted a load of Rory songs in the 'Music News' thread a couple of weeks back 'Remembering Rory.'...i see that next week Joe Bonamassa is playing 3 nights on the bounce in Cork, he is playing all Rory songs,,i wonder if he will be allowed to play Rorys old strat?...also about a month ago they had the annual Rory Gallagher International Tribute festival in Rorys birthplace of Ballyshannon...Jimmie Vaughan ( Stevie Rays brother ) played at this years festival..i have seen it all on you tube along with all the past years festivals in Ballyshannon..it looks fantastic and i would dearly love to get over to the Emerald Isle to go to it one day.

 

[BluesRocker]

looked a great gig man,Dumpy's Rusty Nuts and the band from Chlie..Fahrenheit were equally as good!
View attachment 230765

thats it..nice one....Rory finished about midnight and with Mildenhall being in the middle of nowhere and no chance of any public transport i spent the night under a tree with a few other fans waiting for the sun to come up and public transport to start up, thankfully it was a warmish dry night.