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Rory Gallagher, (C) Dow Jones & Co.
Please don't circulate this beyond the list. It is Copyright (C) 1995 Dow Jones
& Co. All rights reserved.
This is for all of you Who asked about Rory. A truly great man. A fine person
and memorable guitarist. The Obituary does him justice.
I remember the first Taste concert I went to, as well as many early 70's club
dates when my brother and I (and a friend) used to help his band hump their gear
around. Rod d'Ath one night asked if we worked for Polydor, since I guess we
were almost permanent fixtures. We then told him that we were just fans. We were
quite flattered.
Victor, can you add anything?
Regards, George
TLND680194
* Rory Gallagher;Obituary
ESTIMATED INFORMATION UNITS: 5.1 Words: 758
06/16/95
THE TIMES OF LONDON (TLND)
Section: Features
(Copyright 1995)
* Rory Gallagher, guitarist, died from complications after a liver
transplant operation, on June 14 aged 46. He was born on March 2,
1949.
* RORY GALLAGHER was a gritty Irish blues guitarist and singer, who
had a considerable influnce on guitar playing over the last two
decades. He was an uncompromisingly serious musician, and was
dismayed at the way in which the pressure to produce another hit
single inevitably watered down a performer's style. For this reason
he rarely cut singles himself, preferring to reach his audience
through albums and concerts.
This was fortunate, for if there was ever music which demanded
live conditions it was Gallagher's. He usually played in smokey
pubs and clubs, drinking Guinness with fans while the support band
played. Twenty minutes before going on, he would take refuge in his
dressing room for a concentrated tuning-up. He was a shy man who
suffered badly from nerves before each performance, but once he
began to play he lost himself. He worked furiously for an
hour-and-a-half, barely taking a break from song to song except to
retune the overheated strings on his battered and peeling
Stratocaster guitar.
This was a working band and Gallagher was confident enough never
to slide into unnecessary pyrotechnics. He was notoriously scruffy
on stage, favouring lumberjack shirts, jeans and trainers. But
neither this nor his unkempt hair could detract from what was, in
his youth, an angelic face.
Jerry Gallagher was born in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, though he
later moved south to Cork. He started playing guitar at the age of
nine, when skiffle was the fashion, and formed several groups at
school before leaving when he was 15. The Irish music scene was
then dominated by the big showbands with little demand for groups,
so Gallagher joined The Impact Showband. Each of the band was asked
to sing in the manner of a particular star and Gallagher chose
Chuck Berry.
In 1965 he started his own blues-based rock group, Taste, which
made a name for itself when it moved to London in the late 1960s,
though it only broke into the album charts with Live Taste after
the band had officially broken up. Meanwhile Gallagher had formed
another band with two Irish musicians, Gerry McAvoy on bass and
Wilgar Campbell on drums.
* Initially, the concertgoing public had no idea who plain Rory
* Gallagher as he now billed himself was, though he had the support
of a handful of enthusiastic managers and bookers. He was asked to
play gigs in huge halls like the Philharmonic in Liverpool, and
would find himself performing to only a few hundred people. But
Gallagher had charisma, playing the blues like a man possessed, and
the news spread fast.
The idea of a blues guitarist from Cork, amusing to journalists
as it was at first, was less of an anachronism than it seemed.
Gallagher was a courageously honest performer, writing his own
material, and he considered the blues to be the most personal form
of musical expression.
His first two albums were small hits and the following year,
after international tours, his third, Live In Europe (1972),
reached the Top Ten. Personnel changes followed with Rod d'Ath
replacing Campbell on drums and Lou Martin coming in on keyboards.
By the mid-1970s, Gallagher had become a huge live draw not just
in Britain but in America where he was routinely filling 5,000-seat
concert halls. His live albums tended to be more exciting than his
studio work but Against the Grain (1975) broke the studio jinx.
He rode triumphantly against the pop music fashions of the late
1970s, unsullied by punk or new wave though there were some nights
when his blues had more of a jazz influence, or was more rock-based
or folksy. His stage shows remained purist, the only effect coming
from music and audience no bangs and whirling lights and no fancy
dress.
Gallagher released fewer albums in the 1980s, and, having made
some unwise business decisions, he tended to get slightly lost
among younger artists who rode in on the blues revival. Eventually
he was forced to record on his own label, having no contract with
any of the big companies. None of this worried him as much as the
diminishing opportunities for impromptu jam sessions in London, and
his concerts continued to draw the crowds.
Gallagher was a quiet, friendly man, the ultimate musical
anti-hero. While he was happy talk to fans after a concert, he was
reluctant to go along to the big showbusiness events.
He never married and had no children.
End of Document