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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.

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