Rory Gallagher 1948 - 1995
On the 10th anniversary of Rory Gallagher´s death, his brother, Donal, shares some memories with Joe McNamee
A few day ago, I walked down on the main thoroughfare of Rory Gallagher´s "hometown" of Cork. A rare interruption to the "June monsoon" saw citizens, almost to a man, woman and child, dicing with the decency laws as they offered up acres of pink skin to a handworking sun - save vor one gawky teenager, four or five paces in front of me, heavy jeans crumpled into weary folds just above his battered sneakers and his black hoodie shrouded his head. On the back of the hoodie, the words: "I hate myself and I want do die - Kurt Cobain."
Live fast, die young, leave a good-looking corpse - it´s what rock stars are supposed to do, isn´t it? And there´s nothing like grieving for a dead rock star to add emotional heft to a force - 10 teenage sulk.
Rory Gallagher died 10 years ago today. He was a rock star: He wa also too young. But nobody threatened suicide in internet chatrooms; no callow youths massed in candlelit vigil. The funeral was thronged but many in the crowd were grey, balding and paunch-laden. For every grizzled old biker there were 10 suits, some scruffy, some sharp. Young boys stood beside middle-aged women holding on to their children. As the cortege passed through the city; the thousands lining the street broke into applause. Not the sort offered at "rockstar Rory" gigs 10, 15 or even 20 years before but a hearfelt acknowledgement of the passing of this extraordinary; ordinary man - the supremely talented musician who brought Cork to the world but who never stopped being the softly-spoken, shy gentleman from Cork.
Donal Gallagher is Rory´s only sibling and has spent most of his adult life working for Rory; tour manager/manager while he was alive and keeper of the flame since his death, overseeing his catalogue of recordings. Indeed, so assiduous has he been, here appears to be more interest in Rory now than during his lifetime.
"Yeah, sadly", says Donal, "I wouldn´t say it´s bigger now - but he should have been far more recognised for his talent in his time. Unfortunately, as music became formatted, programmed. Rory didn´t fit in. He was around at the wrong time towards the end, he wasn´t going to do a "save the rainforest" just to get a video on MTV".
In fact, Rory was quite the purist, often balking at attempts to milk lucre from his licks. "Well, he always spiked things," Donal says with a soft chuckle.
"He could be cajoled into things so far. One case in point was Philby (from the album "Top Priority") where everybody at Chrysalis was convinced it had the potential to be a hit single for him and then he literally pulled the plug a week before it was due to go out. It just wasn´t him. He had a set of standards and I think, in the long term, people admire him for that."
Rory was born in Ballyshannon, Donegal, on March 2, 1948. In 1949, the family moved to Derry and, in 1956, to Cork.
"We lived on MacCurtain Street", said Donal, "a wonderful street to be on - it still is - it was post-war Cork and there was a good optimism in the city: "You had the Metropole Hotel down the street and the train station was just down the road - the airport wasn´t developed at the time - so you really hat this thoroughfare between Patrick Street and the station where the whole world seemed to go by you.
"Rory was, from an early age, obsessed with film and all the actors and actresses, and most of them would stay at the Metropole for the film festival. So we had great days spent viewing anybody in for the festival. They´d come up on the train from Cobh off whatever ocean liner was coming in, or off the Dublin train."
Donal, who was also his brother´s best friend, admits he was often unsure of what went on in Rory´s head.
"Well, yeah, he had a commitment to music," says Donal, "the devotion to being a touring, travelling musician very much inspired by people like Chris Barber and Lonnie Donegan.
"I don´t know when exactly that kicked in but there is a lovely shot that the Examiner took: Rory had won a talent contest down in the city hall and the photographer brought him up to the roof of the Examiner offices to take the picture; a young fella in short trousers, he must be about 11 or 12. So you could see a kid at that point whose pose was very much what he had seen Lonnie Donegan do." As Rory served an apprenticeship with the showbands, including stints in Germany, the younger Donal beavered away on the nascent beat club scene in Cork. Rory returned from Germany in 1966 and formed Taste, with Eric Kitteringham and Norman Damery. Their first gigs were played at The Cavern on Coburg St. where Donal - DJ Don - spun the records. They aquired a manager, Belfast club owner Eddie Kennedy, who soon oversaw the replacement of Damery and Kitteringham with Richard McCracken. Stardom seemed inevitable but by the time they stormed the legendary Isle Of Wight Festival in 1970, the band was imploding, amid implications that Rory was ripping off his bandmates.
"Rory was so badly burned by the Taste episode," says Donal. Yet Rory never defended himself in the press. "That was the measure of the man," says Donal. "He made no comment, yet he was being vilified and ridiculed." But he was eventually vindicated. "Yes", says Donal, "and Rory received apologies."
Regret at his passing often leads to speculation as to where Rory would fit into the scheme of things now. "I´ve never liked that question," says Donal, "the sort of "Beethoven, how old is he today - 400?" A person terminates and that´s the end of it. I think it lessens the loss by saying somebody would be 50 - whatever if they were alive. I find it demeaning to be honest - that void isn´t fillable."
An urgency enters Donal´s soft voice, a brother mourning the passing of his only and belowed sibling: "It is very poignant to me. At the event in Ballyshannon last week, the people I met, from Perth, Sydney, Oregon, three guys from Long Island, a girl from Philadelphia; every European country seem to be represented and they were very emotional and very fond of Rory .... but I wondered, if he had been playing at the Odeon in London, would they have got on a plane and come to see him?"
In later years, Rory led a quiet life in London, avoiding scenes and taking an Irish newspaper. He even spoke of moving home.
"I think he did have a desire to move back," says Donal, "but, then, Rory was always a troubadour. He wasn´t settled in London either. I think it was the cowboy in him. Rory was very much a character from the cowboy movies, you know, the long and lonely trail.
"It´s also very much tied up in his love of the blues, the melancholy of being Irish, at that time the feeling of exile in London, particularly the resentments towards the Irish."
What would have Rory have said if asked whether he was from Cork or Ballyshannon?
"Oh, Cork, no doubt!"
Fans and fellow musicians alike have always been unanimous in praise of the man´s generosity of spirit; whatever demons Rory wrestled, he wrestled alone and he never shared the pain. But neither should this cement a one-dimensional image of the tortured bluesman.
"Rory was one of the funniest guys I´ve ever been around," says Donal. "His sense of wit and humour was second to none and a lot of times it was so subtle it went past most people."
A trait especially peculiar to Corkonians? "Yeah, yeah, he very much loved the wit and the banter of Cork," says Donal.
"He was also quite a good mimic and, because he was such a move buff, he knew every line out of every movie and was forever dropping in quotes.
"He always stayed in touch with Cork even though he wouldn´t obviously be seen to be mixing. Rory always found his own little level to meet and chat to people, just as any normal guy going into a bar wherever and enjoying the place and enjoying whoever he met on the barstool next to him. That´s the way he liked to keep it."
Big guns salute
Brian May, Queen
"Rory had a residency at the Marquee and seeing this guy just blew me away; he really hat the sound that I was looking for. One night after he finished I hung around and was able to get chatting to him, and he was such a gracious man, such a sweet guy; so me and my mate, a couple of kids, said: how do you get your sound Mr. Gallagher? And he sits and tells us. "So I owe Rory my sound, a bit like Jimi Hendrix live to me."
Georgie Fame
"There´s no doubt, he was one of the greatest guitar players the world has ever produced, and it´s a tragedy that he died so young."
Johnny Marr, The Smiths
"When I came across Rory Gallagher he was perfect to me because he appeared to be like his audience, and a lot of people have this idea that he had no image, but in fact he had a really, really strong image - but you could relate to him, he seemed very street und unpretentious.
"Seeing him live was quite an eye opener, bordering on terrifying in its intensity. And it took me a few gigs to work up the courage to be right at the front because he was so intense. He was a very beautiful man and had a lovely sort of gentle kind of presence about him, but when he plugged in and started playing he got the bug eyed stare going. If he looked down half of me wanted him to see me and the other half was thinking "no don´t" because he was on fire, he was right in the moment and he was the centre of 2000 people."
Jack Bruce, Cream
"Rory had this Celtic approach where you´re playing blues bat there is always that little edge of Irish feeling: an incredibly melodic lyrical style, but with the added edge of that tremendous energy. It always amazes me when people think if you´re white, you come from Ireland to Cork, say, that you can´t have that feeling, that you can´t express that. You can, it´s as simple a that."
Martin Carthy, legendary folk guitarist and one of Rory´s heroes.
"He was a really graceful man, wide open; wide open to music - he just wanted to hear everything. His personality shone through: people loved Rory, people absolutely loved Rory. Why do I say that in the past tense? People love Rory, they really do."
Ronnie Drew, The Dubliners
"He was such a fine musician - he followed his own talent. Of course I respected him. Rory´s integrity was always intact."
Edge, U2
"A beautiful man and an amazing player. Rory was an inspiration on a number of levels, firstly, because he was Irish. That was a huge thing for me as a guitar player of 15 or 16. I took great pride in the fact that he was doing well. Seeing Rory live was a very critical point in my own life as a musician. It boosted me morale, and gave me a new lease of determination and energy.
Bono, U2
"Taste was my first experience of a real rock band. Rory was obviously a gifted guitarrist and an extraordinary player."
Next generation to enjoy a taste or rock´n´rory
A new album will help keep Gallagher´s legacy alive, writes Dan Collins
June 14, 1995, was a black day for the blues. On that date one of the most gifted blues/rock musicians ever to tread the boards died. His passing was both unexpected and shocking. Rory Gallagher was larger then life. Not only was he this country´s first rock superstar, he also single handedly planted tghe seeds of what was to become a rich harvest of creativity. Rory´s gone, but his music is still as vibrant and popular as ever. His fan base continues to grow with each passing year.
The recent, stunning performance by the Rory Gallagher Band of Friends at the Everyman in Cork was attended by not only veterans who would have seen im live on many occasions, but a younger generation, many of whom were not yet born when Live In Europe ´74 was released to critical acclaim.
Gallagher´s talent was illustrated by his being invited to play with legendary musicians, including the great blues virtuoso Muddy Waters, and Albert King. He also recordet on albums for Jerry Lee Lewis. British skiffle-king Lonnie Donegan, and the Chris Barber Band.
Gallagher was a man, someone once said, who managed to combine the gift of being an authentic creative genius with the even rarer gift of being a genuinely decent, honourable human being. He died in London at the early age of 47, on June 14, 1995, from complications following a liver transplant.
To mark the 10th anniversary of his passing, Big Guns - The Very Best Of Rory Gallagher, is a two disc, remastered compilation which an excellent opportunity to begin to discover one of the all time rock/blues greats.
The anthology features tracks form his formative years with his first band, Taste - who soon attracted global critical acclaim and listed John Lennon amont their fans - and covers his solo career with live and studio recordings.
Says Donal Gallagher: "In a way, it is to commemorate Rory´s anniversary, it´s not a cash-in album, it´s really just saying this in the range of his work. The fans down through the years. God love them, they´ve been loyal and they´ve bought the albums. This is for somebody who´d just been hearing about Rory and we wanted to give them a decent package of the music. The first disc is very much the live/rock side of Rory, where - as the second disc is more laidback, the chillout side of Rory, if there´s such a thing."
>> Big Guns - The Very Best Of Rory Gallagher is released on Sony-BMG <<
Blues walk hits the right notes
Blues fan and broadcaster Marcus Connaughton, speaking at the Rory Gallagher Plaza in Paul Street during the walking tour. Next to Marcus is the sculpture erected some years ago in honour of the great bluesman.
Old soldiers may never die and only just fade away. Well, giving a twist to this old adage, it could be said that musicians never die, they just keep playing away.
And anyone who doupts this, might just want to reflect on the large crowd that turned out on the Saturday of the recent June Bank Holiday weekend, as part of the Lee Delta Blues Festival 2005 (promoted by the Lee Delta Blues Club), to pay homage to one of the great musicians of our time: bluesman Rory Gallagher.
Tribute came in the form of a walking tour of Cork under the title Remembering Rory, taking in many of the places associated with the great blues artist, who passed away 10 years ago.
Hosted by RTE broadcaster/producer and blues connoisseur Marcus Connaughton, the tour started at the Cork City Library and finished at Crowley´s music shop in MacCurtain Street after which there was a free blues session in The Corner House in Leitrim Street featuring MLC Bluesband from the Netherlands.
The walking tour recalled Rory Gallagher´s Cork of the sixties an seventies, with an excellent Connaughton commentary recalling many of the places frequented by Rory in that era.
Thanks for the memories, Marcus.
