Connaughton Marcus - Rory Gallagher: his life and times

He made authentic music and proved that you can be Irish and still play the Blues.
DAVY SPILLANE, UILEANN PIPER

He was the first international rock star from Ireland and he set a great example.
PAUL MCGUINNESS, MANAGER OF U2

Rorys death really upset me, I heard about it just before we went on stage and it put a dampener on the evening. I cant say that I knew him that well but I remember meeting him in our offices once and we spent an hour talking, he was such a nice guy and a great player.JIMMY PAGE, LED ZEPPELIN

He was such a purist, he wouldnt sell himself out. How many people do you know of in the music business who would take that kind of stand? If there werent people like Rory Gallagher around to set that kind of example, then it would probably spell the end of quality music. GARY MOORE

Rory Gallagher and Phil Lynott, Punchestown, 1982. ( Colm Henry)

Rory looking cool and happy at the Lisdoonvarna Festival in July 1983. ( Colm Henry)

Blues is an affirmation of the Spirit, a howl of pain, a bawdy punchline, a railing against injustice, a longing for peace and rest, a prayer for salvation, an ode to a household, a poem of regret, a boast of prowess, a family portrait, a celebration of love, a junkies lament, a documentary of a juke joint stabbing, a tale of life lived on the highway, an open letter to God or to Satan. Blues is subtle, brutal, ecstatic, mournful. It is music of the soil, of the street, of the heart. It is deceptively simple in structure, boundless in expressiveness. It is guitar music by and large, from the ghostly acoustic wailings of Robert Johnson to the electrified shootouts of countless bar room guitar slingers over half a century later.
TOM WHEELER, GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE, APRIL 1990

Rory in City Hall, Cork, in the 1980s. (courtesy Irish Examiner Publications)

Rory

HALLA NA CATHRACH, CORCAIGH 1976

Louis de Paor

Millin mle siar uait

Thiar I dtin an halla

Bh mo chro ag bualadh

Tiompn mo bhas,

An chruit im chuisle mni amach,

Idir tordg is minchinn bhuailte,

Gan nta im cheann

Ach an spionnadh a chuiris-se

le sreanganna in achrann.

Bait lion go ragf ag tincireacht

Mar sin ar bhuile scoir an tiin

Is tormn r mbasbhualaidh

Ag lonadh f shla do lmh

A thug snmh smign dom mhian

Ag trcht ar uisce coipthe.

An nr airs an tuile

Ag lonadh ort, rabharta cos is lmh

A dhein bord loinge den urlr

i Halla na Cathrach

is n lonfaidh feasta an poll

a dfhgais ar ardn id dhiadh?

An mbraitheann t anois

r ngile mearluaimneach mar,

Is solas na bhflaitheas

Ag sluaisti cinais

Ar shile an tslua

At buailte le stitse

Ag glaoch ar ais ort n ndoircheacht:

Rory

Rory

Rory

An gcloiseann t anois r ngu?

Rory

CORK CITY HALL 1976

Louis de Paor

A million miles away from you

Right at the back of the hall

My heart was beating

The drums of my hands;

I hadnt a note in my head

Only the grace notes you picked

From tangled strings

As the knot in my veins

Was undone by your brilliant fingers.

I couldnt work out

Why you kept tinkering

With the end of the tune

While the roar of our applause

Rose up under the heels of your hands

That kept my dreams above water

As you walked the angry sea.

Did you really not hear

The tide flooding in behind you,

The waves of pounding feet

That rocked the floor of the City Hall

Until it rolled like the deck of a ship,

That will never fill the emptiness

You left behind you on stage?

Can you feel it now,

Our swiftfingered brightness

As the light of heaven

Shovels silence

On the eyes of the crowd

As they press against the stage,

Calling you back from the dark:

Rory

Rory

Rory

Now can you hear me?

The Fender Stratocaster

Rory plays his beloved Stratocaster. He bought it second-hand on hire purchase from Crowleys Music Centre in Cork in 1963. ( Fin Costello)

R ORY GALLAGHER was a fifteen-year-old schoolboy in Cork when he first laid hands on the guitar that would be associated with him for the rest of his life. The year was 1963 and the guitar was a 1961 Fender Stratocaster (Sunburst Model). Rory bought it secondhand on hire purchase, for 100 then an extremely large sum. He had been inspired in his choice of instrument by Buddy Holly, who first popularised the Strat in America.

Michael Crowley (right) pictured with Seamus Seamie Long in Crowleys Music Centre on Merchants Quay, Cork, in the 1960s. (Courtesy Sheena Crowley, Crowleys Music Centre).

Michael Crowley, late proprietor of Crowleys Music Centre in Cork, remembered the young musician visiting his shop on Merchants Quay, right on the banks of the River Lee. There was a new Stratocaster in the window. Rory called in with his mother, who asked what price was the guitar? Including the case at the time, they were 129. When she heard the price, she said to Rory, Thats rather expensive, like, would anything else do? We had a man working here at the time, his name was Seamus Long. Seamus was a great salesman and he interjected and said, How about one of the Hagstroms? Rory shook his head and said, No! He was only fifteen, which was very young for somebody to be into a guitar of that type, but he obviously knew what he wanted and had probably read a whole lot more about them than I had. He was obviously aware that a lot of the players in the United States were using them.

Designed in 1954 by the world famous Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, the Stratocaster looked like something out of Buck Rogers with its horns, body contours, glossy finish and flash gadgetry. A lot musicians actually shied away from the new instrument when they first saw it, wrote the authors of Curves, Contours and Body Horns: The Story of the Fender Stratocaster. It was so new-fangled few could see themselves playing it. Buddy Holly was an exception to the rule, and his first album, The Chirping Crickets