Edged in blue (Rory Gallagher) (LP 355)

Rory Gallagher Calling Card (Vinyl, Chrysalis, 1976) ****

Genre: pop/rock 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records (Auckland)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Country Mile




Gear costume:  Moonchild 

Active compensatory factors: Roger Glover (yes, the bassist for Deep Purple) came on board for this album and added some finesse and clarity to proceedings for Rory: Moonchild and Calling Card are good examples.

It's quite a varied album from Rory this time. Calling Card is a nice change of pace, Moonchild is almost a love song (as much as Rory ever does a love song), Barley and Maple Rag is folk, I'll  Admit You've Gone is an accoustic beauty and there are some rock songs in the mix as well.

Thanks to the band being on top form (Lou Martin plays some lovely piano on Calling Card and Rod de'Ath is also at his best) with Glover producing, Rory can excel on vocals and guitar.


Where do they all belong? The last with this line up - only Gerry McAvoy remained beyond this one.

20:20 vision (Rory Gallagher) (LP 251 - 252)

Rory Gallagher Tattoo (Vinyl - Chrysalis, 1973) ****
Rory Gallagher The French Connection (Recorded at RTL Studios Paris France 1974) (Vinyl - UMC 2018) ****

Genre: Irish pop/rock

Places I remember: Tattoo - Marbecks Records; The French Connection - Real Groovy Records 

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: A Million Miles Away 




Gear costume:  Cradle Rock (as always - a real favourite of mine)

Active compensatory factors: Tattoo is a biggie in the canon. 

Four of the tracks were in the set list for the next few years (cf Irish Tour) and three are on The French Connection in the following year.

The live versions are better (Rory is always better live) but it's still great to hear those first studio stabs at the songs from 1973.

The French Connection is a recent release - recorded live in the studio - it's always great to hear Rory live in 1974 but Irish Tour (and expanded version has also just been released this year) remains the definitive statement.

Where do they all belong? Still a few seventies albums to go before we head into the eighties and end game for Rory - tons of great guitaring to come then. 

Fuel to the fire (Rory Gallagher) (LP 198-199)

Rory Gallagher Notes From San Francisco (CD - Sony/Capo, 2011) *** (** for the studio side, **** for the live side)
Rory Gallagher Meeting With The G-Man+ (CD - Sony/Capo, 2003) **

Genre:  Irish pop/rock

Places I remember: Fopp (London) 

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: If You Keep On Walkin (aka Wheels Within Wheels) is amazing and yet didn't even get on the revamped Photo Finish!!*; Shadow Play (every version is special!)




Gear costume: Off The Handle (live version on Notes...); The Loop (G-Man)

Active compensatory factors: Don't be fooled by the release dates. The posthumously released San Francisco set comes from 1978/79 and, similarly, the G-Man+ was recorded live in 1993 - just two years before his death but not released at the time.  

Notes from San Francisco was recorded in SF 1978, and shelved, as Rory was unhappy with the song quality. *Being Rory, he broke up the band ('cept for Gerry of course), started again, and ended up with Photo Finish, also in 1978. 

He didn't muck about did our Rory.

So - how does it stack up? Well not as good as Photo Finish - that's for sure. It's a brave attempt to fill out the sound in an American context but I think he was wise to scrap it and return to a trio format. Besides, Photo Finish contains Shadow Play! Need I say more?

Live? Another story entirely - the power trio arrived back in SF 1979 and kicked arse!! The live tapes show Rory in peak shredding form, with the rhythm section containing much needed muscle and grace. Gerry McAvoy and Ted McKenna - take a bow.

And then there's G-Man+. The sound quality is not the greatest so it's hard to judge how good the nineties band really was. It's like those audience recorded YouTube clips: superior bootleg quality.

Having said that, Rory is rarely off and his guitar is still sharp on this set.

Where do they all belong? Still loads of RG vinyl to come, as well as back to the future moments when comes Taste, the band.

Got my mojo working (Muddy Waters) (LP 165)

Rory Gallagher BBC Sessions (CD - Capo, 1999) ***

Genre:  Irish pop/ rock

Places I remember: HMV Stratford Mall, London  

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: I take What I want




Gear costume: Country Mile, Race The Breeze 

Active compensatory factors: Rory played everywhere, and he always played for fun. If ever a guy had a guitar shaped heart, it was Rory Gallagher. If ever I guy had his mojo working on a consistent basis, it was Rory.

Here we find Rory on the wireless, both in the concert and studio mode over two CDs.

He lets rip! As he always did! 

Faithful allies Gerry McAvoy, Lou Martin and Rod deAth are present and correct - laying down the bedrock for Rory to do his expansive best upon.

Where do they all belong? More to come in the firey/bluesy guitar stylings of Rory Gallagher.

All around man (Rory Gallagher) (LP 130)

Rory Gallagher Against The Grain (Vinyl - Chrysalis, 1975) ****

Genre: Irish pop/ rock

Places I remember: Marbecks Records (Auckland) 

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Souped-Up Ford




Gear costume: All Around Man, Out on the Western Plain

Active compensatory factors: Another nice one Rory!

It's 1975 and Rory's been at for seven albums as a solo artist (before that he was the main man in Taste, of course). He's Mr Consistency.

The blueprint had long been established and not much had changed since 1966 - Rory is still playing amazingly varied guitar (lyrical at times, hard as nails at others), his vocals are still right on the money, the band is still tight as a fish's bum (Gerry McAvoy - bass, Lou Martin – keyboards, Rod de'Ath – drums) and the songs have always been there.

Suddenly though, Against The Grain hit the right vein with Americans and it became more well received than previous albums. 

Rory hadn't changed, it's just that critics and audiences had started catching up with a good thing.

Where do they all belong? More good times coming, Calling Card's next up.

I went down on 31st street to pick up a jug of alcohol (Rory Gallagher)

First thing I did when I returned to the apartment in Al Ain after being in NZ for a few weeks was pop on a Rory Gallagher live DVD.

It's always good to meet up with old friends and as readers of this blog know, Rory is definitely that.

The DVD is a compilation of his appearances at the Montreaux Jazz festival.

The best stuff comes from 1985, by the 1990s he starts to show signs of wear and tear (noticably bloated I'm afraid, a year before he died in 1995 from an infection he picked up in hospital after getting a liver transplant).

Everybody loves Rory.

I love him for his loyalty - the great Gerry McAvoy on bass played with him from 1970 to 1991; Rory stuck by his battered Stratocaster throughout his career; he also stuck by his haircut AND the sidies even during the eighties.

I love him for his selfless dedication to his art - he never married and there were no children.

I love him for the stories - Brian May (of Queen) relates: "so these couple of kids come up, who's me and my mate, and say 'How do you get your sound Mr. Gallagher?' and he sits and tells us. So I owe Rory Gallagher my sound."

Jimi Hendrix was asked in an interview shortly after Woodstock, "So Jimi, what's it like to be the best guitarist in the world?" Jimi: "I don't know, ask Rory Gallagher".

But of course I love him best for the music. His version of Too Much Alcohol always (ALWAYS) brings a smile to my face.