You couldn’t take a bad picture of him.”Not one to drag his heels, Gallagher moved fast. “If something is done without a fad or a fashion then it can’t be pigeonholed into a certain era. When he suffered from exhaustion during my time, the only way we could get him to cancel a show was to say that I was ill. The young Rory got his first guitar at the age of nine, and his listening tastes gravitated from Lonnie Donegan to Leadbelly and Big Bill Broonzy.With Gallagher’s hands firmly on the purse strings (McAvoy claims that he was paid £200 for his work on the album and a weekly wage of £25) the early tours were basic, to say the least. Rod de’Ath stepped in once again, although he couldn’t tell if he was a full-time member of the band.It would be a fitting description, were it not for one thing. It was no ideal threat – he would go on to shelve whole albums in the future.The tragedy of his early death doesn’t overshadow his talent or his legacy, much of which stems from the six albums he made between 1971 and 1974. Today Gallagher might not be mentioned in the same breath as the Holy Trinity of British blues-rock – Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton – but his legacy is undeniable.
The battle-scarred instrument would outlast its master, a man who became one of the hardest working, most celebrated purveyor of incendiary white blues of the last 50 years.Taste played their final show at Belfast’s Queens University on October 24, 1970.
Not only had he held up the session, but he even had a glass of champagne waiting for Rory. With his uniform of denim jeans, flannel shirt and battered trainers, he looked exactly like his audience, and his audience loved him for it (it was a look that was revived during the grunge era; not uncoincidentally, Courtney Love confirmed that Kurt Cobain was a fan of Gallagher). But it did have its advantages: it meant that the band could make a show at short notice.The cover made it crystal clear that this was a Rory Gallagher solo album. But Gallagher opted to plough on regardless.Like every young Irish musician who came of age in the early 60s, Gallagher served his apprenticeship on the showband circuit, playing covers of popular hits.Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!The latter featured Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover on production duties, though it was an unhappy experience for both parties. During one session, he threatened to “chuck the tapes in the dustbin”. “But when our parents were out of the house, Rory would feverishly twiddle the radio dials in the same way a kid now would surf the internet, and he’d tune into the jazz hour on the American Forces Network.“It was well past midnight when we got there and Rory was really panicking and thinking he’d get fired,” he smiles, “but Muddy Waters was really gracious about it. Read More S-200 Thunderbird 1998 Fender Fender Custom Shop designers met Donal Gallagher, brother of late great guitarist Rory Gallagher, in Los Angeles in 1997 and received one of the most coveted guitars of all time “That’s the reason that he was popular with the grunge movement.”“He’d run himself into the ground, and by the time the album was finished he would be verging on a nervous breakdown,” says Donal “And then he would have to go out and do PR for it before touring to promote. I didn’t realise he was headhunting me and Wilgar. I got a bit peeved about that.”The 15-year-old told her that this was his guitar for life. “If I look back now I think ‘Jesus, how did he manage to cram in all those albums between ’71-’74?’” says Donal. Everybody travelled in a transit van driven by Donal Gallagher, a set-up that would continue for a few more years. “You had to read between the lines with Rory. It was just his way.”“He was a live performer,” says keyboard player Lou Martin.
It was a hard decision for the guitarist – “I don’t like to think about it too much, because it upsets me,” Gallagher later said of Taste’s split – though, typically, that didn’t stop him making it.Not surprisingly, bands based in mainland Britain were unwilling to play Northern Ireland. This is the storyHe even witnessed the Sex Pistols’ infamous final show at San Francisco’s Winterland in January 1978.With de’Ath behind the kit, the band snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. He was a bit outlandish but at the same time he was very polite and pleasant. He was living as a tax exile in the Belgium town of Ghent. By late February, they were in the studio, recording Gallagher’s first, self-titled album. Back in London, Campbell would return, but he only managed a few more shows before having a complete breakdown (he died in 1989, after suffering liver problems brought on by alcoholism). “I couldn’t get into his head and what he was thinking about.” He completely understood what being a working musician meant and he told Rory there was no absolutely no need to apologise.”Diligently compiled from the vaults of the Gallagher estate’s tape archive, the new collection is available in a variety of formats, including a limited blue double-vinyl edition and a deluxe 3CD edition, with its 36 tracks showcasing the trailblazing musician’s virtuoso performances of electric, acoustic and live blues.