Rory Gallagher - The Guitar of Irish Pride

He was truly a purist, he would never have sold out. How many people that straight do you know in the music business? Rory Gallagher was an example - without his integrity we would have witnessed the end of quality in music

(Gary Moore)

Rory's death really shook me. I learned the news just before going on stage, and it was a blow to the whole evening. I can't say I knew him well, but I remember once meeting him at our offices. We talked for over an hour and he was such a nice guy, a great musician

(Jimmy Page)

I see music as the relationship of life

(Rory Gallagher)

Stratocaster

It's 1963. Rory Gallagher is 15 and has recently moved on to the senior cycle of his secondary education at St. Kieran's College. Founded as a monastic settlement in the sixth century, Cork was developed by Viking invaders around 915, and nicknamed The Rebel City for its support of the House of York during the famous Wars of the Roses starting in 1455.

Young Rory stares, entranced, at the window of the Music Centre, an instrument shop run by owner Michael Crowley, in the heart of Merchants Quay, on the right bank of the River Lee. A used Fender Stratocaster has just arrived, a Sunburst model from two years earlier, on sale for 129 pounds including the case. Rory is bursting with excitement, because the Stratocaster is the guitar used by one of his American idols, Buddy Holly, but his mother holds back: "It's quite expensive, wouldn't you like something else?". The boy is offered a few cheaper models, but young Gallagher won't budge, he absolutely wants that Stratocaster, even though it's a decidedly demanding instrument for a fifteen-year-old. But this is certainly not the first time Rory has picked up a guitar, having been given a far cheaper model as a gift at age nine. He has also taught himself to play the ukulele, entering a local talent contest three years earlier, which he obviously won along with a small cash prize. Nowhere near enough to cover the cost of that gorgeous 1961 Fender Stratocaster Sunburst, the dream of countless aspiring guitarists after watching Holly's band in action on the other side of the Atlantic.

William Rory Gallagher is born on 2 March 1948 at the Rock Hospital in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, one of the oldest towns in all of Ireland. His father Daniel has left his native Derry to work at a hydroelectric power station, dabbling with the accordion in a local band, the Tir Chonaill Ceili Band. His mother Monica, a native of Cork, also has a passion for the arts, particularly singing and acting with the Abbey Players collective at the Abbey Arts Centre theatre. When Rory is just over a year old, the Gallagher family moves to Derry, where the second son, Donal, is born. It's only a temporary stop, though, since ten years later Monica decides to move again with her two sons to Cork, to her mother's flat on MacCurtain Street, right in the city centre.

The very young Rory first attends North Monastery, where he appears in the school yearbook under the name Ruairí Ó Gallchoir, and then the less strict St. Kieran's College in the Camden Quay area. With his first acoustic guitar, ordered by Monica through the post, Rory plays entirely by ear, encouraged by his own parents to nurture an all-consuming passion for music. Among his favourite genres is skiffle, brought to success by his idol Lonnie Donegan, who gets plenty of radio and TV airplay with various covers of American blues and folk artists. He practices with Donegan's own songbooks, which offer simple chords easy to commit to memory. Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, then Fats Domino and Chuck Berry. These are the best teachers for the young Gallagher, who for a while also tries attending the Cork School of Music without getting anything motivating out of it. Much better to rely on his neighbour, James O'Brien, who tunes his instrument for him and, above all, introduces him to the magazine Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar (Bmg), through which he discovers new artists such as Big Bill Broonzy. The first step on the road to the blues.

Another great source of inspiration for Rory Gallagher is the Liverpool group known in the early 1960s as The Big Three. In 1963 their Ep comes out, containing three covers: "What'd I Say" (Ray Charles), "Reelin' And A Rockin'" (Chuck Berry) and "Zip A Dee-Doo Dah" (Wrubel & Gilbert). Artists who open up connections to other artists, whose exploits live on in the pages of specialist magazines like Melody Maker and New Musical Express. Skiffle has by now opened the door to beat music, which pulses within the walls of Cork's Cavern Club, as well as on the airwaves of Radio Luxembourg and local pirate stations like Radio Caroline, founded in early 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly. If there's no shortage of sources to listen to, the real problem is actually starting to play, to cut one's teeth. In the mid-1960s in Ireland there are few alternatives: join one of the so-called showbands, an evolution of the big bands with a drastic reduction in members, between six and ten, to put on hugely popular shows built around folk, country, traditional sounds and, increasingly, rock 'n' roll. The few lads who try the beat route - Them in Belfast, The Creatures in Dublin - know full well that the road ahead is an uphill one, that they'll have to sweat and bleed over their instruments. Rory is one of them; he'd love to find a bassist and a drummer to start rehearsing as a trio. But in Cork it's practically impossible, because all his peers prefer the easier money guaranteed by the showbands.

At 15 years old, with his first Stratocaster bought on instalments, Rory Gallagher needs money, but also needs live experience. So he joins the Fontana Showband, made up of Bernie Tobin (trombone), his brother Oliver (bass), Declan O'Keefe (rhythm guitar), John Lehane (saxophone) and Eamonn O'Sullivan (drums). The new lead guitarist's influence is immediately huge, transforming the Fontana's repertoire from old standards to the latest beat and rock 'n' roll hits. The group changes its name after a year, choosing The Impact, after a song by Chuck Berry, with the addition of keyboardist Michael Lehane. Gallagher's choice proves to be the right one, as the Impact manage to scrape together a fair few pounds touring around Ireland, England and Spain. In 1965 they open for Cat Stevens at a packed Arcadia, following the huge success of the single "I Love My Dog". As a trio they then head to Germany, to Hamburg, where Rory meets Eric Burdon with his Animals and the Spencer Davis Group featuring Steve Winwood, in the port city made famous by the Beatles's performances in the red-light district.

By the time they return home, the Impact have already broken up. Gallagher has realised that the learning period is over, that the time has now come to get serious.

The taste of things to come

Eric Kitteringham and Norman Damery make up the rhythm section of The Axills, a Cork quartet following in the Beatles' footsteps. They're friends of Rory's, who has just left The Impact to form a new band devoted to blues and R&B. When Peter Sanquest, the Axills' guitarist and keyboardist, leaves the band to move to London, Eric and Norman find themselves at the Cavern Club with Gallagher, fully embracing his new sonic cause. In the summer of 1966, Taste is thus born, ready to try out new material in Eric's mother's flat on Victoria Road. The trio's sessions then move to the larger halls of the Retired Army Officers Club, before the group plays live for the first time in the city's two main venues, the Shandon Boat Club and, of course, the Cavern. They also rent a van - on which the band's name is painted - so they can tour as much as possible outside the Cork circuit.

The trio takes little time to win over the local audience, thanks to the raw energy of Gallagher's guitar, which tears into the repertoire of Elmore James ("Dust My Blues") and the Who ("My Generation"). Rory has got hold of a Vox Ac 30 amplifier, to boost his sound across ever-changing setlists, unlike almost all the other Irish bands, who stick to a fixed setlist. In early 1967, Taste win the Spot the Talent programme, broadcast live on radio from St Francis Xavier Hall in Dublin, with a jury chaired by the legendary DJ B. P. Fallon. In June they open for the Dubliners at the Savoy in Cork, a city that has by now become too small for Gallagher's ambitions. Rory indeed wants to move to Belfast, in Northern Ireland, which has officially become the nerve centre of the so-called British blues invasion.

There's another good reason to move to Belfast: Eddie Kennedy has already seen The Taste at the Cavern in Cork, fallen in love with Rory's guitar playing, and now offers to manage the trio. A native of east Belfast, Kennedy has plenty of connections in the local live circuit, particularly with the Maritime Hotel, which nurtured the early steps of Van Morrison's Van Morrison's Them. Eddie is a key figure, the kind of manager who can get the band onto important stages, opening for the likes of Cream, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, Fleetwood Mac. But that's not all, because Kennedy can also open the doors of London to Rory, in venues like Blaises Club, 100 Club, Speakeasy and Marquee. Penniless, the three are looked after by Maxi, Eddie's wife, while he works to land bookings worthy of Rory's talent. The stated goal is to drag Taste up to the same level as Eric Clapton's Cream, even as the group is still stuck specialising purely in covers, some of which were recorded in the summer of 1967 at Emerald Studios on a demotape that would surface years later, much to the guitarist's fury. The sound is still too raw, and the rhythm section probably isn't even up to the task.

After a performance at the Woburn Abbey Festival alongside Jimi Hendrix and John Mayall, the show at Romano's Ballroom in Belfast in August 1968 is the last in the short history of The Taste. Eddie Kennedy replaces Kitteringham with Richard McCracken and Norman Damery with John Wilson, both very young musicians but with more experience behind them. McCracken and Wilson are from Belfast and had both played in Cheese, with Wilson also having a stint with Them. The trio drops the "the" from its name, becoming simply Taste, and lands its first record deal thanks to Roland Rennie, managing partner at Polydor Records.

Summer 1968. The new Taste gather at De Lane Lea Studios in London to record their debut album with producer Tony Colton. Rory Gallagher has begun working on original material to establish himself as a songwriter, naturally playing up the tremendous energy the band unleashes live.

Released in the spring of 1969, Taste explodes on first listen with the power-chords of "Blister On The Moon", already hinting at proto-metal and pushing the boundaries of classic British hard-blues. Gallagher's Stratocaster screams out of his Vox amp, immediately showing off extreme versatility as he tackles the retro-blues of "Leavin' Blues" with a bottleneck, a Lead Belly tune rearranged in a jazz-country key. The sacred fire of the devil's music burns through the intensity of the traditional "Sugar Mama", building for over seven minutes.

Rory picks up the acoustic again on the brief rural watercolor "Hail", influenced by the great American bluesmen, before forging a more distinctive sound on the following "Born On The Wrong Side Of Time", which reworks traditional Irish folk in Cream sauce.

The album is direct, raw, a small gem hidden among its apparent flaws, as in the rock 'n' roll riff of "Dual Carriageway Pain" or the tribal pounding of the bassline on "Same Old Story". Gallagher revisits another traditional number, "Catfish", stretching it into an imposing jam of over eight minutes, before closing the record with a sinuous slide-guitar cover of the country standard "I'm Moving On" (Hank Snow).

On the Isle of Wight

An embryonic record, Taste achieves modest commercial success, selling around 200,000 copies. But the trio's live performances catch the public's attention, rapidly expanding their fanbase and media coverage of the guitarist. "Blister On The Moon" is picked by DJ John Peel for his late-night radio show, while Taste are invited to play Cream's farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall. The band of Bruce, Baker and Clapton gives way to a new supergroup, Blind Faith, who invite Gallagher's trio to join them on a tour of the United States and Canada. It's Rory's first time in America, sharing the stage with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, which includes his idols Leon Russell and J.J. Cale. Gallagher, however, isn't won over by the big American shows, which he feels ruin that direct relationship between the music and the audience.

1968 is nonetheless an intense and crucial year for the band, ending once again in London studios to record a second album right away. Still produced by Tony Colton, On The Boards isn't released until January 1970, reaching a more-than-promising 18th place on the UK charts. Credit goes to the single "What's Going On", closer to pure rock than to blues, released by Polydor without consulting Gallagher and driven to number one by listeners in Germany. The track's brief electric storm also cracks the UK singles Top 10, leading Rory to complain loudly about alleged damage to his reputation among blues purists.

The album is written entirely by Gallagher, who effectively takes a further step towards his artistic consecration. "Railway And Gun" moves naturally from a soft country-folk into a slow electric boogie, letting the guitar solo ring out. The evolution of Taste's sound is evident on the following "It's Happened Before, It'll Happen Again", which in just over six minutes mixes a jazz rhythm with progressive arrangements, unleashing the distorted saxophone played by Gallagher himself. "Impressive... progressive blues", the legendary Lester Bangs would write in May in the pages of Rolling Stone, praising a more varied record than its predecessor.

The brief "If The Day Was Any Longer" veers towards acoustic folk with the help of a swampy harmonica, while "Morning Sun" bursts out with its rounded boogie. The use of bottleneck slide enriches "Eat My Words", in a Zeppelin-esque approach to the blues, followed by the denser atmospheres of the title track, which unfolds mournfully into a fantastic, dark jam between blues, psychedelia and free jazz. "If I Don't Sing I'll Cry" returns to boogie with melodic touches, while "See Here" lingers again on rural folk amid rainbow-like arpeggios after the storm. The closing "I'll Remember" brings things full circle with another rock number, close to Cream's hard-blues style, pairing a curious falsetto vocal with the magnificent Stratocaster.

On 28 July 1970, Taste are booked for the third day of the Isle of Wight Festival, alongside bands like Chicago and Procol Harum. The day before saw Supertramp take the stage, but other big draws are coming on Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th: The Doors, Jethro Tull, The Who, Jimi Hendrix. Hired as manager, Rory's brother Donal Gallagher would later reveal the instructions given to his crew by director Murray Lerner, who wanted to film at most a couple of songs from the younger bands, leaving most of the space for the big names on the bill. Lerner doesn't know Taste at all, and when he sees them live he's blown away by the energy they unleash, ordering his cameramen to keep filming them for over an hour of performance. It's the highest point reached by the Irish trio, who on 12 September end up on the cover of Melody Maker under the headline "Taste Fight Split". There's a photo of Rory alone, eyes closed as he plays a white Telecaster, while a Polydor spokesperson vaguely mentions a matter of "general policy".

Busy on a new European tour after the Isle of Wight performance, Taste learn of the story, which is based on a few anonymous phone calls to the famous British music magazine. The rumours reveal some tension between band members on the eve of the show at Fairfield Halls, Croydon, made worse by other "complications" before recording some songs for the BBC2 show "Disco 2". Many believe the problem originated from within, fuelled in particular by Wilson and McCracken, who want to be treated as equals, not simply as Rory Gallagher's rhythm section. "He treated us as if he was the only superstar", Wilson would tell the press years later, "it was terrible. On stage it was as if we didn't exist. He'd go even further, improvising three solos during a gig, or other times starting in twelve bars and then switching to nine, just to mess everything up."

There's also a financial angle, after Eddie Kennedy's hard work securing bookings worth several tens of thousands of pounds. Most of the proceeds go to Rory, the sole author of the songs released by Taste. The band's last show is on 31 December 1970 in Belfast, before putting an end to the story of the dazzling trio.

Rory's version of events would be published in an interview with New Spotlight magazine in late 1971. Gallagher speaks of a relationship worn thin, not just musically, but refuses to give in to the temptation of "public bickering", citing the saga between Lennon and McCartney. It's obviously a partial explanation, one that doesn't reveal the real reasons behind the split, which some have speculated was down to a musical direction seen as too commercial. Gallagher says he never took a penny from Taste, while Wilson would later explain that he only discovered afterwards that he'd been a "musician on a salary".

Amid the general chaos, Polydor capitalizes on the media attention around the band by releasing Live Taste, recorded at the Montreux Casino in Switzerland on 31 August 1970, just days after their performance at the English festival. The set that made it onto the record opens with the languid virtuosity of "Sugar Mama", followed by the retro-slide of "Gamblin' Blues", from the repertoire of Texan bluesman Melvin "Lil' Son" Jackson. The trio launches at full speed into the two parts of "I Feel So Good", straight out of the Chicago school led by Big Bill Broonzy, before unspooling the hard-blues jam "Catfish" over more than ten minutes. Rory introduces his bandmates to the crowd — ironic to listen to now, given the sudden and mysterious break-up that followed — closing the set with the Hendrix-indebted version of "Same Old Story".

A few months later, Polydor releases a second live album, Live At The Isle Of Wight, capturing the explosive performance that so captivated director Murray Lerner. The band kicks off with the fireworks of "What's Going On", on which Rory's guitar sounds perfectly capable of holding its own against the much-hyped Hendrix. The marathon "Sugar Mama" oozes intensity, locked in an almost hypnotic connection with the crowd, while the Vox amp — propped amateurishly on a chair — blasts out the boogie of "Morning Sun".

The 2015 edition faithfully follows the concert's setlist, continuing with the cover of "Gambling Blues", a fixture of their European tours from mid-1970 onward. The previously unreleased "Sinner Boy" kicks off with a ramshackle march-like rhythm to accompany the frenzied slide guitar, before a falsetto rock 'n' roll version of "I'll Remember". Taste set the stage ablaze with the two marathon numbers "I Feel So Good" and "Catfish", almost half an hour of music between furious boogie-blues and Hendrix-style flare-ups.

The encores are repeated, five of them in total, featuring the tribal pulse of "Same Old Story" and the constant shifts in tone of the near-heavy "Blister On The Moon". A genuine triumph, faithfully captured on what is perhaps the most important Taste album, a band that always gave its best thanks to the energy unleashed on stage.

Solo

With the dazzling Taste adventure over, Rory Gallagher has no intention of wasting time, immediately starting auditions in search of a new rhythm section. He initially thinks big, even considering a partnership with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. By early 1971 Rory has settled permanently in London, in a flat in the Earls Court area, but the final choice falls on two musicians from Belfast. John Gerard McAvoy, twenty years old, has always loved rock 'n' roll, and was later struck by lightning after buying a Muddy Waters album. He had played with Deep Joy, a local band specializing in Motown covers, even opening some dates for Taste themselves. Rory summons him to London to rehearse alongside drummer Wilgar Campbell, five years his senior. Campbell had made a fleeting appearance with Method, playing on just one track, "Felix", before returning to his family in Belfast. He then joined Deep Joy, where he met McAvoy and later Gallagher, whose invitation comes at just the right moment, as another move to London with his wife and children is imminent.

With the new power trio now formed, Rory holes up at Advision Studios alongside sound engineer Eddy Offord — already at work on On The Boards — having decided to self-produce. Rory Gallagher comes out in May 1971, opening with the unmistakable riff of "Laundromat", inspired by the coin-operated laundrette in the basement of his London flat. The album follows the path laid down by On The Boards with Taste, alternating furious moments with softer acoustic ballads.

The airy, exotic "Just The Smile" takes its cue from the so-called British Folk Revival, drawing on artists like Richard Thompson and Davy Graham. The guitar is, of course, the main protagonist, unspooling unusual melancholic chords in the bittersweet "I Fall Apart", while the relaxed "Wave Myself Goodbye" conjures a New Orleans bar-room sound thanks to guest Vincent Crane (Atomic Rooster) on piano. Gallagher returns to the foundations of boogie-blues on "Hands Up", picking up the bottleneck again on "Sinner Boy", already a live staple with his former bandmates. The pairing with the falsetto vocal is the work of a master of the devil's music, just as the following "For The Last Time" reveals undeniable melodic gifts in its more traditional approach to Delta stylings. Rory experiments with mandolin on the calypso-style notes of "It's You", before returning to barrelhouse rhythms on the serene "I'm Not Surprised".

The record closes with new jazzy arrangements on the lengthy "Can't Believe It's True", featuring a syncopated sax set against the guitar's whirling tempo changes. Two covers, both from the Chicago blues school, were initially left off the Rory Gallagher sessions: "Gypsy Woman" (Muddy Waters) and "It Takes Time" (Otis Rush).

Rory Gallagher fails to break through commercially, landing at a dispiriting 93rd place in the UK, and only 27th on the Irish album chart. But the poor sales performance does nothing to discourage Rory, who ups his ambitions on the follow-up Deuce, recorded at Tangerine Studios in the Dalston area of London. Once again only one sound engineer would be needed, Robin Sylvester, since Gallagher himself would keep his hand on production as minimal as possible.

The Irish guitarist begins recording sessions right after a string of live shows in Europe in mid-1971, so as to carry over some of the energy unleashed on stage and then unleash it again in the grooves of the vinyl. The opening is explosive, with the dusty R&B of "Used To Be", charged up by the vicious, untamed sound of the electric guitar. Rory returns once more to the acoustic format on the intense ballad "I'm Not Awake Yet", driven by McAvoy's thunderous bass and embellished with intricate, rich chords with a flamenco flavor. The humorous "Don't Know Where I'm Going" toys with the listener through a country-billy sound halfway between Bob Dylan and Ronnie Lane, while "Maybe I Will" travels on fast tracks, somewhere between lopsided jazz and melodic openings.

"Whole Lot Of People" has a crooner-style flavor within a recipe of rock 'n' roll and Delta blues; "In Your Town" — which opens side two of the record — picks up the lessons of the greats (Lee Hooker, Tampa Red) with a wild dialogue between slide guitar and rhythm section. The classic twelve-bar rhythm heats up "Should've Learnt My Lesson", one of the tracks where Rory's solo work most resembles that of Eric Clapton, while the warm "There's A Light" revives the jazz experimentation with a bossa-nova twist.

Wild fingerpicking drives the most unrefined folk on the brilliant "Out Of My Mind", but it's the explosive finale of "Crest Of A Wave" that turns Deuce into a sonic gem. Over the wall of sound built by bass and drums, Rory's guitar rages like an electric storm, unleashing in almost six minutes a primal force that transforms blues roots into a deeply personal, unique approach. Gallagher manages to capture that live energy within the record, thanks above all to "Crest Of A Wave".

The blueprint of the blues

Rory Gallagher is satisfied with the work on Deuce, which manages to crack the UK Top 20 for just one week. Fewer than 20,000 copies will be sold, but it's a result that satisfies both him and his label, Polydor. About a month after the release of his second album, Gallagher receives an unexpected phone call from Esmond Edwards of Chess Records. It's the legendary label working on the release of Muddy Waters' "The London Session", featuring major guests such as Rick Grech, Steve Winwood and Mitch Mitchell. Edwards has been following Gallagher for some time and wants him on electric guitar, playing alongside the legend himself — a tribal chief, a buddha, as Eric Clapton once called him — the key figure who bridged the ancient blues of African Americans with modern rock 'n' roll. Rory, needless to say, accepts, and is invited from 4 to 8 December 1971 to Ibs Studios in London to join a small pantheon of blues talent spanning several generations. Indeed, there's also a vintage lineup of Chicago blues veterans present, from Sam Lawhorn (guitar) to Carey Bell Harrington (harmonica). With the help of old and new friends alike, Muddy Waters would relaunch his blues ambitions in mid-1972, despite being in precarious physical shape following a serious car accident in October 1969.

The precious studio experience with Muddy Waters sticks to Rory Gallagher's bluesman skin like an indelible tattoo, as he sets out on tour in the early months of 1972. From Luton College to Teatro Lirico in Milan, the guitarist picks out several songs that were never even recorded in the studio, arranged and rehearsed with McAvoy and Campbell ahead of the new run of shows. Live! in Europe was released in early May, proof of a vast and varied knowledge of the devil's own music in its purest form.

It opens with "Messin' With The Kid", written by Mel London and recorded in Chicago by Junior Wells with guitarist Earl Hooker in October 1960. Born as an uptempo twelve-bar blues, the song absorbed influences over the years ranging from R&B to Afro-Cuban rhythms, right up to Rory's version, which plays with pauses and furious bursts of speed in a rock key. The abrasive boogie-toned riff of "Laundromat" is one of the few tracks drawn from previous records, since Gallagher's choice here is radical, a crash course condensed into 45 minutes of blues history.

A desert-dry harmonica introduces the slow, aching "I Could've Had Religion", written by Rory himself in the so-called redemption blues style, drawing on the spirituals of Reverend Robert Wilkins, the same source the Stones tapped for the album "Beggars Banquet". A curious footnote on this song: when he later considered recording a cover of it, the great Bob Dylan assumed it was some obscure or lost blues number, certainly not the work of a white Irishman.

The record reaches even further back with the country-style stornello "Pistol Slapper Blues", written in New York in 1938 by Fulton Allen, better known as Blind Boy Fuller. The album continues with the stomp of "Going to My Hometown", which sets the crowd's hands and feet going over a whirling mandolin. "In Your Town" is the second track recycled from the previous album, Deuce, here stretched into a sprawling version that highlights the interplay between the hammering rhythm section and the slide guitar. The final act is another rearranged traditional, "Bullfrog Blues", written by William Harris in 1928 and honoured by Rory with a fresh rock 'n' roll coat.

Two more songs from the 1972 tour would later be added, the intense jam "What In The World" and "Hoodoo Man", once again drawn from Junior Wells' recordings.

Rory's seemingly anti-commercial choice ultimately pays off: Live! In Europe shoots straight into the UK Top 10, also charting on the American Billboard chart and going on to earn a gold disc. It's a golden moment for Gallagher, who a few months later is named best musician and guitarist of the year. But trouble, always lurking around the corner, strikes the spirit of drummer Wilgar Campbell, suddenly gripped by a mortal fear of flying. The fear of flying calls for psychoanalysis, so Gallagher hastily contacts Roderick Morris Buckenham de'Ath, a 22-year-old from Saundersfoot, Wales. Less technically gifted than Campbell, de'Ath is already employed by the blues-rock outfit Killing Floor, but he happily agrees, since it's supposed to be just a temporary stand-in. Wilgar, however, is forced to miss further dates, until a verbal agreement with Rory sees the new drummer offered a permanent spot. Rather than simply moving on, Gallagher doubles down: again from Killing Floor, he recruits keyboardist Louis Michael Martin, a Belfast native. With this brand-new four-piece line-up, he enters the new Marquee Studios in London at the end of 1972, working with engineers Phil Dunn and Andy Stephens on the new album.

Opening with the obsessive, furious rhythm of "Walk On Hot Coals", a boogie-rock number that highlights Lou Martin's piano intro, Blueprint is an excellent snapshot of Rory Gallagher's eclectic talent. The very use of keyboards gives the sound a noticeably more polished edge, as in the airy, almost Clapton-esque melody of "Daughter Of The Everglades". But Rory never loses his taste for acoustic blues, with Big Bill Broonzy's "Banker's Blues" conjuring a saloon-bar atmosphere through barrelhouse piano paired with bottleneck guitar.

"Hands Off" returns to Chicago-style electricity, with a touch of R&B added by the saxophone, while "Race The Breeze" rolls along like a dusty freight train on a superb rhythmic line inspired by tribal chief Muddy Waters. Among the album's finest tracks is the brooding jam "Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son", which has Gallagher's guitar interact with new instrumentation, namely the aggressive piano played by Martin. The ragtime of "Unmilitary Two-Step" broadens the sonic horizons even further, as does the purest mix of country and honky-tonk on "If I Had A Reason". Two more tracks would later be salvaged from the Blueprint sessions, the shuffle "Stompin' Ground" and the R&B classic "Treat Her Right", a cover of a Roy Head song.

Homecoming

At the start of 1973 Rory Gallagher set off on a short tour of Germany, before returning to London to record a special episode of the BBC radio format "In Concert". In March he flew to Canada for the first time as a solo artist, having previously opened for Blind Faith with Taste back in 1969. Rory had a full week booked at the Colonial Tavern in Toronto, selling the place out night after night despite his name still being largely unknown in North America. Roughly 75 minutes a set, twice a night, a punishing marathon that Gallagher pushed through with his indomitable spirit, never letting a single note slip. The Canadian shows caught the attention of the New Musical Express, which discovered in Toronto a guitarist of exceptional talent, steeped in constant nods to the blues and possessed of almost limitless potential. At 25, he had yet to achieve the godlike fame of Eric Clapton, and was still practically unknown in the United States, where he'd only arrived the year before with Live! In Europe. Yet his name was already spreading like wildfire among producers and veteran artists with imposing pedigrees, including Jerry Lee Lewis, also known as rock 'n' roll's own killer.

While working on the London recording of the album "The Session... Recorded In London With Great Artists", American producer Steve Rowland called Rory to invite him to play alongside another of his childhood idols. The London sessions featured a parade of stars: Tony Ashton (Deep Purple), Delaney Bramlett, B.J. Cole, Albert Lee, Alvin Lee (Ten Years After), Kenny Jones and Mickey Jones of the Clash.

In the summer of 1973 Rory Gallagher returned to Polydor Studios, as always accompanied by two sound engineers, Carlos Olms and Robin Sylvester. The now-confirmed four-piece line-up spent several weeks working on the new album, Tattoo, another valuable piece in the Irish guitarist's discography.

"Tattoo'd Lady" is the intriguing opener, an energetic honky-tonk-flavoured rock number that takes the band's chemistry to a new level, between de'Ath's tight drumming and Martin's hammering keyboards. The pulsing blood of boogie-blues flows through "Cradle Rock", built around a raw, raunchy riff, while the following "20:20 Vision" casts a spell with its acoustic folk, steeped in the waters of the Delta.

The album confirms Rory's extreme versatility, as he returns to his beloved jazzy sounds on "They Don't Make Them Like You Anymore", before riding a thunderous wah-wah on the aggressive "Livin' Like A Trucker". Gallagher has no qualms about sinking into the grittiest, most intensely crude bar-blues ("Sleep On A Clothes Line"), only to then unveil the most refined of acoustic-slide pieces ("Who's That Coming"). It's a transparent, direct approach, on another album of great intellectual honesty from the guitarist from Ballyshannon, who pushes the bar even further on "A Million Miles Away", a slow, sinister, swamp-born groove, driven along by overdubbed organ and sax.

Closing the record is the uptempo rocker "Admit It", followed - on the 2000 reissue - by the curious country-waltz turn of "Tucson, Arizona" (Link Wray) and the long blues standard "Just A Little Bit" (Rosco Gordon).

Released at the end of 1973, Tattoo failed to climb the English-speaking charts, not properly promoted by Polydor according to Rory's brother, Donal. The album was nonetheless the perfect springboard for an immediate return to the road, starting with a welcome homecoming to Ireland in January 1974. The band was followed by a film crew directed by Tony Palmer, who had already filmed Taste's performance at Cream's farewell concert back in 1968. Initially the project was meant to be just a bit of footage for TV, but Palmer soon hit on the idea of making a full-blown film, following Rory through several stops on the tour, from Ulster Hall in Belfast to the Carlton Cinema in Dublin, and of course the live show at City Hall in Cork. One of the founders of the celebrated radio programme Kaleidoscope (BBC 4), Tony Palmer had already worked on several rock documentaries (Cream, Zappa, Cohen), as well as gaining film experience working with actors such as Laurence Olivier and Vanessa Redgrave. The chemistry between Palmer and Gallagher was immediate, with Donal himself lending a hand as production assistant.

Gallagher's tour of Northern Ireland was no easy undertaking, given that the start of 1974 saw a string of brutal violent episodes between the Irish Republican Army and loyalist factions. Countless artists steered clear of the region, but Rory Gallagher confirmed the entire tour, playing precisely the hottest of hotspots such as Belfast's Ulster Hall, where no fewer than ten bombs went off the day before the gig. Everyone expected an inevitable cancellation, but Rory took the stage anyway, greeted by a roar. His performance would go down in collective memory, described as "moving, uplifting and joyous" by a local reporter. "Without being silly or overly emotional," he would later write, "it was one of the most memorable moments of my life, more than just rock 'n' roll, it was something bigger, something more worthwhile."

Irish Tour '74 was released as a double album in July 1974, the soundtrack to the film directed by Palmer and definitive proof of the greatness of an artist who, live, could unleash an intensity entirely off the scale. Rory's guitar heats up on the filthy riff of "Cradle Rock", the first track drawn from the new album Tattoo, with the incendiary finishing touches of Lou Martin's electric piano. Chords unspool to open the slow, sinuous "I Wonder Who", a blues standard from the Chicago school dominated by his idol Muddy Waters. The version of "Tattoo'd Lady" explodes over a hammering rhythm section and ringing solos, while "Too Much Alcohol" (J. B. Hutto) sets off mass handclapping over a steady twelve-bar shuffle redolent of Elmore James.

Gallagher goes it alone on acoustic for the stomping progression of "As The Crow Flies" (Tony Joe White), before a chill-inducing version of the new "A Million Miles Away", which literally captivates the crowd with its emotional intensity at a difficult moment for the city of Belfast. Rory's secret lies in a natural ability to win over the souls of his audience by giving everything on stage, as in the more than eleven minutes of "Walk On Hot Coals", which starts out as a hard-blues groove before veering into a jazzy jam built on the Stratocaster's wah-wah sound. Gallagher's four-piece band is at the peak of its powers, tearing through the electrified rural blues of "Who's That Coming?" at full speed and saluted in triumph on the jam "Back On My Stompin' Ground (After Hours)". The most fitting of finales comes with the martial, Lee Hooker-style cadence of "Just A Little Bit", lifted from the Rosco Gordon catalogue.

Irish Tour '74 would come back to life forty years later, in October 2014, when Sony Music and Legacy Recordings released a monumental 7-disc box set packed with material recorded in Dublin, Cork and Belfast. From "Messin' With The Kid" to a blistering version of "Laundromat", the new box-set edition is essential listening for fully immersing oneself in the power of Gallagher in the mid-1970s.

Chrysalis Years

Released in the summer of 1974, Irish Tour '74 was rewarded by the public, reaching sales of 50,000 copies. The echo of Gallagher's performances on Irish soil reached as far as the United States, and above all lodged itself in the mind of Mick Jagger, who was desperately in need of a replacement for the departing Mick Taylor. The Rolling Stones accordingly invited Rory to an audition, with every serious intention of bringing him into one of the most famous bands on the planet. The guitarist agreed to try out a few jams, but ultimately turned down the offer, citing imminent shows to honour in Japan. In truth, he wasn't convinced; he wanted to carry on alone rather than risk being creatively boxed in, not least given the simultaneous (and formidable) presence of Keith Richards. Even though some would remember his name as "the man who turned down the Rolling Stones", the choice made perfect sense, in keeping with his untameable spirit.

In fact, Gallagher wanted to relaunch his solo ambitions after his contract with Polydor ended, a label his brother and manager often accused of having done little on the promotional front. The choice fell on Chrysalis Records, founded in London in 1967 by the Ellis-Wright Agency to focus on the blues repertoire of artists like Ten Years After. The English label, which had also signed Jethro Tull and Procol Harum, was deemed perfect for the goal of retaining artistic control while also gaining greater commercial attention. Rory was nonetheless well aware of belonging to a sonic niche, never churning out chart-smashing singles or records with broad mainstream appeal. On the dusty road of the blues, he was a creature of the stage, forever chasing the purest energy around the world.

Against The Grain is thus the pun that gives its title to the new album released in autumn 1975, underlining a never-fading love for an old-fashioned music at odds with the profit logic of the music business. Opening with the aggressive boogie-rock of "Let Me In", the record is among the most unbridled in Gallagher's discography, doing away with more sophisticated instruments (mandolin and saxophone above all) to unleash the rawest power of the four main players. Rory's own singing is hoarser and more vibrant on the fast "Souped-Up Ford", driven along by smoking slide guitar in a new approach that's less cerebral and more muscular. The howl that kicks off the dusty blues of "All Around Man" is almost primal, as if a hunt had been launched to run the listener down with the electric sound of the Mississippi. The search for a new groove continues through the roots-rock of "Bought And Sold", adding a small dose of funk to the jazzy mix of "Cross Me Off Your List".

Not every moment on the album hits the mark, such as the atonal melody of "Ain't Too Good" or the soul roots of the cover "I Take What I Want" (Sam & Dave). "Lost At Sea" offers a new melodic line with Harrison-esque overtones, held together by filthy wah-wah guitar. More interesting is the acoustic version of "Out On The Western Plain" (Lead Belly), which blends hypnotic Indian-flavoured atmospheres with the vocal calls of lone cowboys. Or the sturdy, heartfelt country-rock of "At The Bottom", closing out an album that tries to chart a new sonic course with mixed results.

Not among the Irish guitarist's best works, Against The Grain failed to make a dent on the charts, despite the change of label and hopes for greater commercial promotion. Rory Gallagher thus went back out on tour, unleashing his intensity on stages across half the world, before stopping in September 1976 at Musicland Studios in Munich.

Recording sessions for the follow-up, Calling Card, began, marking the first time an outside producer was involved: the well-known bassist Roger Glover (Deep Purple). The choice was entirely counter-intuitive, since Rory wanted Glover precisely to leave the stigma of hard rock behind and try new musical directions. The band remained the same, by now forged in the fire of hundreds of live shows, but the direction had to be different, even while staying anchored to an intensity that Glover himself would try to smooth toward greater elegance.

The result was a hugely important album in Gallagher's discography, starting with the muscular blues of "Do You Read Me", which features unprecedented synthesised keyboard inserts. Tracks like "Country Mile" and "Moonchild" search for new melodic approaches to classic guitar riffs, while still keeping a solid footing between boogie and hard rock. The title track unveils a high-class smooth-jazz, rooted in the New Orleans sound, while the acoustic ballad "I'll Admit You're Gone" shows how at ease Rory remained even in calmer waters. Producer Roger Glover's hand is more evident on "Secret Agent", which pairs a John Lord-style organ touch with a hard-blues progression. Another key track on the record is "Jack-Knife Beat", an elegant jam between jazz, blues and Latin percussive rhythms, which relaunches Gallagher's ambitions beyond standard twelve-bar form. "Edged In Blue" is likewise another masterstroke, among the saddest melodies Rory ever wrote, built within a structure bordering on pop-rock.

The diversity of sonic details defines the record, closing with the strummed finale of "Barley And Grape Rag", halfway between country, hillbilly and ragtime. Because Rory Gallagher liked to have fun, always, above all else.

With recording for Calling Card finished in Germany, Rory Gallagher went back on tour, first in the United States and then across Europe and the UK from the start of 1977. It was a period of intense live activity, culminating in late August as headliner of the Macroom Mountain Dew Festival in Cork, in front of thousands of spectators. These were the last shows with the four-piece line-up, because Rory had grown eager to return to the so-called power trio, as in the old Taste days. After wrapping up several European dates in spring 1978, Gallagher let go of Rod De'Ath and Lou Martin, replacing only the former with the Scotsman Ted McKenna, who had left the hard-glam outfit The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. Having seen the Sex Pistols live in the United States, Gallagher became convinced he needed to go back to basics, toward a sound that had to be direct, raw and powerful once again.

As had happened with Calling Card, the new recording sessions were booked at Dierks Studios in Cologne, again in Germany, so as to be able to work with the new line-up in between live dates. It was the summer of 1978, and there were several tracks to rearrange, since the earlier recordings with De'Ath and Martin hadn't proved satisfactory. Hence the chosen title, Photo-Finish, for a nail-biting delivery to the Chrysalis offices, just in time to meet the imposed deadline. Gallagher had, among other things, also suffered a nasty accident with a taxi door, which put his right thumb out of action, causing further delays. Having scrapped the work done with producer Elliot Mazer (Neil Young), Rory entrusted sound engineer Alan O'Duffy with directing the sessions, a move in keeping with his previous studio experiences. Starting with the sturdy rock-blues of "Shin Kicker", the new album doesn't stand out in terms of creativity, content instead to restore a sincere, direct relationship with the seven notes. In that sense, the title of the second track, "Brute Force & Ignorance", seems almost like a statement of intent, given that the new power trio appears content to indulge purely in the taste for the electric riff.

"Cruise On Out" is driven by a wild country & western rhythm complete with handclapping, while "Cloak & Dagger" opens with harmonica before veering into swampy sound territory. More complex structures appear in "Overnight Bag", where an excellent layering of electric and acoustic guitars points toward a style closer to that of Tom Petty. "Shadow Play" continues along the power-rock furrow, as does "The Last Of The Independents", which likewise unwinds over a muscular riff. Better is the grinding intensity of "The Mississippi Sheiks", where the contribution of new drummer Ted McKenna, whose timing is far more varied than his predecessor's, really stands out. The slow-burning finale of "Fuel To The Fire" can't save an album that started off on the wrong foot and ends under a worrying cloud of mediocrity.

Following the release of Photo-Finish comes a long American tour that earns glowing reviews from the trade press. Chrysalis wastes no time and urges Rory to put out a new album straight away, to ride the momentum. Gallagher isn't convinced, but the label pushes hard and promises a level of promotion never seen before, putting him at the top of their priority list. Hence the new album, recorded once again in Cologne in the spring of 1979, bears the ironic title Top Priority, as a reminder to Chrysalis of the commitment it had just made.

The opening is similar to Photo-Finish: it starts with the dirty, direct riff of "Follow Me". Gallagher continues the process of "watering down" his blues soul, seeking to win over new legions of fans after playing bigger venues in the United States. The following track, "Philby", unleashes a rhythm bordering on arena-rock, turning Rory from a die-hard bluesman into a true guitar hero, with a fascinating use of the electric sitar lent to him by Pete Townshend. The song tells the story of Kim Philby, the British double agent active in Russia during the Cold War, evoked sonically through Eastern European atmospheres. "Wayward Child" flexes the muscles of the new three-piece band with McAvoy and McKenna, perfectly suited to a blistering martial beat. Top Priority is in fact far more focused than Photo-Finish, from the itchy groove of "Key Chain" to the irresistible boogie of "At The Depot", masterfully driven by slide guitar.

"Bad Penny" continues the melodic hard-rock approach aimed at reaching wider audiences, while "Just Hit Town" lands a punch worthy of Motörhead. The pace only slows on "Off The Handle", which returns to electric blues standards, before the funky closer "Public Enemy No. 1".

The lure of the stage

After the release of Top Priority, a long world tour begins, with several dates recorded live for release as a third live album. Stage Struck comes out in the autumn of 1980, featuring more streamlined versions of the recent repertoire, from Against The Grain onward. From the rock 'n' roll charge of "Shin Kicker" to the power-hard rhythm of "Wayward Child", Gallagher opts for an approach less devoted to blues, focusing instead on greater speed and drive. It's a critical period for most hard-rock and blues artists, suddenly swept aside by punk fury. Even the trade magazines are shifting their tastes, with Melody Maker—traditionally closer to artists like Rory—being overtaken by the more anarchic NME. Tracks like "Brute Force And Ignorance" and "Moonchild" are wrapped in a heavy-flavored wall of sound, closer to certain Bad Company records. There are echoes of the devil's music in the boogie of "Bought And Sold", while the version of "Follow Me" showcases that guitar-hero attitude that shaped Rory's fame, especially in Europe.

Gallagher always measured his cult status on stages around the world, and now he takes centre stage in whirlwind numbers like "The Last Of The Independents", reshaped by an attitude closer to the emerging punk scene. It's partly a distortion of his identity, which makes Stage Struck the least successful of his live albums, mainly due to the questionable decision to court new fans with a sound closer to heavy metal.

In 1981 Rory Gallagher decided to replace drummer Ted McKenna with Brendan O'Neill, adding a keyboardist, Bob Andrews, and two saxophonists, Ray Beavis and Dick Parry. With the new lineup, he entered Dierks Studios in Cologne in May to record Jinx, his last album for Chrysalis, released in the spring of 1982.

The album opens with the power-rock of "Signals", in line with the more commercial sound of his recent live period. The pace picks up with near-punk fury on "The Devil Made Me Do It", before returning to hard-blues roots on the riff of "Double Vision". "Easy Come, Easy Go" revives the ballad format, in an intense mix of acoustic and electric guitars, while tracks like "Big Guns" and "Bourbon" flex their muscles with an approach to energetic rock that's more American than European. Far more focused is the hypnotic tribalism of "Jinxed", bolstered by a successful pairing of guitar solo and melodic harmonica line.

Showing some weakness on the songwriting front, Jinx finds itself balanced between new and old rhythms, from the Eastern-tinged funk of "Loose Talk" to the whisky-soaked blues standard "Ride On Red, Ride On".

After the release of Jinx, Gallagher parted ways with Chrysalis Records, which had never been able—or willing—to promote him commercially. Rory founded his own label, Capo Records, to finally gain full control over his music. But it took a full five years for Defender to come out, an extremely long gap given the Irish guitarist's prolific output.

The opening track, "Kickback City", continues down the path of a heavier sound in the hair-rock style of bands like Bad Company, hinting at continuity with Jinx. "Loanshark Blues" returns to dusty roads with an arrangement somewhere between J.J. Cale and ZZ Top, while the following "Continental Op" is dedicated to hard-boiled writer Dashiell Hammett and boasts one of the finest riffs of recent years. The return to swampy rhythms is also welcome ("I Ain't No Saint"), while tracks like "Failsafe Day" and "Road To Hell" suffer from bland, mainstream-leaning rock.

It seems that Gallagher can't quite make full use of his immense guitar talent, stuck in a kind of sonic loop. Things are shaken up by the slide guitar on the vibrant "Doing Time", followed by the funky ring of "Smear Campaign" and the twelve-bar lift of "Don't Start Me Talkin'", a Sonny Boy Williamson II cover. The album's closing stretch builds in intensity, sealed by the acoustic gem "Seven Days", its death-row vocal accompanied by piano and harmonica.

The Last Waltz

The release of Defender was followed by another long European tour, with the Cork date recorded by broadcaster RTÉ. Always devoted to the live dimension, Rory decided to take more time before returning to the studio, bringing in John Cooke (keyboards) and other guests such as Mark Feltham (harmonica) and John Earle (saxophone). Usually quick in the studio, Gallagher extended the preparation for Fresh Evidence, released in the spring of 1990, three years after his previous record. Over six months of gestation, the Irish guitarist chose to forgo digital recording technology entirely, opting for old-school equipment to achieve as vintage a sound as possible. The opening of "Kid Gloves" indeed sounds like old-fashioned rock 'n' roll, inspired by Rory's passion for film noir.

The album is a mix of styles and personal influences from Gallagher himself, who pays tribute to Clifton Chenier and the American southern sound on "The King Of Zydeco", before returning to sleepy blues in the style of Slim Harpo on "Middle Name". The band seems to be having fun with this new sonic cocktail, from the funk-tinged instrumental jam "Alexis" to the brilliant Son House cover "Empire State Express". There's even a return to the longer song format, in the nearly eight minutes of "Ghost Blues", opened by Delta-style guitar and driven into a folk-stomp whirlwind. It's a decisive return to his beloved blues, with "Heaven's Gate" evoking the spirit of Robert Johnson, while the brief instrumental "The Loop" pays tribute to the city of Chicago with swirling jazz.

The record allows Gallagher to reflect on several weightier themes in his life, such as his worsening health problems in the robust rock-blues of "Walkin' Wounded" or that feeling of living on the wrong side of the tracks over the hard-driving rhythm of closer "Slumming Angel".

Starting in spring 1990, a new tour begins to promote Fresh Evidence, also set to reach the United States despite a growing fear of long intercontinental flights. Compared to his recent American outings – opening for bigger-name artists in large arenas – the new tour features smaller venues, which are nonetheless filling up thanks to the recent success of blues artists like Stevie Ray Vaughan and George Thorogood. At the end of 1993, Gallagher is invited to headline the first edition of the Cork Regional Technical College Arts Festival, an acoustic set that will turn out to be his last concert on home soil.

In a lengthy interview with RTÉ Radio 1, Rory reveals he's pleased with his homecoming performance, with his friend Lou Martin back on piano, and states that he's working on releasing the follow-up to Fresh Evidence after another three years of silence.

But by mid-1994 Gallagher's health begins to decline, leaving him increasingly bloated. It's a state of both physical and mental exhaustion, which forces him to cancel several concerts in early 1995. Abdominal pain is caused by liver problems, treated with paracetamol that only worsens the situation. Around Easter he undergoes a transplant at King's College Hospital, and at first everything seems to go smoothly. Then a complication arises, a severe infection that leads to his tragic death on 14 June. Three days later, thousands of people in Cork flood the streets to pay their due respects to their guitar hero. John Buckley, Bishop of Cork and Ross, speaks before the funeral ceremony: "Over the years I came to understand just how popular Rory and his music were, how much he was loved by the people of Cork, indeed by generations of young people in Cork, a figure known internationally, of course, a man of talent, a man of great skill above all in his musical path. Rory was a very good man, very good to his family, to his dear mother Monica, and very good to many charitable causes, so on an occasion like this, we are deeply saddened by the passing of such a young man. I believe it is entirely fitting today that we all come together to celebrate him."

After Rory's tragic death, his brother Dónal Gallagher works on releasing a celebratory double album containing various recordings made for John Peel and Mike Raven at BBC Radio. Spanning 1971 to 1986, it gathers over twenty tracks split between live performances and studio sessions, documenting Gallagher's own deep love for radio, which he followed avidly since he was a boy. Bbc Sessions returns Rory's immense talent to the world, a talent that vanished far too soon. The first part of the record is graced by the enveloping, sinuous length of the traditional "What In The World", on the same scale as the Zeppelin-esque "Since I've Been Loving You". From the jazzy elegance of "Jacknife Beat" to the adrenaline-charged electricity of the classic "Got My Mojo Working", the live portion of the album is a compendium for lovers of the Irish guitarist's versatile style, drawing on his countless influences, from the unmistakable twelve-bar rhythms of "Garbage Man" to the wildest rock 'n' roll on "Roberta".

The second part of Bbc Sessions collects alternate versions of material already recorded since the early '70s, from the Tulsa-style sound of "Race The Breeze" to the rock intensity of "Crest Of A Wave". The most clattering blues pays tribute to Chuck Willis's "Feel So Bad", while "Seventh Son Of The Seventh Son" winds between Eastern influences and Cream-like rhythms. Also sure to draw in Gallagher's fans are gems like "Tore Down" (Sonny Thompson) and "Hoodoo Man", making for an unmissable record that adds a new piece to an already well-established legend.

In 2003 his brother Dónal continues the archival work, curating and producing Wheels Within Wheels, another collection of tracks recorded over twenty years of his career starting in the mid-'70s. Compared to Bbc Sessions, the focus here is entirely on the acoustic format, starting with the brilliant, Beatles-esque melody of the title track. Gallagher ranges across genres, proving just as comfortable with the flamenco rhythm of "Flight To Paradise" (Juan Martin) as with the more classic dobro-blues of "As The Crow Flies" (Tony Joe White).

The album flows stylishly from the hypnotic "Lonesome Highway" to traditional Irish folk on tracks like "Bratacha Dubha" and "She Moved Thro' The Fair/Ann Cran Ull". The breezy, Dixieland-style "Barley And Grape Rag" features the Dubliners as guests, while "The Cuckoo" is given a dark arrangement in a western vein. For Rory's fans, the good fortune lies in the uncommercial choice to release collections of unreleased material, offering an ever-fresh portrait of the great guitarist from Ballyshannon. Also worth seeking out are two interesting live versions, a "Walkin' Blues" (Son House) enriched by Béla Fleck's banjo, and "Blue Moon Of Kentucky" (Bill Monroe) with harmonica master Mark Feltham. The bluegrass key of the record opens the door to pure emotion on "Deep Elem Blues", with the roaring vocal driving the stomp-blues of "Goin' To My Home Town" before the ethereal close of "Lonesome Highway Refraining".

At the end of 2003 a new live album is released, recorded at the Paradiso in Amsterdam on 20 December 1993. Meeting With The G-Man contains several tracks from his later period – "Continental Op", "The Loop", "Ghost Blues" – plus a few other gems, such as the drowsy "Mean Disposition", an acoustic cover of Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and a breezy version of "La Bamba" (Ritchie Havens). More interesting still is the 2006 release of Live At Montreux, which gathers over an hour of music from several of Gallagher's performances at the famous Swiss festival from 1975 onward. It opens with the primal riff of "Laundromat", in an electric escalation that runs through "Toredown", "Bought And Sold" and "Do You Read Me".

These are performances of a musician at his prime, with his proverbial checked shirt reeling off top-tier blues in the prestigious setting of Montreux. The acoustic gem "Too Much Alcohol" now sounds dramatic and prophetic, while the sonic fury of "Shin Kicker" seems carved into the very bedrock of rock legend.

In 2010 The Beat Club Sessions is released, gathering various live performances from the very earliest period, straddling the first and second albums. Noteworthy is the acoustic "Just The Smile", followed by the furious boogie of "In Your Town" and the off-the-scale intensity of "Crest Of A Wave". A particularly interesting release for hearing his early solo period, still "stained" by the raw rage of Taste.

The following year brings Notes From San Francisco, a double album that first and foremost contains the well-known album Gallagher recorded in 1977 with producer Elliot Mazer. Shortly before his death, Rory had authorized his brother to go back and remix the tracks properly, so that the album, long lost in American studios, could finally see the light of day. It opens with the pounding rock 'n' roll of "Rue The Day", followed by the boogie rhythm of "Persuasion" and the R&B-funk blend of "B Girl". Dónal Gallagher's remix work restores freshness to this late-'70s sound, as on "Mississippi Sheiks", already revisited by Rory himself on Photo-Finish, the album born out of his falling-out with Mazer and the subsequent firing of the band, with the exception of his trusty McAvoy. Standouts include the tender acoustic watercolor "Wheels Within Wheels", set against the dark rock tones of "Overnight Bag" or the punk speed of "Cruise On Out".

Listening to tracks like "Fuel To The Fire" certainly proves Rory right, as he felt the new compositions of the time had an excessive structural weakness, but both the experimental streak on "Cut A Dash" and the wild wah-wah of "Out On The Tiles" are sonic testimonies that every Gallagher fan had long been waiting for.

The second disc collects several tracks in live versions, again from San Francisco in 1979. Standouts include the energetic rendition of "Bought And Sold" and the electric storm of "Bullfrog Blues".

Further combing through Rory's archives is Chess Records, which in 2019 releases Blues, another collection of gems for fans. The focus, naturally, is on the devil's music, from "Don't Start Me Talkin'" to "Born Under A Bad Sign", already performed live in 1990 alongside Jack Bruce. The Chicago label would go on to release further live albums through 2023, continuing to pass down the legacy of an artist still tremendously underrated.

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