Rory Gallagher

This article is about the musician. For his album of the same name see Rory Gallagher (album) .

Rory Gallagher (1982)

William Rory Gallagher (born March 2, 1948 in Ballyshannon in County Donegal , Ireland , † June 14, 1995 in London ) was an Irish guitarist and singer-songwriter . His musical work focused on blues-rock and blues in various varieties. Gallagher primarily recorded his own compositions, and rarely cover versions of old blues classics.

life and work

Early years

The Rory Gallagher Corner ( Dublin )

Gallagher began playing the guitar at the age of eight. From 1963 he was a member of the Fontana Show Band , which later renamed itself Impact . Gallagher said he was a blues and rock 'n' roll fan, his musical role models included Lonnie Donegan , Muddy Waters and Leadbelly .

In 1966 Gallagher founded the “power trio” Taste with Norman Damery ( drums ) and Eric Kitteringham ( electric bass ) . This formation was disbanded in 1968. Gallagher, now professionally advised from the music industry, replaced the rhythm section in the same year at the urging of management with John Wilson on drums and Richard (Charlie) McCracken on bass. With this formation, Gallagher made his breakthrough in the British rock scene through appearances at the London Marquee Club and at the Isle of Wight Festival . Gallagher later recorded all of Taste's albums with this line-up.

1970-1976

Since 1970 Gallagher appeared with a new band (Wilgar Campbell, drums, and Gerry McAvoy , bass) only under the name Rory Gallagher. He produced almost all of the following albums himself, the arrangements became more differentiated. From 1972 Rod de Ath on drums and Lou Martin on piano completed the band. Musik Express readers voted him their favorite guitarist from 1971 to 1973 in a row. Gallagher's style of electric guitar playing was shaped by a blues-rock foundation, and the acoustic guitar, mandolin, harmonica and alto saxophone also bear witness to Gallagher's Irish musical heritage. The imagery of the texts moved between the “ myth of America ” and the “ melancholy of Ireland ”. The album Irish Tour '74 was made on his tour of Ireland in 1974 . For this tour, the director Tony Palmer shot the film of the same name, which shows the simple way the band works “on the road”, as well as the star, who is exclusively interested in making music, without any airs. The setlist of the film and album are different.

Gallagher's attitude and character also prevented him from responding to the interest of top bands like Cream (1969), Rolling Stones (1974) or Deep Purple (1975), which Gallagher picked up after the departure of their guitarists Eric Clapton , Mick Taylor and respectively. Ritchie Blackmore would have liked to join her band.

The Times described Gallagher's guitar playing in 1973 as follows:

“He's one of the few guitarists you can recognize after a few seconds, his style is so individual. He says it was a coincidence and involved his Stratocaster guitar, a battered item that he has owned for nearly 10 years. It creates a sound that howls and climbs at high speed during a Gallagher performance - a merging of overtones he creates by holding the pick at a specific angle between thumb and finger. This leads to chronic rubbing of the fingernail: I never thought about it until people started writing about it. Then I developed the style further. It's a sound that I can't get with my bottleneck . "

Rory Gallagher's Stratocaster electric guitar from 1961, shown here at an exhibition in 2007

Gallagher's grave in Ballincollig Cemetery, County Cork

1976-1995

In 1976 Gallagher recorded the album Calling Card at Musicland Studios in Munich . It was produced by Roger Glover , Deep Purple's bassist . With this album began - due to Glover's influence - a stronger hard rock tone on the recordings. The 1978 album Photo Finish was again a trio album with Ted McKenna on drums. From the album Jinx Brendan O'Neal played drums.

Gallagher released a new album almost every year until 1982. Photo Finish , Top Priority and Jinx were recorded in Dierks Studio near Cologne. In 1987 he reported back with Defender after a five-year hiatus . In 1992 he put together the sampler Etched in Blue himself , which contains one track from each of his 14 albums.

Rory Gallagher became known to a broad German-speaking audience no later than July 23, 1977 through his live appearance in the first Rockpalast Night in the Grugahalle in Essen, which was broadcast across Europe on television and radio . Between 1976 and 1990 he performed five times in the Rockpalast. After the musician and singer became quiet at the end of the 1980s, he started a comeback with a new band in the early 1990s, with bad health : With Mark Feltham (harmonica), Richard Newman (drums), David Levy (Bass) and Jim Leverton (keyboards) he went on tour.

Gallagher died on June 14, 1995 of complications from a liver transplant that had become necessary due to his pill consumption and alcoholism . His birthplace in Ballyshannon and his grave in St. Oliver Cemetery in Ballincollig, County Cork, are frequented by fans.

In 2011, the Rolling Stone listed Gallagher 57th of the 100 best guitarists of all time .

Equipment

Gallagher's trademark was his electric guitar, which he almost exclusively played, a Fender Stratocaster from 1961. Gallagher's guitar was characterized by its body , which was originally painted in the sunburst color , largely due to intensive use of the instrument over the years had been worn down and never renewed. Other parts of the instrument, however, were regularly repaired and modified. After Gallagher's death, Fender brought out a special edition of the Stratocaster , which is an exact replica of Gallagher's guitar down to the last detail of the paint damage.

As a guitar amplifier, Gallagher mostly used a Vox AC30 in conjunction with a "Rangemaster", a Treblebooster from Dallas.

Discography

Some of the publications have been remastered and provided with additional material such as bonus titles, photos or texts, so that different configurations are possible.

For publications with key see here .

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	IE
1971	Rory Gallagher	-	-	-	UK32 gold (2 weeks)UK	-	-
	Deuce	-	-	-	UK39 gold (1 week)UK	-	-
1973	Blueprint	DE32 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	UK12 gold (7 weeks)UK	US147 (7 weeks) US	-
	Tattoo	DE41 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	UK32 gold (3 weeks)UK	US186 (7 weeks) US	-
1975	Against the grain	-	-	-	UK- gold UK	US121 (13 weeks) US	-
1976	Calling card	-	-	-	UK32 silver (1 week)UK	US163 (11 weeks) US	-
1978	Photo finish	DE34 (5 weeks) DE	-	-	UK- silver UK	US116 (15 weeks) US	-
1979	Top Priority	DE44 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	UK56 silver (4 weeks)UK	US140 (4 weeks) US	-
1982	Jinx	-	-	-	UK68 silver (5 weeks)UK	-	-
1987	Defender	DE43 (5 weeks) DE	-	-	UK- silver UK	-	-
2011	Notes From San Francisco	DE31 (2 weeks) DE	-	CH91 (1 week) CH	UK44 (1 week) UK	-	IE5 (9 weeks) IE	2 CDs, CD1 Studio - a historic, previously unreleased 1978 studio album, CD2 Live - a previously unreleased live recording from The Old Waldorf in San Francisco from December 1979

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More studio albums

• 1990: Fresh Evidence (UK:silver)
• 2011: Notes From San Francisco (The iTunes deluxe download version also has nine pieces from the rehearsals of CD1 in a studio in Osaka, Japan)
• 2013: Kickback City

Live albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	IE
1972	Live! In Europe	DE32 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	UK9 gold (15 weeks)UK	US101 (15 weeks) US	-
1974	Irish Tour '74	DE33 (3 weeks) DE	-	-	UK36 gold (2 weeks)UK	US110 (11 weeks) US	IE38 (3 weeks) IE	Chart entry in DE, US & IE after re-publication in 2014
1980	Stage struck	-	-	-	UK40 (3 weeks) UK	-	-
2018	The French Connection	-	-	-	-	-	IE100 (1 week) IE
2020	Check Shirt Wizard - Live In '77	DE10 (7 weeks) DE	AT43 (1 week) AT	CH24 (2 weeks) CH	UK26 (1 week) UK	-	IE9 (1 week) IE

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More live albums

• 2003: Meeting with the G-Man - Amsterdam 1993
• 2006: Rory Gallagher Live at Montreux (1 CD, Live-CD, cross-section of the performances in 1975, 1977, 1979, 1985 and 1994)
• 2010: Rory Gallagher - The Beat Club Sessions
• 2013: Rory Gallagher - Live at the Montreux Festival 1975–94, The Definitive Collection

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	IE
1975	Sinner ... and Saint	-	-	-	-	US156 (5 weeks) US	-
1999	BBC sessions	-	-	-	UK81 (1 week) UK	-	-	Double CD in concert and studio
2003	Wheels Within Wheels	DE87 (1 week) DE	-	-	-	-	IE18 (11 weeks) IE
2005	Big guns	-	-	-	UK31 (3 weeks) UK	-	IE2 (21 weeks) IE	SACD, sampler on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of his death
2008	The essential	-	-	-	-	-	IE17 (8 weeks) IE	28 tracks including five live recordings
2019	blues	DE14 (12 weeks) DE	AT41 (1 week) AT	CH22 (5 weeks) CH	UK17 (3 weeks) UK	-	IE4 (6 weeks) IE

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More compilations

• 1972: The Best Years
• 1972: Pop History Vol. 30
• 1974: In The Beginning
• 1974: The Story So Far
• 1975: The Story of Rory Gallagher
• 1975: Rory Gallagher
• 1977: Best Of Rory Gallagher
• 1978: Very Best Of Rory Gallagher
• 1995: A Blue Day for the Blues
• 1998: Etched in Blue
• 2001: Let's Go to Work (four live CDs: Live In Europe, Irish Tour '74, Stage Struck and Meeting with the G-Man , Amsterdam 1993)
• 2009: Crest of a Wave: The Best of Rory Gallagher (2 CDs)

Video albums

Placements achieved in Germany apply to the album charts.

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	IE
2004	Rory Gallagher at Rockpalast	DE51 (5 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	-	WDR Studio L, Cologne 1976 / Grugahalle, Essen 1977 / Jam Session, Wiesbaden 1979
2006	Rory Gallagher Live at Montreux	DE87 (1 week) DE	-	-	-	-	-	Double DVD; Appearances at the Montreux Festival in 1975, 1977, 1979, 1985 and 1994

More video albums

• 2001: Irish Tour '74
• 2005: Rory Gallagher - The Complete Rockpalast Collection (triple DVD, limited edition. DVD 1: WDR Studio L Cologne 1976, Grugahalle Essen 1977, Jam Session Wiesbaden 1979; DVD 2: Loreley 1982, Loreley Jam Session 1982; DVD 3: May Festival Wiesbaden 1979, Live Music Hall Cologne 1990) (DE:gold)
• 2006: Live at the Cork Opera House (Sony-BMG)
• 2008: Rock Goes to College (DVD, Middlesex Polytechnic, January 27, 1979)
• 2010: Rory Gallagher - Ghost Blues: The Story of Rory Gallagher (Double DVD; Disc 1: “The Story of Rory Gallagher”. Disc 2: “The Beat Club Sessions 1971-72”.)
• 2011: Irish Tour '74 (BluRay)
• 2013: Rory Gallagher - Live at the Montreux Festival 1975-94, The Definitive Collection (double DVD)

Guest musician

• 1977: Joe O'Donnell - Gaodhal's Vision
• 1978: Lonnie Donegan - Puttin 'On The Style (Tracks A1, B4, B5)
• 1994: Energy Orchard - Pain Killer (Track 3)

literature

• Jean-Noel Coghe: Rory Gallagher - a Biography. The Mercier Press Ltd, 2002, ISBN 1-85635-388-5 .
• Dan Muise: Gallagher, Marriott, Deringer & Trower - Their Lives And Music. Hal Leonard Corporation, 2002, ISBN 0-634-02956-8 .
• Gerry McAvoy with Pete Chrisp: On the road. My life with Rory Gallagher and Nine Below Zero. Heel, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89880-569-8 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michael Wale: Rory Gallagher: the man from West Cork . Times March 22, 1973, p. 13
2. ↑ Tom Riepl: Stringbound - Rory Gallagher . In: Guitar & Bass . tape 11/2005 , November 2005, p. 96 ff .
3. ↑ 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Rolling Stone , December 18, 2015, accessed August 8, 2017 . 
4. ^ Udo Pipper: Classic Tone - Rory Gallagher . Column in the magazine Guitar & Bass - The Musicians' Magazine , March 2010 issue, p. 226 f. MM-Musik-Media-Verlag, Ulm, ISSN  0934-7674
5. ↑ Marian Quantity: "Soundalike Blues Rock Special - Rory Gallagher". Guitar & Bass, February 2013, pp. 189–191
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US IE
7. ↑ ^{a b c d} Music Sales Awards: UK

Web links

Commons : Rory Gallagher  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of Rory Gallagher
• Rory Gallagher in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Literature by and about Rory Gallagher in the catalog of the German National Library
• English-language fan page , contains detailed information about the equipment Gallagher uses