RORY GALLAGHER :: Alive in '75 - Record Plant, Sausalito CA 31/10/1975 - Hear Rock City

Rory in his prime

(here with his 1932 National Triolian Resonator)

 

A lifelong fan of Rory Gallagher from Taste onwards until his untimely death at 47 from liver disease caused by his alcoholism, we adored his style of playing and the no nonsense paired back deceptively simple blues style that set the standard for all particularly British blues guitar playing and his song research and singing too. He had it all.

This is really worth having and while it says a grab from FM broadcast it plays quite 'hot' to these ears but a quick twiddle with your equaliser and it sounds great and is highly enjoyable. So many boots of Rory live are almost unlistenable

Rory Gallagher - Can't You See The Shape I'm In - live 1975 - Hear Rock City

Rory is on record as having said his guitar, his beloved 1961 Stratocaster, lost all 'her' (guitars like cars and vehicles and ships are always female!?) varnish because he sweated so much in the clubs and venues he played. The wood would get so wet from his playing he had to hang it, sometimes just the neck, for days at a time for her to dry out! (see article below*)

He also said:

Rory Gallagher: People look at my guitar and think that I must treat it badly. I admit I used to throw it about a bit in the early days, but it's really just that I use it so much that over the years the paint has gone, one little chip at a time. I don't see guitars as things to be left in glass cases. I love all great guitars, but they have to be used and I can get a kick out of a $15 Silvertone too. It's not meanness, it's just that any guitar over x-hundred dollars just becomes a status symbol. Then again, I grew up in a time when I remember Telecasters and Strats being about $250 to $350, whatever.

'I hate using your one-line clichés, but this guitar is part of my psychic make-up. I've had troubles with it, but I'm fortunate enough. It's like B.B. King has a hundred Lucilles, I've only got one Strat. I don't even call it a woman's name or whatever.  It's just, from where I came from, to own a Stratocaster was like monumental -it was impossible.

interview done by Ray Minhinnett 

photographed by ©Barrie Wentzell at Advision Studios during the recording of his eponymous debut album in 1971.

*The 61 Strat - Rory.com

He owned and played other guitars too . . . if only to give his Stratocaster a rest!?

(here with his 1966 Telecaster)

Rory Gallagher Montreux 1975-1985 (for Scottish Folkie because I couldn't find the OGWT gig he mentioned and this is great too! )