REWRITING RORY

Rewriting Rory

Shining a positive light on the later years of Rory Gallagher’s career

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Still thinking of my dear friend Steve this morning, so I thought I would share a selection of the incredible photos he took of Rory's Strat up close and personal. The Gallagher estate gave Steve permission to completely disassemble and document all of Rory's guitars, and he took literally thousands of photographs in the process. He had plans to produce his own book showcasing the interiors of these instruments, offering a unique perspective that would have complemented the excellent Gallagher's Guitars book, along with his own insights gained from his work as Bonhams lead guitar technician. Sadly, that project will never come to fruition. He was also working on a follow-up to his Famous Frets book. This one has been a long time coming (academia tends to move so slowly!), but I'm delighted to share that one of the papers from my Rory study on music keepsakes has now been published with Journal of Fandom Studies: Some wonderful photos of Rory on this day in Bad Reichenhall in 1993 courtesy of my friend Wolfgang Gürster. Several years ago, Wolfgang shared his memories of the occasion on the Rewriting Rory blog: Hope you are well. I'm here trying not to melt in this heatwave we're having! 😅 As Ballyshannon is coming up later this week, I thought I'd get the latest Rewriting Rory post out early to you all. This time, it's #4 in the One Song, Many Lives series, focusing on my own personal favourite Rory song, 'A Million Miles Away'. Link in bio, as always. On this day in 1992, Rory played the Glasgow Fleadh. His good friend Roberto Manes joined him on stage to play the violin. Rory would go on to record two songs with Manes for his Phoenician Dream album. Today is the anniversary of an interview that is very special to me: Rory's appearance on the Rocksteady program in 1990 with Dave Fanning! A wonderful clip of Rory playing I Wonder Who at the Open Air Festival in Bruchhausen-Vilsen on this day in 1986. Rory was supposed to headline this gig, but typical of his humility, when he learnt that James Brown was second on the bill, he refused top billing and offered it to James instead. According to an anecdote in Riding Shotgun, James arrived with a big entourage at the festival and the tour manager burst into Rory’s caravan and asked if James could have it instead as it was bigger than his. This was met with a glare and a “fuck off” from Dónal and that was that! On this day in 1989, Rory performed with legendary jazz musician Chris Barber at the Coventry Arts Centre, University of Warwick. Fans who attended the concert recall the curious scene: half the audience with long hair and motorcycle jackets, the other half in suits and formal dresses. The first part of the concert saw Chris and his band perform jazz and blues standards, before Rory took to the stage for his typically rollicking show. He and Chris also performed several numbers together, including ‘Can’t Be Satisfied’, which I share a clip of here from the Swindon show. Today is the anniversary of Rory's wonderful performance at Self Aid - a 1986 benefit concert organised by RTÉ producers Tony Bolan and Niall Mathews - to help Ireland's growing unemployment problem. Rory was on tour in Europe at the time, but he flew in especially from Lille to participate before flying out again the next day to resume his tour in Bremen. On this day in 1990, one of Rory’s most powerful albums – Fresh Evidence – was released. Hope you are all having a good week. The latest Rewriting Rory post has just dropped. This one came at the request of a Rewriting Rory follower, who asked for an in-depth look back at Rory's 1982 tour with Rush. Hope you enjoy it! Link in bio as usual ☺️ A day late thanks to yesterday’s Jinx celebrations, but I still didn’t want to miss marking the anniversary of Rory’s 1987 performance at the City Festival in Vienna. This is easily one of my favourite Rory gigs. It really deserves an official release, especially given how many high-quality multi-angle recordings are out there. Here’s a little clip from the encore – a ferocious take on Loanshark Blues.

Rewriting Rory
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