Rory Gallagher – The Stratocaster Incarnate

Sunday 5 August, frontstage at Festivalcatraz/Zonhoven. Next to me stands a blonde vamp trying hard to remain indifferent. “Honeymoonkillers Guest” is written on her pass. Behind us, a raging crowd. On stage: Rory Gallagher. 1984? It could just as well have been 1968. The guitar, the AC30 amplifier and the hard-blues repertoire are the same. Even Rory himself seems just as young and energetic as he was back then, and I find myself wondering how old the man actually is. “Something in my mid-thirties,” he says, and the same goes for his entourage. While he pours himself a generous whisky, we chat a little about his fondness for combo amplifiers. “An amplifier with more than two speakers is no good,” he states. But guitar freaks are not going to be spoiled this time. For once, we are dealing with a true musician.

Backstage: The last time I saw you, you were sitting a row in front of me acting hysterically at a Shadows concert…

Rory Gallagher: Oh yes, of course. It was the first time I had seen them perform and, together with The Ventures, they were my great teenage idols. During their glory days, they never came to Ireland and I was able to fill that gap in my cultural education in Antwerp about four years ago. A fantastic performance, by the way.

Backstage: What has happened in the meantime?

Rory Gallagher: A few hundred thousand concerts. In ‘82 we made an album called Jinx and a live album Stage Struck. Last year we toured America with Rush. Not that I enjoyed playing all those monster venues as the opening act for a heavy metal act [sic], but you do reach many people that way. Now a new album is almost finished. Title still unknown, but it should be released in October. Besides that, various sessions… [including on the Box of Frogs album, see LP review, ed.). So, I’ve been busy.

Backstage: Do you still have a contract with Chrysalis?

Rory Gallagher: Our record contract ended after six albums and the question is whether we continue, or move to another company. Not that I’m unhappy with Chrysalis, but perhaps after all these years it might be worthwhile to look around a bit further.

Backstage: Someone once said: “A guitar is not an instrument, it’s a way of life”…

Rory Gallagher: (looks with a loving gaze at the most battered Stratocaster I have ever had the privilege of seeing)

Stratocaster: “My fortune for a drop of paint” (Or am I imagining it? That whisky again…)

Rory Gallagher: A guitar means “life on the road” to me. Playing with friends, meeting people… Being a musician is not a job; it really is a way of looking at life. With all the consequences that brings. You can go completely crazy with it or choose a quiet life. But if you play our kind of music, the choices are limited. I mean, either you’re completely round the bend like Keith Richards, or you’re slightly crazy like me. Unfortunately, many modern pop stars approach the musician’s life like an office job. Video, image, computers… obviously none of that helps.

Backstage: Am I detecting a bitter undertone here?

Rory Gallagher: You can’t simply write off modern developments. Video is interesting as long as the music is good, and many modern trends are interesting enough to follow, but I don’t believe in machines replacing a drummer. I also hate all that computer-controlled stuff…

Backstage: Such as guitar synthesizers?

Rory Gallagher: Guitar synthesizers are OK because you still need a certain amount of technique. It only broadens your range of sounds. But programmed keyboards make me suspicious. It’s like: “1984: Big Brother playing the keyboard!” No, I would much rather see a bad rock band sweating on stage a hundred times over than a sterile electronic concert by a bunch of techno-poppers. A cold chicken that has nothing left to do with my idea of music.

Backstage: Have you ever lost sleep over a place in the charts?

Rory Gallagher: Can you imagine me miming a song on Top of the Pops? My problem is — and it probably has something to do with my Irish blood — that I’m against the system. How can you talk about having a hit when your heroes are Muddy Waters, Big Bill Broonzy or the likes of Leadbelly? They were screwed over by the system. I have every respect for good musicians like Dave Edmunds or Costello, who regularly produce a hit. In one way or another, they still manage to maintain an acceptable degree of integrity. But the perfect situation is to achieve complete independence and still score a hit, and that is extremely rare.

Backstage: Van Morrison, perhaps?

Rory Gallagher: Yes, a good example. Van Morrison is synonymous with respect. A figurehead. But when I see Frankie Goes to Hollywood sitting at number one and two, I don’t feel well.

Backstage: Yet festival stages and the charts are once again being overrun by old-timers. Do you notice anything of this revival?

Rory Gallagher: Fortunately, yes. The post-punk/new-wave generation is getting tired of bands with one finger on the keyboard. And the British press is now turning with the wind. For years they had written us, blues/rock musicians, into the forgotten corner because we were too old and, above all, not trendy enough. But at the moment everyone is being dragged out again for interviews, sessions and recording work. I personally have never had to complain about a lack of work, because you always remain a retain a certain following, but that change in attitude among the media is truly remarkable.

Backstage: And I suppose that’s something you’ll be worrying about too, right?

Rory Gallagher: Oh, it’s not my business. Press criticism means little to me. I only hope for a little bit of respect from the media, because I don’t believe in one song, one album, one concert. A career — or call it lasting credibility — is my only ambition. And I don’t believe that, like many others, I’ve already been written off. Actually, I’m a Celtic existentialist, if you understand what I mean.

Backstage: No?

Rory Gallagher: You simply exist, with your whole background, and you do exactly what you feel is right. Instinctively, without rules or restrictions. A typically European attitude. Never try to plan everything out or force things to go your way. Just exist and do it.

Backstage: Perhaps the only right mentality for surviving in this miserable little pop world?

Rory Gallagher: It really is a rotten little world, but I’ll never lie on my pillow crying about it. Every musician gets a knife between the shoulder blades at some point, but the business isn’t for the faint-hearted. You have to be able to fight back.

Backstage: Any advice for our young ambitious reader?

Rory Gallagher: No idea. If you want to become a musician: do it, just do it. Learn from the greats and try to find your own style. Apart from Django Reinhardt, nobody has ever been born with their own style. But I still feel too inexperienced to give advice. I still have too much to learn to achieve what I have in the back of my mind.

Backstage: We asked Dave Edmunds this earlier and you can’t escape it either: Can a white man play the blues?

Rory Gallagher: (laughs) What a racist rotten question… no, and in a certain sense, yes. Some white artists such as Mike Bloomfield and John Hammond have the true feeling for the blues and live accordingly. While some Black blues musicians really play it for a living and, in fact, would much rather be Michael Jackson. They are just as “pop” as anyone else. No, I don’t think music has anything to do with race or skin colour.

Backstage: Personally, I always find your live albums considerably better than your studio recordings. Don’t you feel so comfortable in a studio environment?

Rory Gallagher: I do, but there too I have trouble with the system. And producers especially are unbearable. People always expect too much from studio technology. Still, there are a number of recordings that are quite bearable, although you may be right that there is somewhat more energy in the live versions. But wait for the new album. That’s all I can say about it.