Marlène Rivet (Lausanne, Switzerland)

Translated from French by Lauren

It was in Lausanne, Switzerland, my hometown, that I saw Rory in concert for the first time in January 1970, 2 nights in a row, when he was playing with the group Taste in a small club in the basement of a Lausanne hotel called Electric Circus.  The 1994 concert in Montreux was the last concert I attended. I was able to see about twenty concerts of Taste and Rory, in Switzerland, in England, in France and in Germany.

[What I like most about Rory’s music] is especially the way he feels his music on stage and his choice of repertoire, whether it’s his compositions or his covers. If I really have to choose [a favourite album], I would say: The Irish Tour album, Live in Europe and his very first album Deuce. I also really enjoyed his Taste period!

I met Rory several times and after a few concerts. I was a member and invested in the Swiss fan club, founded by Markus Gygax RIP and I sometimes contributed to it by writing a few articles. I even went several times to the offices of Donal, Rory’s brother, between 1985 and 1990 approximately for small interviews with Donal and to send him various articles and other bootlegs and some small articles appeared in the magazine of the fan club “Deuce” of which I kept most of the copies. Thanks to all this, we received a greeting card signed by Rory for our wedding in 1986 🙂 I also want to add that I met my husband who was a French member of the fan club and it was also thanks to Rory that we met and finally got married 😉

I was able to meet Rory about 6 and 7 times, in Lausanne, Montreux, in Germany, and in German-speaking Switzerland. After a concert, in Zurich or Basel, we were backstage with Markus Gygax and Rory had hurt his finger during his concert. He was extremely embarrassed and came over us to show us his injury and to apologize for it. He was always very, very polite to his fans. During one of his concerts at the Town and Country Club in London, we had been invited by Donal to come backstage after the concert. Unfortunately, Rory was unwell after a glass of alcohol reacted with his medication. It was a disaster on stage and Donal had to stop the concert 😪

Otherwise we have a lot of documents, press articles, concert tickets, posters, bootlegs that we have kept since the 80s. Donal was able to look at a good part of the stuff that we had brought with us from Switzerland. The last time we visited Donal’s office in London was on September 11, 2001, a sad date for the attacks in New York and it had just happened. We watched it on the office television and then we went with Donald and Tom to a big pub in the neighborhood where Gerry McAvoy and Mark Feltham joined us. I have seen Donal once since then in 2017 at Ballyshannon.

Pete Wood (Nottingham, England)

“I got to around 50 Rory gigs, first being Plumpton Festival with Taste three weeks before the Isle of Wight (also at!). As for post-85 era, they are from memory now Nottingham Rock City 80-90, Hummingbird Birmingham 87 Defender tour, one when he was ill in 1992 at opening of Leeds Town and Country Club. My last gig was 93 at Portsmouth International Blues Festival. He headlined Friday night in a circus tent for weather reasons. It POURED! My final sad memory at Portsmouth and last view of Rory was his back – he was walking out into the car park with Dónal or the tour manager patting him on the back. He was telling Rory how great he was, well done, great show. I had a stinking cold but the beauty and adrenaline rush of seeing this great guy and hearing his music got me through feeling ill. Staggeringly sad for me that last memory. Never thought I would never see him again. The fact that it was post-85 Rory meant nothing to me. He was still an exceptional guitarist and I will never forget him until I move on and meet him hopefully?

Some more memories!

I remember one Defender era gig at Birmingham, UK. I got there early trying to get into the sound check. I failed. But at sound check time, Donal’s Jensen classic, very fast car, was sprawled across the pavement, right across the pavement of the venue, the Great Hall of this class red brick great university. ‘I don’t want a Jensen, I don’t want an MG BTT!’

In 1988 Roy Orbison had just died. I got to two gigs a few days apart. One was Nottingham Rock City – a great venue that Rory liked a lot. The other gig, 70 miles away, was at Wolverhampton UK. At one gig Rory introduced Gerry McAvoy, showing his humour he played Pretty Woman, jokingly suggesting he was a woman! However, the second gig came after Rory had died. Rory sensitively stopped the intro on Gerry, the playing of Pretty Woman. It shows the great character of this great guy, writer, musician and entertainer. A lovely example of a human being at its very best.”