Today marks the 35th anniversary of Rory’s spectacular 1987 concert at the Cork Opera House. The concert was filmed for a four-part RTÉ Christmas Special, along with other concerts by Paul Brady, Johnny Logan and Freddie White, and was released on VHS in 1990 under the name Messin’ with the Kid.

Contemporary publications often describe this gig as Rory’s “comeback”, feeding into the narrative that he was on hiatus for much of the 1980s. As usual, with Rewriting Rory, we ask ourselves where did this “comeback” narrative come from? And we have found that it seems to stem mainly from the fact that Rory had not toured Ireland since 1984 (even though he had performed at Self Aid in Dublin just the year before!).

Consulting newspapers of the time, however, tells a different story and shows that Rory had never stopped working. An interview with Rory in the Irish Examiner several days before the Cork concert, for example, notes that “it’s been a non-stop couple of years for him.” They reference his extensive touring, the establishment of Capo Records and his scrapped album, which would go on to become Defender. They describe Rory as a “workaholic,” outlining his recent shows in Germany, Holland and Belgium (all “tough two-hour shows”) and his forthcoming plans to tour Britain and Ireland. When journalist Carolyn Fisher tells Rory that he could “probably do with a rest,” he agrees, but then concludes: “But if you took a yacht around the world and brought your guitar and an amp, you’d end up playing it and putting into dock to record it!”

Along with the retrospective “comeback” narrative has come the usual cliched narrative of Rory no longer being the performer that he once was simply based on the way he looked. Speaking to Dan Muise in 2002 about the concert, Gerry McAvoy claimed that “there were things [Rory] could deliver ten years previous that he couldn’t deliver that particular night” and that “Rory always wanted to think that he could still do what he was doing when he was 21.” Seeing the way that Rory tears it up with Mark on ‘When My Baby She Left Me’, holds the audience in the palm of his hand with ‘Out on the Western Plain’ and duckwalks across the stage in ‘Messin’ with the Kid’, to name but a few examples, we have to seriously question this point.

Other accounts of the concert also accentuate Rory’s appearance and state of mind rather than his actual performance. John Minhan of the London Evening Standard,who met Rory backstage before the show, states that Rory was “so glum,” which he “could not understand,” while a 2021 article in the Irish Examiner describes Rory as “older,” “more careworn,” “tired around the eyes,” “not as fiery” and having lost his “previous leanness and intensity.” When Dan Muise asked Dónal about the concert in a 2002 interview, his focus was on the “sadness in Rory’s eyes” that he noted in the footage, not the music itself. Dónal pragmatically put this down to the fact that Rory was “extremely nervous” and “emotional” about the concert being filmed and worried about putting on a good performance in his home city. As Rory himself said to the Irish Examiner, he just wanted to “do [his] best” for his fans.

Moving away from these retrospective views and going back to how the concert was received at the time, once again, a different story emerges. Producer of the show, Avril MacRory, noted how it was “amazing” to be at the Opera House and see the “pride and emotion in the crowd,” including “people in tears.” Irish musician Michael O’ Suilleabhain who was also present that evening observed how Rory’s improvisations “were constantly moving, reaching out, going somewhere, extending the potential of the instrument itself.” Similar views were shared by Q magazine following the release of the VHS in 1990: “[Rory’s] voice, light but strongly melodic, is superior to, say, Clapton’s, while his extraordinarily fluid fretwork is powerfully dramatic without resorting to flashy tricks.” They outlined how Rory treated all his guitars with “the ease and comfort of old and respected friends” and that he had “an impressive set of songs old and new.” In all testimonies of the period, attention is fully on the quality of Rory’s performance – as it should be – with no references whatsoever made to his weight gain or “sadness”. So, why should things be so different today whenever this concert comes up?

Fan Mark Gillis was also at the Opera House on 4^th November. He was just seventeen years old at the time and attended with his father, who had first introduced him to Rory and been a huge fan since the 1960s. Mark was “blown away” by the sound of the concert and went on to see Rory at Cork City Hall in 1988, Lark by the Lee in 1992 and the acoustic gig in honour of Rory’s Uncle Jimmy at Cork Institute of Technology in 1993. Mark’s father passed away in 1990 and, in a strange twist of fate, is buried in St Oliver’s Cemetery not far from Rory. Whenever Mark goes to visit his father, he stops by to say hello to Rory as well.

Despite the publicity around Rory’s gig at the Cork Opera House, there are surprisingly few photographs in existence, so I was thrilled to discover that Mark took his camera along with him and captured the whole concert for posterity. On this very special anniversary, I am delighted that he has given Rewriting Rory permission to share these previously unseen photographs with our readers. I hope you enjoy them!

Bonus Feature (updated in November 2023)

Here is an original fan account of the concert by Paul O’Sullivan, written for the Swiss fanzine Deuce back in 1987:

After almost a four year absence, Rory Gallagher and his band played again in Cork city. The Opera House is an all-seater venue and it was packed for the master’s return. The choice of venue, rather strange for Rory’s brand of music, was due to the fact that RTE, the national television station, had film crews on hand to record the entire show. Rory’s concert is one of a series to be shown on TV later this year.

The arrival of Brendan, Gerry and Rory on stage was met with rousing applause from an expectant audience. The band plugged in and we were off. The exact running order of songs escapes me now. It was a long show, some 2.5 hours, but the first of many standing ovations followed a powerhouse version of that old favourite ‘Follow Me’. The mixture of the new and the not so new in the set seemed just right. New material like ‘Road to Hell’ and ‘Don’t Start Me Talkin’ fitted in well amongst the older classics like ‘Tattoo’d Lady’ and ‘A Million Miles Away’. The passage of time seems to have lent even more magic to these latter tracks and to the way they are reproduced on stage by the band.

The Bo Diddley type cutting guitar of ‘Loanshark Blues’ chugged along nicely in contrast to the gentler tones of the equally enjoyable ‘Seven Days’. The intended harmonica interplay gave a certain jam session quality to the proceedings when mark Feltham joined in. He played some sweet sounds, which occasionally didn’t seem to quite fit in, but always he provided that extra welcome dimension to the band’s sound that we’ve come to appreciate in recent years. Throughout the performance, Rory produced those familiar hard edge sounds that we know only he can produce. This was particularly effective when ‘Off the Handle’ and ‘Brute Force and Ignorance’ were played with true venom and power. ‘Continental Op’ and ‘Seems to Me’ from the new album were also met with approval from a well pleased audience.

All in all, this for me was a concert to savour. RORY IS BACK!