On 16 October 1994, Rory played the Olympia concert hall in Paris for the final time. This was the very same venue where he had debuted his new band with Gerry McAvoy and Wilgar Campbell back in March 1971. Over the course of his career, Rory played in Paris over 30 times. Indeed, his final concert in France was at the capital’s Le Plan club in the suburb of Ris-Orangie in December 1994. Following Rory’s death, the owners of the club asked their local representatives to have a street named after him. Almost a year later in November 1995, the local mayor unveiled the newly named ‘Rue Rory Gallagher’ at a ceremony attended by Rory’s mother Mona, brother Donal and many fans.

Going back to Rory’s October 1994 Paris gig, it is said to be the last concert footage of him, taken from the audience yet very high quality for a bootleg. Due to the kindness of a fellow Rory fan, I was able to obtain a copy of this footage recently, for which I am extremely grateful. We had seen footage of ‘Bullfrog Blues’ and ‘Tattoo’d Lady’ on YouTube before, but to finally see the whole concert after many years was a real dream come true. With the fan’s permission, I have now uploaded the full concert to the Rewriting Rory YouTube channel and share the video here below for your enjoyment. To my knowledge, this is the first time that the whole concert has been put up online. As you’ll see, Rory is on fine form, delivering a powerful set with so many highlights from ‘I Wonder Who’ and ‘Out on the Western Plain’ to ‘Off the Handle’ and ‘When My Baby She Left Me’.

I hope you enjoy it!