In this edition of On the Road, I present a selection of fan testimonies from Rory’s summer festival appearances in 1989. As with my previous posts in this series, they are all taken from the Swiss fanzine Deuce, offering an authentic, lively account of the concerts.

Kent Custom Open Air Bike Show, 8 July 1989

At the end of June 89, I received a telex from Rory’s office with various bits of news, especially his planned festival appearances in the summer of 89. Most likely, a concert or a festival on 19 August 1989 near Hanover seemed suitable to me. But fate sometimes turns out differently than you think. A week before the two shows in southern England, I was suddenly struck by the desire: a plane ticket to London, accompanied by the guitarist of the Swiss band Container (on their first LP, Lou Martin plays keyboards on 2 songs) and a colleague, were booked at short notice. The anticipation was huge: I hadn’t seen a Rory concert since December ’87; Since I’ve been a fan of his music, I’ve never had such a long break. Could he live up to the anticipation?

The day before this concert, we met Lou Martin in a cozy pub in West London. And Lou was well informed about this festival! He told us that 3-4 bands (unknowns) would be playing and that Rory’s appearance would not be announced under Gallagher’s name, but only as a “very special guest”. This is because the 3-day biker festival was organised by the Hells Angels of Kent and the organisers didn’t want people coming to the festival just for a headliner. There was only one half-known band before Rory’s appearance, and that was the Wild Angels, friends of Lou who, among other things, played in the oldie band Downliner Sec (whose members Lou Martin had also played on recordings with).

We were therefore under the (mistaken) assumption that a maximum of 2-3,000 people were at this festival. Not even close! Already in the town closest to the festival, where we had our hotel rooms, we were informed: tens of thousands of people were apparently staying on the site. But we also viewed this prediction as an exaggeration. We were only completely surprised when we arrived at the site: there must have been between 30-50,000 people there, 99% of them just bikers, huge numbers of club members from the Hells Angels and other rocker gangs and completely ‘normal’ bikers without club membership.

Shortly after midnight, when the last band before the headliner played their final song, the tension increased immeasurably. At this point the organisers still hadn’t let the cat out of the bag and said Rory would play here. But then the time had come: Rory was announced as “probably the most ideal musician to be the highlight of a biker festival.” Huge applause from the audience, although that was probably more because of the various attractions and bands that had come before, as well as the alcohol.

For me, it was an experience to see Rory live for the first time in such an atmosphere and after more than 1.5 years. He played a lot of his favourite songs, but there wasn’t anything new. As the third or fourth song he played a new – fantastic – blues, which turned out not to be a new piece, but an old Muddy Waters piece. Otherwise, Rory’s set was of a good standard, but it didn’t break any major chords. There were no big moments of surprise, probably also because the audience was probably too tired at this (almost) time in the morning to encourage Rory and his band to do special performances. The set was routine, but it was definitely one of the most memorable Rory gigs that I have seen.

And I think the band also seemed more tired. Evidence of this feeling was certainly the unusually short performance (1.5 hours) and the fact that Rory picked up the electric guitar again after just one acoustic song (‘Out on the Western Plain’) and a single encore. In short: the performance wasn’t spectacular, but the whole atmosphere made it a lasting memory.

After the performance, I had the opportunity to chat briefly with Rory in his dressing room. Rory seemed exhausted and was looking forward to his hotel bed.

Folkestone Jazz and Blues Festival, 9 July 1989

The follow-up concert was not difficult to reach: only about 20 kilometres from Lydd is Folkestone, an English seaside resort. Rory played there last autumn on his English tour and apparently the organisers were so excited about his gig that they booked him for this year’s summer Jazz and Blues Festival. The Jazz and Blues Festival is an event that runs throughout the month of July and brings in no more than a maximum of two groups per evening. Among others, bands like Steve Marriott and the indestructible Blue Band were hired, but the main players were jazz stars like Dizzy Gillespie, Chris Barber, etc. The major concerts each took place in the really beautiful Leas Cliff Hall, which can accommodate an estimated 2,000 people when it is sold out.

And this evening was supposed to be something very special: Mike Hirsh (drummer of the Mick Clarke Band) and Mick Clarke himself with his girlfriend also came down from London. Mick Clarke, himself a legend of the English blues rock scene, saw Rory live for the first time in over 11 years. And last but not least, Lou Martin was there, who – listen and be amazed and hardly believe it! – Rory was playing live with for the first time since his split in 1978. That’s 11 years!!!

But first Clarke and girlfriend Linda, Mike Hirsh, Lou Martin, Container guitarist Manu Bosch and yours truly met in a bar near the hall. A short time later, Gerry McAvoy, Brendan O’Neill, Mark Feltham and one of Rory’s technicians also showed up at the same bar. There was a lot to tell, the guys from the Rory Gallagher and Mick Clarke Band have been friends for many years (Mark Feltham also played on 2 LPs from the Mick Clarke Band – Rock Me and All These Blues). Shortly before 9 p.m. they parted ways (of necessity): Gerry, Brendan, Mark into the cloakroom, the rest into the hall. And in the hall, my joy increased even more, a top concert was to be expected, because there were not only local fans gathered, but from all areas of England, a few French people, Mark Nouve and Ronnie De Craemer and their wives had come from Belgium as well as our Swiss friends. Before the concert, it was already clear: this night was Rory’s night!

After 9 p.m. they came… and wow! They started with ‘The Loop’ and everyone was already standing. What followed ‘The Loop’ was a unique potpourri of Rory’s work from 1972 to the present. It would be unfair to single out individual songs, it just sounded incredibly compact. There was hardly any climax that allowed one to take a breather, and the next one followed with certainty barely a moment later. The moments of surprise that were neglected the evening before simply didn’t seem to end here. In fact, the performance was so exciting that I can hardly remember any details! Rory also gave his band much more freedom than in Lydd, a gesture that allowed his band members to triumph solo several times. The gig not only differed significantly in terms of the joy of playing; there were also several mutations in the individual songs. In the meantime, Rory has such a wealth of classics that the band has absolutely no trouble simply changing 5-6 numbers every evening. The joy of playing and improvising was unique, a lot of things degenerated into pure jam sessions and yet everything sounded like one piece. The highlight for me was the instrumental song that arose from his jam and sounded as if it had been played every evening for two decades. I’ve never heard the band play this song live, but it sounded almost eerie. Unfortunately, I still don’t know what song it was. Lou Martin said after the gig that he thought this song could be found on the Junior Wells/Buddy Guy album Hoodoo Man. Blues connoisseur Lou was wrong for once, because I listened to this LP at home and couldn’t find it. In my opinion, the style was more jazz rock than Chicago rock. ‘Messin’ with the Kid’ with a brilliant ending and ‘Bullfrog Blues’ with an unusual beginning unfortunately ended an unusual concert all too early, even though the band stuck to their normal playing time of over 2 hours at this concert!

After the concert it was time to sit comfortably together: the two guitar greats/legends – who have been satisfying their fans with records and live concerts for over 20 years – Rory Gallagher and Mick Clarke warmly greeted each other as old acquaintances. And Rory was particularly pleased that his long-time right-hand man Lou Martin found the right door to a live Rory concert for the first time in more than a decade. It was not for nothing that Rory greeted these people during the concert – after the fourth or fifth number: “We have some good friends here. Lou Martin, Mister Mick Clarke, some fans from Belgium and all the way from Switzerland, Markus.” It may sound “childish” but for me the mention of my name was really a high! After the concert, Rory was in a happy state that I had rarely seen him in before. Of course, there was some technical talk with Clarke about amps and guitars, then he had a lot of jokes about fellow musicians and was really happy about the first LP by the Swiss band Container, on which Lou Martin is featured. Manuel Bosch, guitarist and head of Container, was in seventh heaven when Rory studied the liner notes and read out a song title – ‘Mina Zeba Isch Im Elm’ (Mein Zeh ist im Eimer) (Container sings in Swiss dialect). Being at an idol’s concert for the first time and getting to know him straight away is beyond some people’s imagination. What followed – alongside more jokes from Rory and tour episodes from the time with the Lou Martin cast – was the inevitable farewell. The whole thing only had one tiny downer: a live session with Mick Clarke would have been the absolute crowning glory. To my knowledge, such a session has only been played in front of an audience once: in 1978 or 79, Rory spontaneously got on stage for a jam at a Ramod gig (then the band of Mick Clarke/Lou Martin/Rod De’Ath etc.). A continuation of this would be desirable. At least for me it would be the absolute experience to see my two favourite guitarists on stage together.

The final word on this concert is left to Mick Clarke, a person and musician whom I deeply respect: “The last time I saw Rory was in 1978 in the line-up with Lou Martin, Rod De’Ath, Gerry McAvoy. I didn’t think it was possible, but Rory and his band have gotten even better. It’s the best concert I’ve seen in a long, long time.”

Markus Gygax