As promised, here’s part two of my interview with Mark Ratcliffe. If you haven’t yet read part one, you can catch up here.

Then in 1990, came Fresh Evidence.

Yeah, he did a short tour. I went to Nottingham Rock City and Manchester. That’s the same bits that we got off the All Around Man album. That Rock City gig was barnstorming. They were absolutely on fire. Rory saw me and waved to me, but I was getting a lift back so I couldn’t stay. I just figured we’d catch up next time, but a next time never materialised.

Then 1991 goes into 1992 and we see this ad for Rory opening the Town & Country Club in Leeds, so we get a ticket. We turned up and a guy called Mick Butler, a massive Rory fan, came over and said, ‘Do you know what happened last night in London?’ I said, ‘No, I’ve got no idea’, so he told me and alarm bells started ringing a little bit, but I didn’t think too much about it. So, Dr Feelgood come on first and then Rory came on. We didn’t realise that Gerry and Brendan had left at the time, so I’m looking and thinking, ‘Who are these here?’ Then a guy comes on with a violin and I’m thinking, ‘What’s this?’ Anyway, I looked at Rory and he was unshaven and I thought, ‘You don’t look well’. Obviously, I didn’t know the full story then. I’ll be honest with you, I was really disappointed with the gig. The sound was shocking, but funnily enough, when I’ve listened to the bootleg, it sounds better now than it did at the time. Now, I can appreciate it when you think what had gone on the night before. It’s amazing he didn’t just cancel, but that’s the sort of guy he was. And I’ll regret to my dying day that I never went backstage that night. I wish I had because that was the last time I ever saw him and it was very sad that was my last experience, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. At the time, I just thought, ‘He’s not well, but there’ll be a next time’. The next time never came, unfortunately.

So, what happened over the next few years?

1993, 1994, by now, a friend of mine could get on this World Wide Web and printed me some stuff, so I had a bit of news about Rory, but nothing major was happening. He was still playing some festivals in Europe, so I didn’t twig anything was wrong. Then in 1995, I found out he was unwell. I can’t remember how I found that out. But then you just get on with life and carry on doing what you’re doing. But on the day that he died, I remember it was my mum that told me. I went to her house and she went, ‘Have you heard about Rory?’ I said, ‘No’. She said, ‘You better sit down’. I just knew what she was going to say. She said it had been on the radio. I was in a total state of shock. A little bit of denial. But then it was really strange – I couldn’t listen to his music for ages. I couldn’t go to the funeral because it was done and dusted before I even had the chance, but then everything dawns on you. I bought the Hot Press tribute edition and Dónal also sent me a brand-new copy through the post.

Then in November, there was the memorial service at Brompton. A friend I got to know at the Irish Centre said to me, ‘Let’s go if you want’. So, we set off at silly o’clock in the morning for London. I remember we didn’t know where to park, so we literally left the car anywhere! So, we go in and see Dónal at the door and he waved to me. I went over and had a word with him and Tom was handing out the service booklets and the CD. Then after, Dónal says, ‘We’re off to the Irish Club if you want to come’. I had to get back and I regret that as well. So, Dónal says, ‘Well, there’s somebody I want you to meet’ and he introduced me to Monica, Rory’s mum. She says, ‘Where have you come from?’ and I told her and she was so surprised that we’d come all that way. I said, ‘It’s the least I could do. I would have walked it if I had to’. We got chatting and she signed my memorial booklet and thanked me for coming.

You’re making me emotional. So, what happened in the years that followed?

Well, there were a few tribute nights in Manchester with Barry Barnes from Sinnerboy, who is still a good friend of mine. This was long before Ballyshannon. So, I started going every year and one year, Tom turned up with the Strat. Dino McGartland came over for that. We’d become friends many years before through a pen pal thing in Sounds. Simon Loxham too, another Rory friend. Then I just kept going to a lot of tribute gigs. Jed Thomas, Sinnerboy… I even flew to Dublin one night to see Sinnerboy and came back the next day. Around this time, I also got friendly with Rob Phaneuf in America and we started writing letters and exchanging things. I got some great stuff from Rory’s ’91 tour, which I’d never heard before, and I just couldn’t believe it. I nearly fell over, he is brilliant. Playing as good as he ever did.

Exactly. Again, that’s why the whole Rewriting Rory project was set up because it annoyed me so much to see negative comments and you think, ‘Have you actually listened to Rory in 1991?’ Just listen to that tour and you can’t dispute the quality.

Definitely. To me, that was as good as anything he ever did. I’ve got a lot of good stuff from the festivals in ’94 too. That French one at Lorient. And the one with the opening bars to ‘What’s Going On’. I nearly fell over for a split second when I heard that. I thought he was going to do it.

Yeah, just that little tease.

I’ve had a few issues in my life, but there’s one thing that’s never let me down and that’s music. It just helps me take myself away from all the crap that’s going on. Rory has never let me down [pauses] I’m getting emotional now.

No, I understand. It’s been very similar for me. I’ve had some hard times, but Rory has always been there and got me through.

Yeah, I was with someone from 1990 to 2005, but that went belly up and I’d gone back to my mum and dad’s at that time, but music got me through. I went Quo mad again then. I’m an old Quo fan, if you get my drift. I saw them five or six times with the original line-up and then it all went pear-shaped and I didn’t want any part of it. It just did nothing for me. But then in 2001, I ended up going to see them again. I’d had too much to drink and had agreed to see them with a friend. So, on the day, I thought, ‘I’m not going to enjoy this. This is not proper Quo’, but they played the old stuff and I thought, ‘Hang on a minute. This sounds really good. I’ve probably wasted 15 years of my life not going!’ So, I saw them again and again and then just started going everywhere to see them.

But why I’m telling you this is because Rory never ever went away at all. I kept going to tribute gigs and there was a guy, Steve, I was working with at the time who was a drummer in a band and he said, ‘One of my friends has split up from her husband and she’s a Rory fan’… Anyway, to cut a long story short, Steve invited me to see his band in Wakefield and she was there. It was pouring down with rain and I was in two minds whether to go, but I did and they introduced me to her and that was that. We’ve been together for 19 years now. So, in a way, that was thanks to Rory too. She’s a bit older than me, so bought On the Boards when it came out. She said she really fancied Rory with his long hair at the time. I said, ‘You might have an original copy of On the Boards, but I’ve got mine signed’ [laughs]. She had been around music all her life too, so she was happy to go off with me and see Quo too and got to know all my friends. We got married in 2011 and had a Rory-Quo-themed wedding. We had a cake with two Quo cross guitars and we had a Top Priority table and a Jinx table and a couple of Quo ones. Her son is a successful DJ, Jack Sparrow. It’s not my type of music, but he’s played all over the world.

Amazing. So, was there anything else you wanted to share before we wrap up?

Yeah, there are a few other little bits. In August 2005, I’d just split up from my partner and I thought, ‘Right, I’m going to Cork for four days’. The first time in my life I’d been on a plane. Started off badly as I picked up someone else’s case at the airport by mistake. The first thing that came to my mind was, ‘Oh no. All my Rory t-shirts are in my case and they’ve gone!’ But luckily, I managed to get them back because I’d put the address where I was staying on the case. Anyway, on Monday, I went to Blarney Castle and when I came back, I went for a beer and bought a newspaper. So, I’m reading away and then my eyes nearly fell out as I read that Rory’s mum had just passed away. So, my mind started going into overdrive. I read that they were taking Monica from the funeral place to the church, as Catholics do, and I thought, ‘I’m gonna go’. So, I bought a map – I don’t know why I didn’t get a taxi! – and I start walking up this hill. About one hour and four miles later, I get there and see Marcus Connaughton. I’d met him a few times before, so he sees me in my tracksuit bottoms, Rory shirt and denim jacket and he’s there in a suit and tie! And he looks at me and says, ‘What are you doing here?’ So, the next thing, Dónal must have heard him. ‘Mark, what are you doing here!?’ So, I explained and he says, ‘Come with me. We’re off to the church’.

So, we head off to the church and then have a drink in the pub and then Dónal goes, ‘I want to introduce you to someone’ and it was Eric Kitteringham and his sister Pat! I’m thinking to myself, ‘Is this really happening!?’ So, I get in a round and we have some beers, then Dónal says, ‘Where are you staying?’ I tell him Jury’s, which by chance is where they went after Rory’s funeral, and he says, ‘What? You walked up here!’ So, he said, I’ll send a car for you to pick you up for the funeral tomorrow. Unfortunately, I was flying back home, so I told him I couldn’t come. I probably should have just gone ahead and stayed, to be honest. But anyway, he asks me how I’m planning to get back to Jury’s and I say I have no idea. Then, Eric goes, ‘We’ll drop him off’. So, I get in the car with Eric and Pat and I’m sat there thinking, ‘What is going on!?’ So, they came into the hotel with me and we had a coffee and got chatting. Pat was big friends with Rory and told me she had letters and postcards from him. ‘The next time you come to Cork, give me a ring and you can come round and see them’. Unfortunately, it never materialised because she died shortly after and then Eric died as well. But the chances of me being in Cork when Monica… there’s so many coincidences like that with Rory.

Then in 2006, I went to see Sinnerboy when they unveiled the plaque at Ulster Hall. Saw Barry McGivern too and Dónal, who invited me back to his hotel for a drink. Six hours later and I had to crawl out of there on my hands and knees! [laughs] He wouldn’t let me go. Just kept bringing Guinness after Guinness. What a night. Just a few of us with Dónal and he told me exactly what had happened that night in London. I would never repeat what he said to me because he told me in confidence. But every time I see stuff that people write, I want to put the record straight but I can’t.

I have a lot to thank Rory for. Not just the music but the way he’s changed my life. He’s affected how I’ve tried to live my life. I’ve tried to instil his values into myself. He’s become a part of me. I’ve met so many people through his music, including my wife. I’ve got a friend who is guitarist in Wishbone Ash and I went to Berlin to see him last year and I saw him in Wolverhampton a few years before that. Anyway, I’m stood at the bar and I look over and see this guy at the table and it’s KK Downing from Judas Priest. It turned out he owned the place they were playing. Anyway, we got talking and he invited me to sit down at his table. We got chatting about Rory and he talked about seeing Taste in Birmingham in 1969. ‘It totally blew my brains out. I’ve never seen anyone like it again’, he said. He ended up giving me a lift, showing me around the club and we watched the gig from the mixing desk together. Then we went back to the hotel and we ended up sitting up all night talking. The guys from Wishbone Ash were there too and Andy Powell talked about supporting Taste at Newcastle City Hall. So, it’s just little things like that through Rory… it’s like a jigsaw puzzle. Putting bits into it and it all becomes bigger.

Before you go, is that a Rory tattoo I can see on your arm?

Yeah. Yeah. His signature with ‘Top Priority’. I’ve got this Quo one as well. And a Rory one on my leg, ‘Fresh Evidence’.

Nice!

I’ve got so much Rory stuff in my house, but a lot of it is in boxes and I’ve never gone through it. I know from the Jinx tour, I made notes every night he played, every song. That’s somewhere upstairs.

Oh, one final thing. I’ve been to see Band of Friends five or six times. Obviously, I know Gerry really well, and the last time I went to see him was in Derby two or three years ago. He saw me and shouted my name. We had a few beers and got chatting. He said, ‘I’ve always wanted to ask you how you got into Rory’, so I told him about ‘Wayward Child’. He went, ‘Right, we’ll open with that tonight for you’. I was stood up front and he kept true to his word. Then they played in Leeds, but I couldn’t go because I was quite ill at the time and he messaged me because he wanted to know why I wasn’t there. It was thoughtful. But they’re playing again in September, so I’ve already messaged him to say I’ll be there and we can catch up. As Gerry always says, ‘I might not see you for years, but I know you’ll turn up somewhere sometime’.

Aww that’s really lovely. Thank you so much for your time, Mark. That was amazing to hear everything.