REWRITING RORY
WELCOME!
I’m Lauren Alex O’Hagan, a Research Fellow at The Open University/Örebro University and a Rory Gallagher devotee.
Back in November 2021, I co-founded Rewriting Rory with my friend, Rayne Morales, with the aim of shining a positive light on the final decade of the career of Irish blues-rock legend, Rory Gallagher.
The blog project culminated in the publication of Rory Gallagher: The Later Years in October 2024 with WP Wymer – a book based on three years of extensive research, over 200 interviews and visits to archives across 15 countries.
While Rayne has since moved on to new ventures, I continue to run this website and manage the Rewriting Rory social media accounts, dedicated to celebrating Rory’s enduring legacy and connecting with fellow enthusiasts around the world.
Thank you for visiting – I hope you enjoy exploring the site and discovering more about Rory’s incredible story!
You can read more about my own personal story here.
Email: rewritingrory@gmail.com
RORY ❤️
Rory Gallagher (1948-1995) was an Irish blues-rock musician, singer, and songwriter known for his virtuoso guitar playing and electrifying live performances. Over a career spanning three decades, he pioneered the blues across the globe, performing more than 2,000 concerts, most notably in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Known for his dedicated and hard-working attitude, Rory actively shunned the trappings of the decadent rockstar and maintained an authentic, no sell-out image. To date, he has sold over 30 million records worldwide.
ABOUT THE WEBSITE
Rewriting Rory was founded in 2021 out of a deep frustration with how Rory’s career had been portrayed to date. I was tired of the overwhelming focus on his success in the 1970s in publications, with his health decline in the 1980s/1990s too often framed as a musical decline. I was also fed up with the many insensitive or inaccurate comments that I often encountered on social media about Rory during this period of his life, which seemed to ignore the complexity of his struggles.
Rewriting Rory set about to change this clichéd ‘rise and fall’ narrative by drawing attention to the overlooked final decade of Rory’s career (1985-1995), highlighting his later performances and music, dispelling myths and offering a more balanced perspective on his continued achievements. Ultimately, it aimed to recognise his enduring creativity and demonstrate all that he continued to accomplish in the face of many personal and professional struggles.
When I first set up the website with Rayne, we produced monthly blog posts, which can now be found in the Archive section. While I still write regular blog posts, my primary work on Rory has now shifted to the academic sphere, where I am fortunate to make a living conducting Rory-related research projects at my university, which have resulted in publications in peer-review journals and conference presentations. See Academic Work for more on this.
THE LOGO
The Rewriting Rory logo was designed by Erik Plaku, an Albanian physics student, artist and guitar player (thanks to Rory!). He used the symbolism of a Fender Stratocaster’s headstock, my own handwriting and Rory’s proud Irish heritage in order to encapsulate both the narrative of Rory’s life and this project.
ADMIN SUPPORT
Since November 2024, Amelie Scheidt has been serving as the administrative assistant for Rewriting Rory. A Rory Gallagher fan since 2019, she has followed the blog from its inception, appreciating its focus on shedding a positive light on Rory’s final decade. Amelie first connected with and became friends with me in summer 2022 through our shared interest and love for Rory, before embarking on a gap year in West Ireland. After finishing her year abroad, Amelie returned to Germany to pursue studies in musicology and music management. While she continues studying music management, she later changed her musicology course to communication studies.
.
COPYRIGHT
This website and its content is copyright of Lauren Alex O’Hagan [2021]. All rights reserved. Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited other than the following:
– you may print or download to a local hard disk extracts for your personal and non-commercial use only
– you may copy the content to individual third parties for their personal use, but only if you acknowledge the website as the source of the material
You may not, except with my express written permission, distribute or commercially exploit the content. Nor may you transmit it or store it in any other website or other form of electronic retrieval system.
REWRITING RORY 