great Rory Gallagher and other great blues artists of that era.
While in his early teens Rory started playing with professional showbands, the latter of these, a showband called "Fontana", he moulded into a more rock/blues style group which toured under the new name of "The Impact".
In 1967 Rory went on to form "Taste", a three piece rock-blues outfit in a somewhat similar veign to other three piece outfits such as "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" and "Cream". Taste stole the massive "Isle of Wight" festival and their collective performance was met with widespread critical acclaim.
When Taste disbanded in 1970, Rory went on to pursue a very sucessful solo career, forming a close relationship with his long term bass player, Gerry McEvoy.
The Rory Gallagher band went on to record and release numerous critically acclaimed albums, my personal favourites being "Irish Tour 74","Top Priority" and "Calling Card". Such was Rorys commitment to the music he loved, not one bad album was released over the span of his musical career, which sadly ended in 1995 with his untimley death, aged 47.
His guitar playing was incredible. Whether it was blues, jazz, rock, accoustic, country, picking, folk, traditional or slide Rory had mastered them all, as anyone who has ever seen him play live will testify to. Anybody I have ever spoken to,who has seen him play live, will tell me they had never seen anything like it before or since. I was unfortunately too young to have ever seen him play.
To many people, it must be said, Rory was more than an amazing guitar player or a musician they enjoyed listening to, his music was a part of their life. His genuine appreciation of his fans and their loyalty to him in turn instilled a deep love of his music that is, unfortunately, sadly lacking in todays world of talentless divas and overpayed "artists".
