The resounding calls from the crowd for the singular “Rory!” demonstrate how way back before Madonna, Prince and our current wave of pop-tweakers got given lines for being late to school, Rory Gallagher was a star in ascendancy.
This is 1977, the nihilistic high-end era of punk; in reality a handful of great singles promoted by a London-centric weekly music press while the likes of Thin Lizzy and UFO were doing major business filling your Odeons and town halls, and Rory was busy being the people’s hero.
His latest album Calling Card is out and he’s promoting it – It sounds like the audience has already bought it, but these were the times when you’d be queuing outside your local record shop on a record’s day of release so that’s no major surprise. The shape and form those songs took might be another matter, likely as not extended, the form developed, going off at tangents as the moment took him and his nimble fingers, and his band followed like chosen warriors.
Here through a series of selected shows recorded at Brighton, Sheffield, Newcastle, and London’s Hammersmith Odeon we get what was possibly the running order for most of those shows played out over two CDs. However, you can bet your bottom dollar not one performance was ever played the same.
Live! In Europe, Irish Tour 74 and latterly Stage Struck all came out while Rory Gallagher was with us, and they’d been preceded by Live Taste featuring his former band. This was a time when live albums weren’t just contract fillers and cash-ins. They were a testament of who you were and what you stood for at that particularly moment in time. Rory Gallagher – Check Shirt Wizard – Live in 77 captures the period I first hear his work, to be frank, there were bits I wasn’t keen on back then, a mere lad by musical tastes needed broadening. Now, all those decades later I realise what a Herculean titan he was. Listen to this collection and it’s likely you’ll feel the same.
After the applause subsides Rory and his classic line-up of Gerry McAvoy on bass, drummer Rod de’Ath, and keyboard player Lou Martin deliver ‘Do You Read Me’ with the ease of a mid-set cool loose-licked blues rocker, rather than the more rigidly studio rendition but recently out. It’s followed by ‘Moonchild’ in a less aggressive manner but no less guitar soling take on this soon to be classic – Martin’s organ fuels the sound wholesomely in an inspired manner allowing Gallagher’s hot guitar to chases after before going off at tangents.
Heaver still, despite its jangling piano is ‘Bought And Sold’. Boisterously right for its live environment, a solo not on record takes off and you feel the band following by the seat of their paints, a while later the basic theme behind the solo recorded in vinyl goes off the charts and is given a full throttle treatment – Back then, only Richie Blackmore was raging away with as much ferocity on a Stratocaster, but he wasn’t scatting along to his own solos!
He introduces ‘Calling Card’ and it starts on McAvoy’s bass, the band following as Gallagher gently applies hammer-ons and lazy sustains of guitar. Come the chorus the crowd are already familiar with the song and singing along loud and clear. A melodic guitar solo dances progressively diverting to enigmatic chording as piano takes precedence, as the guitar returns they goes off at jazz tangents, rocking up, building towards guitar hero stakes only to take a side-step as Gallagher and McAvoty trade licks and then collectively the band help the song reach its climax.
The battered Strat blasts into the searing heavy blues rock of ‘Secret Agent’ – One of my favourite Gallagher numbers here it is rugged, inspired and upbeat despite its lyrics – His voice wailing and crooning wonderfully away. It ends in a blitzkrieg of noise and the crowd go apeshit crazy in applause.
‘Tattoo’d Lady’ is not a favourite of mine but begins with an almost funk rhythm guitar so catches my attention, before its barroom blues folk amalgamation ensues – Inspired piano soloing giving way to guitar and the two entwining. Veering off into a slow blues based but genuinely progressive rock styled solo most unexpectedly before another almighty climax.
One of the man’s most loved ballads, ‘A Million Miles Away’ is barely sketched out, such is the measured minimalist approach taken by the musicians. A slow blues number, here there are the echoes of 60s pop alongside gospel styled organ. Totally different is the punk rockabilly rendition of ‘I Take What I Want’ with inspired guitar hard blues rock wailing. ‘Walk On Hot Coals’ features just as much energy – With assured contentment organ chords are held, guitar striking in wah-wah attack, pinched menace and tremolo control – Gallagher even sticks in the melody to The Beatles’ ‘I Feel Fine’ and in a racing sonic attack finish the rhythm section drive it home belting out in double time underneath.
Left exhausted after Disc 1, the second eases us in gently with the acoustic set part of a Gallagher concert, wherein he would largely perform solo using a variety of guitars.
First up is equally self-mythologising and self-depreciatory ‘Out On The Western Plain; a great epic of cowboy escapism, wishful thinking, tall storytelling and hook lines aplenty, as joined in loudly by crowd and sourced by Bon Jovi for ‘Wanted Dead Or Alive’. The ragtime jazz travelogue of ‘Barley & the Grape Rag’ follows, then the hard acoustic country blues of ‘Pistol Slapper Blues’.
‘Too Much Alcohol’ is a drinking story from times gone by, from the wrong side of the street. AAnd while a simple tune, the upbeat folk shout blues of ‘Going To My Hometown’ was a fan favourite as evidenced by the outrageous applause on its conclusion.
As with ‘A Million Miles’, ‘Edged In Blue’ is approached in laid back manner, Gallagher a little tired vocally, but supported by the band’s return as jazz, poppy and rock all get a look in.
‘Jack-Knife Beat’ is all voodoo midnight blues with hard thrak of a Muscle Shoals soul-funked guitar before it sends Galagher sends out the song’s melodic wailing signature line, with rhythms chopping and stirring, piano exploring and bringing home a stack of aural treats. The band hold the groove collectively in this taught old school funk groove fest – Inspired piano and a guitar solo that gives the 80s metal brigade a tutorial they’ve yet to surpass , some serious funky bass and guitar exchanges, and in the latter stages a random clutch of guitar that sounds like the birth pangs of what would become Van Halen’s ‘Somebody Get Me A Doctor’.
Rapping vocally in between bursts of guitar ‘Souped-Up Ford’ begins the home run towards the end of the night. Its stomping bluesy rock and roll, with slide work that raises hell, as the piano hammers down hard the whole length of the board, and de’Ath’s hi-hat is giving it so much you think the hinges would break loose before the song finishes.
“Got one more for ya” Gallagher announces. ‘Bullfrog Blues’ used to be his calling card back in the day. I think I tended to dated him with the 60s blues crowd and put the 70s hip scene off. Hindsight offers a different kettle of fish. Here, the band is on fire. There is dynamic interplay between guitar and piano interplay, some savage slide work and a bass solo that never loses sight of its purpose as one half of the rhythm section, and before you know Gallagher’s calling out: “Until next time thank you very much, Take care good care of yourselves” However, the sweat drenched fans had two more encores to go.
‘Used To Be’ strut out Stones like as a the swaggering rock and blues number. Rocking to its climax, the guitar literally froths over as it pops its cork with squeals of excitement following extended foreplay. After which ‘Country Mile’ doesn’t just sprint out it skips with delight nimbly with glorious seemingly improvised tangents ensuing before finishing.
Very much a guitarist and performer who played in the moment, by how he felt and who would take off creatively how the mood, accompanying musicians and audiences took him. This is Rory Gallagher in his prime, a great shame that de’Ath and Martin would be parting from the band shortly after.
