Beautiful Day

Rory Gallagher: Live At Montreux/ Definitive Collection

Legendary Irish guitarist Rory Gallagher played the renowned Montreux Festival on five occasions, spanning his breakthrough years in the mid-seventies right up to the year before his tragic early death at the age of 47 in 1995. This double DVD brings together material from all five shows to create the definitive Rory Gallagher live collection. Disc one features tracks from 1975, 1977, 1979 and 1985, while disc two has the whole concert from 1994 and bonus acoustic tracks from the earlier years.

From Texasgigs.com

Thousands will remember rock legend Rory

LEGENDARY blues and rock musician Rory Gallagher (right) is being honoured in Dublin and Donegal next month.

A bronze monument will be erected in Dublin's Temple Bar after a planning wrangle was resolved.

A replica of Gallagher's trademark Fender Stratocaster will be unveiled at Rory Gallagher Corner, the street officially named after the musician, on June 16.

Thousands of fans are also expected to descend on his birthplace, Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, for a major blues and rock festival in his name.

The Rory Gallagher International Tribute Festival takes place over holiday weekend, June 1-4.

Festival organiser Barry O'Neill, an RTE radio presenter, said they were expecting more than 2,000 people, with blues bands from across Europe playing.

"Rory's fans are travelling from Australia, Canada, the US, Greece, Germany, Italy, Holland, Norway and throughout the UK and Ireland," said Mr O'Neill.

Among the headline blues acts appearing are UK-based Sinnerboy who also play Whelan's in Dublin on June 14, the 11th anniversary of Rory's untimely death.

Check www.goingtomyhometown.com for more details.

A major open air concert is being planned for the unveiling of the Temple Bar sculpture and is due to be attended by Rory's brother Donal, a record producer.

More than 3,000 people signed a petition for the monument following objections relating to the National Photographic Archive on whose building it will be located.

Mark Walsh, the monument organiser, said: "Rory was our first international rock and blues star. He is still hugely popular. It is very important that we recognise his vast contribution to modern music."

Rory Gallagher, who grew up in Cork city, is regarded by many as the greatest electric blues guitarist. He died in 1995 at the age of 47

From Unison.ie

On the record: truly classic Irish albums

In a new series for BBC Radio Ulster, Ralph McLean picks out the best Irish albums of all time. In a sneak preview, he tells Twentyfourseven about his choices - and explains the reasons behind them.

Over the years there has been no shortage of albums released by artists from Northern Ireland. Many of these releases have been very good but I'd say that very few could be considered classics.

I have always been a music fanatic and for the new Classic Irish Albums series on BBC Radio Ulster, I wanted to pick albums which I felt no record collection should be without; albums which I felt people should listen to and want to learn more about.

For this series, I have rummaged through albums released from the 1960s up until the present day, covering every genre from punk to jazz and pop, to bring listeners a list of what I believe are truly classic Irish albums...

VAN MORRISON Astral Weeks (1968)

It would be impossible to do a series on classic Irish albums without featuring at least one from Van the Man. To me, the guy is a genius.

Astral Weeks is a fabulous album and it started Van up as a solo artist after leaving Them. It sounds like no other album I've ever heard with its crazy mix of soul, jazz, Celtic music, poetry, beat poetry and skat singing.

Astral Weeks is just so important and, as we discuss in the programme, it sold absolutely nothing at the time of release which Van is still pretty embittered about. It originally only sold something like 15,000, but it has since gone on to become a true cult classic.

Apparently, Van was pretty much destitute when he recorded it, the money had dried up and he had just got out of a terrible deal with Bang Records in the States. Everything was riding on Astral Weeks. When you know this, you can hear what an incredible album it is. It takes you back to his childhood in Belfast and his time in America as well - it's like a travel log of a very difficult time for Van when he barely had enough to eat and yet he was able to make a really poetic, beautiful album.

I think Astral Weeks has stood the test of time incredibly well and there's no better way to start a series like this than with an album of this standard. It's unbeatable.

Guitars Of The Stars

Just how important are guitars to the rock 'n' roll image? "Incredibly important," says Michael Molenda, editor in chief of Guitar Player magazine. "When rock 'n' roll was young in the 1950s and '60s, performers gravitated to whatever they could borrow or afford. But when the music hit its stride, just the fact that guys like Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Richie Blackmore held certain guitars made them iconic."

Then there are the "custom" models, which are graced not only with artists' imprimaturs, but with the same dings, scratches and dents as the original guitars. For instance, Fender's Rory Gallagher Tribute Stratocaster--named for the late, great Irish rocker--which lists for $3,929, is "very distressed," says Morgan Ringwald, vice president of public relations for Scottsdale, Ariz.-based guitar maker Fender. "It looks like a beat-up old guitar, but it's an exact replica of his most famous guitar

From Forbes.com

City salute to blues legend Rory

A MEMORIAL to legendary rock and blues musician Rory Gallagher has been given the green light by Dublin City Council.

A life-size bronze replica of Gallagher's famous paint-stripped Fender stratocaster guitar is to be erected on a wall in Temple Bar in honour of the famous Donegal-born musician.

The city council has decided to grant planning permission following a two-year planning wrangle.

The street where the archive is located has been officially renamed Rory Gallagher Corner and the building bears the street name.

The building is owned by Temple Bar Properties but is leased by the OPW to the National Photographic Archive, which is part of the National Library.

Concerns by the National Library that the site may become a shrine to Gallagher with fans drawing graffiti on the gable wall were dismissed by the project promoter Mark Walsh.

Mr Walsh lodged the planning application at the end of October on behalf of Dublin's music equipment stores and has just been informed that permission has been granted.

"Rory was our first international rock star who paved the way for Thin Lizzy and U2. He is still highly respected internationally and the Fender strat guitar was his trademark," he said yesterday.

Donal Gallagher, Rory's only brother and his former manager, said he was very happy at the city council decision and that he would support the project in any way he could.

In its decision the council said the bronze guitar would be fixed to the wall below the existing Rory Gallagher Corner place name.

The planning application contained detailed sketches of the monument.

The giant Fender corporation has agreed to bankroll the cost of the bronze monument along with the city's music equipment stores.

Rory Gallager is regarded by many as the greatest ever electric blues guitarist and his music has attracted a legion of new young fans.

An anthology of Gallagher's music released last year went plantinum in many countries. The cover of the CD features the guitar which will be replicated at the Temple Bar monument. Gallagher died in 1995 after contracting a virus following a liver transplant. He is buried in Cork wHere he grew up.

A bronze statue of Dublin rock star Phil Lynott off Grafton St has become a magnet for his many fans.

From the bray People

Gallagher’s Greatest Collection

In the category of Irish rock gods, there is only one big gun.

Rory Gallagher’s spirit has been captured in a glorious two disc set entitled, fittingly enough, Big Guns. I know what you’re thinking — “I already bought the reissued albums when they were released a couple of years ago.”

I know I did (at least I bought the ones that the record company didn’t send me for free, let’s put it that way). Like me, you might have been slightly disappointed by the clarity of those searing guitar riffs; the original recording tapes sounded like they were preserved in bong water and mold, doing Gallagher’s memory a disservice.

On Big Guns, this national treasure gets treated with a digital upgrade that brings out the man’s mastery in the mix. Add an extensive biography enclosed within the collection in glossy book form, and you have a milestone collection.

Simply put, just as no Irish literature collection should be without Frank McCourt and James Joyce, no Irish music collection should be without this pair of Big Guns.

The Joyce analogy is not lost on Colm O’Brien, former guitarist for the Prodigals who now haunts the pubs of Boston with fiery Irish tinged rock that borrows from Rory’s bluesy spirit.

Cranberries Included on New Irish Music Wall of Fame

The Cranberries are among 12 of the most influential artists in Irish music to be selected for the newly-erected Wall of Fame in Dublin.

The wall, which encompasses the Temple Lane wall of the historic Temple Bar Music Centre in Dublin, includes 11 smaller windows (6 x 6 ft) and one large window (20 x 20 ft) to house photographs of Ireland's most influential musicians. The wall was unveiled on October 20th with a launch party that included notables Dave Fanning, Paul Brady and Philomena Lynott.

The permanent outdoor exhibit is complimented by a small indoor exhibit inside the Temple Bar Music Centre, which includes a synopsis of each artist compiled by Hot Press editor Stewart Clark. The 12 artists were chosen for the following criteria: "The artists featured on the Wall of Fame were judged by several criteria - not record sales alone, but also for their genuine pioneering work in contributing to modern popular music and for showcasing the quality and range of Irish musical talent on the World stage. It is by no means a definitive list of the Irish top 12, but each act has been highly influential in the Irish music scene past and present."

The exhibiton includes a 6 x 6 ft decal of Dolores O'Riordan, photographed at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London in 1994. Photographer Jill Furmanovsky of Dublin's Rockarchive Gallery said, "The band had already conquered America but were relatively unknown in the UK. This daytime showcase was for the press and promoters. Dolores looked like a schoolgirl bunking off during her dinner hour." The translucent decals are backlit at night, which makes the free public exhibit an attraction even during the evening.

The other 11 artists on the wall currently are Paul Brady, The Boomtown Rats, Christy Moore, Philip Lynott, Rory Gallagher, Shane MacGowan, U2, Sinead O'Connor, The Undertones, Van Morrison, and Luke Kelly.

You can find more info at the  Wall of Fame's Official Website.

From Zombieguide

New York remembers Rory Gallagher

Songs & Stories: New York remembers Rory Gallagher
September 29, Thursday 7 pm

Venue: NYU Iris & Gerald B. Cantor Film Center, 36 East 8th Street

Songs & Stories: New York remembers Rory Gallagher: a screening of an hour-long documentary film produced and directed by Victor Zimet, Stephanie Silber and Seamus Kelleher, under the auspices of Home Team Productions, followed by a conversation with Seamus Kelleher and Donal Gallagher, brother, former manager and executor of the late artist’s estate.

Rory Gallagher, the late Irish blues guitar great, died in 1995, too young but not without leaving a legion of fans worldwide and over 20 million albums sold.  His fiery guitar work rivaled that of contemporaries Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, putting his country on the R & B map at the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.  An eminent group of New York City and Irish musicians rocked the legendary Bottom Line at a tribute performance to celebrate Rory's life and work, and the stunning night was captured like lightning in a bottle.  This is Rory's story, told through his songs and the memories of those who loved and were inspired by him.

Rory Galagher Walk

Music lovers can take a walk in the footsteps of Rory Gallagher thanks to a new walking tour of Cork. An illustrated Walking tour of Rory Gallagher's Cork is the brainchild of RTE producer Marcus Connaughton, who is also working on a radio show and biography of the blues legend. There will be 10000 copies of the map distributed throughout Cork city. The image shows Rory Gallagher Square in Cork City.

Dark shadow of a guitar legend

The Irish Times looks at the legacy of Rory Gallagher.

Rory Gallagher could have been as big as Clapton, but his complex, insecure personality kept him from stardom, writes Tony Clayton-Lea

Everyone loves a hero, but it's the flawed anti-hero - the person who bucks against the system time and again yet never gives in, the person who battles against inner demons that threaten to bring them down - that truly wins the public vote.

A hero seems to be a specific type of person, clean-cut, invulnerable, always right, always there when you need them; an anti-hero, given the right or wrong circumstances, mistakes, misdemeanours, could be anyone.