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Here are a few Rory Gallagher mentions on the world wide web:

• Rory Gallagher’s Astronomer    Brother Guy Consolmagno, Vatican Astronomer, wrote about his recent visit to Cork and his admiration of legendary guitarist, Rory Gallagher in his blog.
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  Brother Guy is the author of the definitive beginner’s guide book to astronomy, Turn Left At Orion, and is the curator of meteorites at the Vatican Observatory. He recently gave a couple of lectures at the Blackrock Castle Observatory in Cork, Ireland. Brother Guy is a huge fan of Rory’s and while in Cork he was able to take a walking tour of Gallagher’s favourite haunts. This is an interview conducted by Marcus Connaughton with Brother Guy at the Cork city Library. Brother Guy talks a bit about music and his first time seeing Rory Gallagher live with his band Taste.
• Shaking Street   Speaking of walking tours, David “Maño” writes about his Irish tour of Rory Gallagher’s Cork in his recent Spanish written blog. Some excellent pictures of Rory landmarks, such as Crowley’s Music Center, St Olivers Cemetery, Taste Cafe, and many more.
• Bernie Plays Rory   Former Whitesnake lead guitarist, Bernie Marsden, will be doing a one off Rory tribute gig at Telfords Warehouse on May 12, 2009. Bernie will be performing a mixture of Rorys best known works as well as some more obscure tracks. The Telfords gig will serve as a warm up for the bands forthcoming German tour.
• The Next Rory Gallagher   Who will be Ireland’s next great guitarist? RTÉ Young Peoples is looking for guitarists to take part in a brand new television series called ‘The Guitar’. You have until April 29th to upload a video of your guitar acumen for a chance to win a Fender Rory Gallagher Tribute Stratocaster. You must be 17 years of age or under with parental permission. The video should be no longer than 1 minute and a half and be no larger than 70MB. Email the application form to rte.the.guitar@gmail.com.
• How to Play Like Blues Giant Rory Gallagher   Gibson.com writes about the North American release of Live in Cork and talks a bit about Rory’s unique sound. “Many guitarists spend their lives on the trail of a sonic Holy Grail, but Gallagher discovered his signature instrument and amplifier early on. His battered, finish-skinned ’61 Fender Stratocaster is instantly recognizable to gear heads, and he usually ran it through a single Vox AC-30”– Ted Drozdowski. Interesting that the Gibson Guitar writer talks about Rory’s incredible sound on a Fender Strat. Of course, you can talk all you want about HOW to play like Rory Gallagher, it’s a completely different matter actually doing it.

The following is a review by Tom Daily of Rory Gallagher’s performance at the Cowtown Ballroom on March 24, 1974. This article comes from the March 29-April 4, 1974 issue of Westport Trucker. Westport Trucker was a weekly Kansas City, Missouri underground newspaper. Amazingly enough, Rory’s concert at the Cowtown Ballroom was one of the “dollar concert” promotions sponsored by KUDL radio station. If there ever was a concert where you got the proper “bang” for your bucks, it was surely this one. The audio recording of this concert is one of the finest bootlegs out there, reaching almost mythical status. My previous write-up of this venue and Rory’s concert performance there can be viewed here: Rory Gallagher at the Cowtown Ballroom – March 24, 1974. You can also listen to the concert on a small music player HERE, or download higher quality mp3’s HERE.

Rory Gallagher in concert with “Tide” Sunday, March 24, at Cowtown Ballroom –written by Tom Daily

The Rory Gallagher concert sold out. We arrived late and had to do the famed Cowtown hop and shuffle until we had staked out a piece of floor for our very own.

Tide opened the show and played a fine forty minute set. The band has added two new members: John Barton on guitar and Becky Reed on vocals. Ms. Reed particularly adds a new dimension to this multi-faceted group. Tide played some gospel, a bit of soul, rock ‘n roll, jazz, and even a country and western swing number. They selected good material and played it tightly. I especially enjoyed Steve Ross’s synthesizer playing on “Stratis.” The crowd gave Tide a good hand and even a few scattered shouts for “More!” A good opening act.

Intermission. Some putrid mush was played over the sound system as the crowd shuffled and hopped some more. After a bit, the stage was ready and scattered claps and shouts began in anticipation. The audience was up and ready to boogie. Stage announcer: “Would you please sit down so everyone can see. I’m sure you all will be standing up again in about two minutes.” The audience sat down.

Two minutes later Cowtown was a mass of standing, clapping people as Rory Gallagher burst into “Messing With the Kid”, a boogie very similar to John Lee Hookr’s “Messin’ With The Hook”. Next some slide guitar on “Cradle Rock”; a slow blues, “Who’ll Be Your Sweet Man When I’m Gone”, and Rory was warmed up and really ready to play.

And play he did. For the next two hours Rory Gallagher played with an intensity, skill, and pleasure seldom seen. His technique was crisp and his slide was sweet. Gallagher’s solo set on National steel guitar was some of the best acoustic blues guitar I’ve heard while his mandolin playing on “Goin’ To My Home Town” reduced the crowd to foot-stomping frenzy. Gallagher’s band, Lou Martin on keyboards, Gerry McAvoy on bass, and drummer Rod De’Ath, supported him well through-out.

Gallagher on stage was a cross between a whirling dervish and an insane machine-gunner. Sweat drenching his face, he stalked the stage shooting notes first at his piano player then his drummer to amaze him into even higher flights of rhythm. Sometimes he seemed to be playing more for the enjoyment of this band than his audience. At other times he would play the audience as well as he played his guitar; leaping, kicking, gesturing and screaming to build the excitement even higher.

After the closing song, “Bullfrog Blues”, we started out as the audience was giving a foot-stomping, standing ovation. Gallagher came back for an encore, “Livin’ Like a Trucker”. The crowd sure got a lot for their dollar. It was a real fine show.

Tom Daily
Westport Trucker