{"id":2605,"date":"2012-10-01T14:48:21","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T14:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/?p=2605"},"modified":"2012-10-04T13:07:18","modified_gmt":"2012-10-04T13:07:18","slug":"the-dark-side-of-the-sun-by-garth-cartwright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/?p=2605","title":{"rendered":"The Dark Side of the Sun — by Garth Cartwright"},"content":{"rendered":"Tweet<\/a>

Garth Cartwright<\/center><\/div>\n

Garth Cartwright<\/a> is a London-based, music and arts journalist with three books under his belt and regular contributions to various UK publications such as The Guardian, Telegraph, and Sunday Times. In 1995 he won the Guardian Music Writing Award. In his latest article for the Sunday Times, “The Dark Side of the Sun,”<\/a> Garth talks with Donal Gallagher, brother to the late, great blues and rock guitarist Rory Gallagher. For those unable to get their hands on the latest issue of the Sunday Times I’ve posted the full article below. Many thanks to Garth for allowing me to post it to my blog. And be sure to check out his website at garthcartwright.com<\/a>!<\/p>\n

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The Dark Side of the Sun<\/h3>\n

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(Garth Cartwright meets the brother for whom Rory Gallagher\u2019s death is still raw)<\/b><\/p>\n

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\n © Erica Echenberg<\/font><\/center><\/p>\n

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C<\/span>ork City has the blues. An air of deprivation lingering across the city\u2019s Celtic Tiger-era edifices may explain why Cork strongly embraces the memory of Rory Gallagher, its most famous son and a bluesman of extraordinary talent.<\/p>\n

Rory Gallagher (1948-1995) was the Irish Republic\u2019s first rock star. With his blazing guitar and beatific smile Gallagher was the Gaelic guitar hero. And in his humble manner very much a musician of the people. Yet by the 90s Rory was a reclusive paranoid, his torso swollen by steroids. When he died (from complications following a liver transplant) an outpouring of grief followed: Van Morrison, U2, Johnny Marr, Brian May and Slash all saluted Rory\u2019s musical brilliance and personal generosity. Now, with a comprehensive reissue of his solo albums underway, Gallagher\u2019s legacy is finally being celebrated. Thus I\u2019m walking the streets of Cork with the man who knew Rory best \u2013 his brother Donal Gallagher.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalking about Rory can get a bit heated,\u201d says Donal, noting how football fans in Cork and Donegal recently clashed over which team \u201cowned\u201d Rory\u2019s allegiance. Such are the tribulations surrounding a local legend. \u201cI\u2019m constantly encountering fans from all around the world,\u201d he adds. \u201cAnd they\u2019re often youngsters. You-Tube\u2019s introduced Rory to a new generation.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Donal and Rory grew up sharing the same bedroom above a Cork pub. A year Rory\u2019s junior, Donal became Rory\u2019s roadie. Then tour manager. Then manager. And now he looks after the estate. He truly is his brother\u2019s keeper. Fortuitously, Rory owned his solo recordings and Donal and his son Daniel are overseeing the reissue of Rory\u2019s first eleven solo albums (1971-82). Listen to the young gun – strong songs, warm vocals and the guitar playing . . . the guitar playing is just in-cred-i-ble. Outside of Jimi Hendrix and Peter Green no other rock guitarist has managed to convey such warmth, finesse and wild excitement. Yet like Hendrix and Green, Gallagher\u2019s talent could not protect him from the storms of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cRory could build a guitar but he couldn\u2019t boil an egg,\u201d says Donal. \u201cMusic was everything to him. Once he started playing guitar as a boy he ignored everything else. Just stayed in his room practicing and practicing.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thus Rory\u2019s social skills remained underdeveloped. <\/p>\n

\u201cRory found it impossible to form lasting bonds with people,\u201d notes Donal. \u201cHe was his own worst enemy. Playing music was his all. Off the road he didn\u2019t know what to do with himself.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rory showed a propensity and passion for music as a child. In his early teens he convinced his mother to buy him a second-hand Fender Stratocaster on hire purchase. Aged 15 he joined the Fontana Showband, working dances across Ireland and England before heading out to Hamburg\u2019s Star Club. The pimps, prostitutes and merchant seamen who frequented the Star hailed Rory as the most exciting rocker since The Beatles learnt their trade there. Forming Taste, he based himself in Belfast. Word quickly spread of the teenage prodigy. Management, a contract with Polydor and the inevitable shift to London followed.<\/p>\n

Taste lit up London \u2013 John Lennon described them as \u201cthe only band worth seeing\u201d while Eric Clapton invited Taste to support Cream\u2019s Royal Albert Hall farewell \u2013 and their two albums proved international hits. Yet after playing 1970\u2019s Isle Of Wight Festival Rory quit: the band\u2019s manager had him on \u00a315 a week wages and Gallagher chose to walk away rather than fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were living in Earls Court bedsits,\u201d recalls Donal. \u201cTaste were in the charts, headlining major festivals, but not seeing the proceeds. Later, when I became Rory\u2019s manager, I insisted we go to court to get the royalties. Even then Rory was reluctant. He didn\u2019t like conflict.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rory\u2019s gentle nature made him an icon of peace and goodwill in a divided Ireland. As The Troubles worsened Rory became the only major musician willing to tour Northern Ireland, his concerts cathartic events where Catholics and Protestants could gather in a conflict-free arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cRory emphasized that he would not take sides in the dispute,\u201d says Donal. \u201cHe insisted we tour there because he believed in the positive power of music. While Tony Palmer filmed his 1974 Irish tour he tried to push Rory into taking a stance but Rory refused. He was there to bring joy not politics.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Palmer\u2019s film Irish Tour \u201974 remains one of the great concert movies while the resulting live album captured Rory at his most exciting and inspired. No wonder The Rolling Stones, then searching for a guitarist to replace Mick Taylor, invited Rory to join.<\/p>\n

\u201cRory flew to their base in Holland and stayed three days,\u201d says Donal. \u201cBut Keith was too stoned to play and Rory had a Japanese tour lined up. He left without even a \u2018goodbye\u2019. At the time Rory was outselling the Stones across Europe so it\u2019s not like he needed the gig. But, in retrospect, I wish he had communicated more with them as it could have worked. He and Charlie Watts would have got on very well \u2013 both being consummate musicians and jazz fans.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rory certainly didn\u2019t need The Stones for money: he sold over thirty million albums and innumerable concert tickets. Yet perhaps the camaraderie of playing in The Stones would have helped calm his anxieties. A fear of flying fed phobias that developed, in the 80s, into hypochondria. Amoral GPs wrote him prescription after prescription. Addicted to pills and liking a drink, Rory\u2019s health collapsed.<\/p>\n

\u201cRory wouldn\u2019t smoke a joint,\u201d says Donal, \u201cbut he self-medicated with prescription pills. And that caused so much damage. On tour I once went through his baggage and found a hornet\u2019s nest of pills. I checked with a German pharmacist who said \u2018if he\u2019s mixing these with alcohol it\u2019s the devil\u2019s brew\u2019.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Donal\u2019s had a long time to deal with losing Rory but his frustration and grief remain palpable.<\/p>\n

\u201cRory got more and more paranoid. He played Montreux Jazz Festival with Bob Dylan in 1994 and Dylan, who had always been a fan, came up after the show and said how he would love to record with Rory. I thought \u2018manna from heaven!\u2019 and that this would be the fresh start we needed. That night Rory locked himself in the hotel\u2019s penthouse and wouldn\u2019t come out for three days.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Donal swapped Rory\u2019s prescription pills for homeopathic placebos. He confronted the GPs. He confronted Rory. He sent Rory home to mum in Cork. Too late: a liver transplant in early-1995 appeared successful but Rory\u2019s rare blood type and shattered immune system lead to rejection. Like George Best, another Irish genius of the same generation, Rory Gallagher would die before his time. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife wonders if Rory was autistic. That\u2019s a possibility,\u201d says Donal. \u201cAnyway, what Rory achieved can\u2019t be taken away. People love his music. Across the USA they\u2019re rediscovering Rory for the first time since the 70s. In Paris there\u2019s a Rue Rory Gallagher, Hamburg has a plaque, Dublin and Ballyshannon have statues. Fender\u2019s Rory signature guitar is one of their best sellers. There\u2019s a biopic in the works. It\u2019s a bit like those old black bluesmen Rory loved so dearly \u2013 he\u2019s more appreciated now than when he was alive.\u201d<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n

Garth Cartwright — garthcartwright.com<\/a><\/p>\n

(published in the Sunday Times, September 30, 2012)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tweet Garth Cartwright Garth Cartwright is a London-based, music and arts journalist with three books under his belt and regular contributions to various UK publications such as The Guardian, Telegraph, and Sunday Times. In 1995 he won the Guardian Music Writing Award. In his latest article for the Sunday Times, “The Dark Side of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[7],"tags":[29,404,476,60],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2605"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2633,"href":"https:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605\/revisions\/2633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}