{"id":3085,"date":"2015-01-10T12:23:08","date_gmt":"2015-01-10T12:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/?p=3085"},"modified":"2015-01-10T12:23:08","modified_gmt":"2015-01-10T12:23:08","slug":"rory-gallaghers-irish-tour-de-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/?p=3085","title":{"rendered":"Rory Gallagher&#8217;s Irish Tour de Force"},"content":{"rendered":"<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-url=\"https:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/?p=3085\" data-text=\"Rory Gallagher\\'s Irish Tour de Force\" data-count=\"horizontal\">Tweet<\/a>\n<div style=\"float:left;padding-right:9px;font-size:smaller;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shadowplays.com\/archive\/archiveimages\/tour2.jpg\"><br \/><center>Irish Tour Deluxe Edition <\/center><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-indent:15px;text-align:justify;\">Some albums are so powerful an experience that they forever change the way you look at music.   And for me there was no bigger game changer than in 1974 when Rory Gallagher\u2019s album <strong>Irish Tour &#8217;74<\/strong> was released.  Not that I wasn\u2019t a fan of Rory Gallagher\u2019s music already, I had previously enjoyed his earlier solo releases such as Tattoo, Deuce, and his eponymous titled first album. But what changed for me that day was my attitude towards \u201clive\u201d albums.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:15px;text-align:justify;\">Back then I thought any \u201clive\u201d rock album was just a mess of muffed notes, bad mixes, and way too much hand-clapping; destined for the record store cut-out section.  I\u2019d listen for that perfect solo memorized from the studio cut and mid way through the fellow would jig right where he should\u2019ve jagged left, and I\u2019d cry out, \u201cNoooo!\u201d. Live albums were just a way for a band to muddle their way through a 5-album record deal, right?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:15px;text-align:justify;\">But then I listened to Rory Gallagher\u2019s Irish Tour \u201974 and it all made sense.   With Rory, the studio album was just a launchpad, a jumping off point to what that song could be once fired in the crucible of a live performance.  The live album was about the fulfillment of an idea.  It was about the energy,the feeling, the power.  God almighty, it was about the power!  The power of Rory\u2019s Strat could knock you back a country mile, like a lightening bolt slamming into your chest!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:15px;text-align:justify;\">And it was about the ride, the long roller-coaster of a ride that Rory took you on, never knowing exactly where he was going or where he was going to end up, but always glad you came along for the ride.  40 years later, Rory is still taking me on those long incredible journeys.  And Irish Tour \u201974 is still the benchmark that I measure all other live albums against.  I listen to a lot of live albums nowadays, and not just Rory\u2019s, but it\u2019s Rory\u2019s live stuff that I always come back too.  Rory showed me the way.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:15px;text-align:justify;\">To celebrate the 40th anniversary of this incredible album,  D\u00f2nal and Daniel Gallagher, brother and nephew to the guitar genius , have released an expanded deluxe edition of that incredible album, including the complete recordings from all three Irish Tour venues: Belfast\u2019s Ulster Hall, Dublin\u2019s Carlton Cinema, and Cork\u2019s City Hall.  Because of technical difficulties the original IT \u201974 album was largely the live recordings from the final venue in that tour, Cork City Hall.  Now, for the very first time we get to hear Rory\u2019s entire Irish tour; all three venues, plus even more material from an after hours \u201csession\u201d that we got a wee taste of on side 4 of the original IT album.    The following is a recent interview I did with Daniel Gallagher about the making of this deluxe edition:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<h3>The Making of the IT &#8217;74 Deluxe Edition<\/h3>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;  Hi Daniel, thanks for taking time out from your busy schedule to answer a few questions about this latest release.  Can you tell us a little bit about what you were trying to accomplish with this expanded edition?  After all, IT \u201974 is arguably Rory\u2019s finest hour.  Were you a tad nervous \u201cmessing with the kid\u201d?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Hi Milo, yes I was very nervous. We knew the 40th Anniversary was looming and thought that we had to do something special for this album as for many, myself included, this is Rory at his finest. Which is what made the idea of remixing, remastering or re-ordering the album such a difficult decision, how can you alter something so loved?<\/em> <\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;  What did you have to work with?  Soundboards from the shows mixing consoles ,  mobile studio 8-tracks?  Did you have the audio tapes from Tony Palmer\u2019s IT documentary?  His Nagra stereo tapes from all three venues?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;At first I thought there was only the 8 channel, multi track tapes in storage, which held the 2nd Cork show and the city hall jam sessions. So I dug those out and digitised them and started working out the set order and remixing the whole thing. While remixing I started to worry that the new mixes were too polished and were losing the rawness of the original album so we changed tact and decided to mix the previously unreleased songs only and to match them to the sound of the original album. I got in touch with Robin Sylvester to ask how he mixed the original record, what desk he used, what reverbs etc and he kindly thought back 40 years and sent me a good description of what they\u2019d done. My engineer Martin Dubka had also guessed much of it and we set about \u2018recreating\u2019 Robin\u2019s mix over the new songs such as \u2018Hands Off\u2019, \u2018In Your Town\u2019 etc.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile I asked Tom O\u2019Driscoll who manages our archive to have a dig through for anything he could find relating to the Irish Tour, anything from tickets to posters, news clipping etc. He found hidden under load of master tapes a wooden box full of Nagra tapes. I went through them and they had random bits of writing on them but after putting them in order it became apparent that it was all the audio recordings from the Irish Tour film. These Nagra reels held the soundboard recordings from all the shows through the tour.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shadowplays.com\/archive\/archiveimages\/tour1.jpg\" alt=\"nagra\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size:smaller;\">Irish Tour &#8217;74 Nagra tapes<\/div>\n<p> <\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp; What condition were these assorted tapes in?  Had they deteriorated or been damaged after so many years?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Amazingly not! The tapes were all in pretty good nick.  They get \u2018baked\u2019 at the digitising stage to take out any moisture that may have seeped into them, which can make the tape sticky, after this they were all fine.  One major problem though was that one of the multi tracks from the Cork concert is missing and this had \u2018Laundromat\u2019 on it. We had to use the version on the Nagras in it\u2019s place.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;  Obviously the overall sound quality of the Cork City Hall tapes are the best of the lot since they were recorded on 8-track using Ronnie Lane\u2019s mobile studio, but even the mixing console tapes from the Belfast and Cork shows are reasonably clear. Maybe a couple of times, during the Belfast show, Rory\u2019s guitar might have gone missing, buried underneath Rod\u2019s drumming or Lou\u2019s piano playing, but overall you hear how it sounded to the audience, and to me it sounded pretty darn good.  How exactly can you change what\u2019s been funneled into the original mix and outputted to the speakers anyway?  How does remastering help the sound from a soundboard? <\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;With the Belfast and Dublin recordings you are restricted as to what improvements can be made. For starters you can\u2019t change the mix in any way so if the guitar is quiet in the original mix from the show you can\u2019t suddenly turn it up. What can be done at mastering is to tweak the EQ to bring out certain frequencies or reduce others, this can help pull out the guitar that might be buried in a mix. At mastering there\u2019ll also be compression and limiting added to the recording to bring it to a more standard audio volume level, which the original tapes aren\u2019t at.<\/p>\n<p>There are moments in those two concerts where for instance Rory\u2019s vocal mic distorts as he shouts the opening lines to Bullfrog Blues or at the start of the Belfast set the guitar is low in the mix and the bass is too loud for the first track but this is exactly what the live mix in the venue was so it\u2019s still pretty cool to hear what the audience heard that night heard.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;  For me, the highlight of the Belfast show was \u201cGoing To My Hometown\u201d.  The enthusiasm of the crowd was fantastic.  It really shows off Rory\u2019s ability to communicate and bond with the audience.  I think too often blues-rock bands put up a wall between themselves and the audience, particularly back then in the late Sixties, early Seventies, but with Rory it was like he was playing directly to you, one-on-one.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;\u201cGoing To My Hometown\u201d is such an interesting track in this set because of the different audience reactions \/ participation to it, across the cities. In Belfast it feels quite spiritual, cathartic for the fans, in Dublin they\u2019re a bit more boisterous and they chant every word. Interestingly it\u2019s the Dublin audience that sing the infamous \u201cNice one Rory, nice one son, nice one Rory let\u2019s have another one\u201d which actually comes after GTMH as Rory\u2019s switching from Mandolin to guitar. Not to ruin peoples memory of the main album I kept it on the Cork album but moved it to after GTMH in keeping with where the Dublin crowd had chanted it. In Cork, Rory sings an interesting line \u201cGoing to my hometown, the Queen of the South, you know what town I\u2019m always talking \u2018bout\u201d I definitely think the song is about Cork (\u201cgot me a job from Henry Ford\u201d is a reference to the Ford car plant in Cork) and in all the cities you can sense Rory working the song to fit the crowd.<\/em> <\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp; I love the inclusion of \u201cJust a Little Bit\u201d in Rory\u2019s Bullfrog Blues encore during the Belfast and Dublin gigs.  Do we know the reason why there\u2019s no Bullfrog Blues during the Cork show?  Or was it just not recorded?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;I thought it was weird when I first got the multi tracks that there wasn\u2019t &#8216;Bullfrog Blues&#8217; on the tapes and thought maybe they just ran out of tape, but it seems it wasn\u2019t played at either of the Cork shows after I cross checked the Nagra tapes. The only thing I can think of is that they had a strict time limit at the venue, it was the Cork City Hall, and as the set is already over 2 hours. Rory may have been obliged to end his set.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shadowplays.com\/archive\/archiveimages\/tour3.jpg\" alt=\"Stramp\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size:smaller;\">Stramp mixing desk used during Rory Gallagher&#8217;s &#8217;74 Irish Tour<\/div>\n<p> <\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp; Looking at the set listings for each of the gigs, one thing immediately stands out as pretty unusual for Rory.  Nearly identical track listings.  Being a collector of Rory\u2019s live recordings myself, I don\u2019t recall  ever seeing Rory do the same set list two days in a row.  Was this a concession to Tony Palmer\u2019s documentary needs?  I understand he was suppose to dress identical so they could mix and match clips from all 3 venues.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Yes I think Tony Palmer wanted to be able to cut between the various venues during the same song to show the different audiences across Ireland and their reactions to the music, so he requested that the sets were roughly the same. Though looking at the film Rory didn\u2019t listen to him when it came to wearing the same shirt every night and in true Rory fashion none of the versions of the songs are identical in length or performance.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;  In the liner notes, you\u2019ve listed 2 dates Cork shows and 2 dates for the Belfast shows.  Did you have to cobble together the track list between the two dates for each venue? <\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;There were two Cork shows, one on a Thursday and one on a Saturday. The multi track recordings come from the Saturday concert and I used all of that bar Laundromat which comes from the Thursday night as far as I remember. Also I think the original \u2018As The Crow Flies\u2019 also comes from the Thursday concert. The Thursday night show Nagras were missing quite a few tracks from the set that\u2019s why I didn\u2019t do another disc with that show. Belfast there was only one night recorded but from Rory\u2019s diary and an interview caught on the film audio there was another concert which was possibly a matinee show.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;  Listening to these shows in chronological order (Belfast, Dublin, then Cork) you get a sense of consistency but also variation in Rory\u2019s playing.  All three shows are such high energy treats, with incredible playing, and strong voice, but there\u2019s also a lot of variation in his playing, never playing the songs, especially the solos, the same way twice.  What\u2019s your favorites from the Dublin and Belfast shows?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Across all the shows I love when the band starts \u2018In Your Town\u2019 straight out of \u2018Who\u2019s That Coming\u2019 and Rory tunes his guitar on the fly and joins in with the riff. I can\u2019t think of any guitarists even back then who would do this, anyone else would have a  guitar tech handing them a new guitar with the correct tuning for the song. \u2018In Your Town\u2019 is such a fun song especially with Rory riffing with the gangsters who are going to join him on his jailbreak.<\/p>\n<p>Dublin was an interesting concert to put together because I felt like I\u2019d heard it before but couldn\u2019t realise how, then it clicked that a lot of the films audio comes from the Dublin concert. As you say it\u2019s great hearing the variations of solos and licks Rory plays in the different versions of songs, \u2018Walk On Hot Coals\u2019 and \u2018Hands Off\u2019 have so many fantastic differences.  The acoustic part of the Dublin concert is great, I love the reception \u2018Unmilitary Two-Step\u2019 gets. I think \u2018A Million Miles Away\u2019 from Belfast is pretty special, something about Lou\u2019s keys being a bit louder in the mix really work with the vocals and then Rory\u2019s lead lines and licks pop out really nicely. It\u2019s cool to hear Rory sing \u2018Just A Little Bit\u2019 during \u2018Bullfrog Blues\u2019 as well.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shadowplays.com\/archive\/archiveimages\/IT74_Galvin7a.jpg\" alt=\"IT74backstage\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size:smaller;\">Behind the scenes at Cork City Hall. Photo by Pat Galvin<\/div>\n<p> <\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Cork show is something special though. Do you think because the Cork show was Rory\u2019s last chance at recording with the Lane mobile that it spurred him on to greater heights?  Certainly his back was against the wall and he just manned up and nailed it! Thankfully Ronnie Lanes mobile was set up to record that very special night.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;I can imagine it was a big disappointment for Rory that the Lane Mobile didn\u2019t make it in time to record the other shows as he probably would have loved to have had the different crowd reactions on tape to work with and as Rory always played off the crowds energy he would\u2019ve known what night had the best version of a particular song.<\/p>\n<p>From a purely technical sound aspect it\u2019s possibly fortuitous that the Cork show was the only one properly recorded as all venues have a different sound, the room reverberates differently due to the size, the amount of people crammed in etc. Trying to make three  different venues sound like one night would\u2019ve been quite difficult and would\u2019ve involved adding a lot of reverb and other effects after in mixing. The amazing thing when doing the mixes to match Robin Sylvester&#8217;s is that of the eight channels (drums L, drum R, bass, piano, guitar, vocal, audience mic, film sync code) the majority of the mix is the room mic. The natural sound of the room with the band playing and the audience clapping, singing along etc is integral to the sound of the album, if you were trying to balance this across the three venues it might have led to a neutralising of the natural atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not sure what it is about the Cork night though that just is that touch more special, everything Rory improvises comes off, the way he segues between songs just works whereas on the other nights there might be the odd stumble. Maybe it was just the added pride of playing in his hometown with a highly respected film director filming him, the feeling of coming home and showing everyone that he\u2019d really made it.<\/em> <\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;  The extra tracks from that Cork show are so good, I\u2019ve got to wonder why at least some of these tracks weren\u2019t included in the original IT \u201974 instead of using the After Hours session on side 4.  The after hours stuff they did use is good, but to the exclusion of such gems as \u2018Hands Off\u2019? Or Going to My Hometown?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;I guess when Rory was compiling the tracks for Irish Tour he probably had in mind that the tracks that featured on Live! In Europe would be left off so Going To My Hometown, Messin\u2019 With The Kid etc were excluded. Hands Off which is, to use the cliche, a tour de force I can only imagine missed the cut because of it\u2019s length. Being geeky about it he could\u2019ve structured it:<br \/>\nSide 1 Cradle Rock, I Wonder Who, Tattoo\u2019d Lady.<br \/>\nSide 2 Walk On Hot Coals, A Million Miles Away<br \/>\nSide 3 Hands Off, Too Much Alcohol<br \/>\nSide 4 As The Crow Flies, Unmilitary Two-Step, Banker Blues, Who\u2019s That Coming<\/p>\n<p>Not sure where the idea to use the After Hours recording instead of live material for side 4 came from, possibly Rory wanted to have his version of \u2018Just A Little Bit\u2019 on the album but as they hadn\u2019t played it (with Bullfrog Blues) in Cork they had to go with the jam recording. Back On My Stomping Ground maybe made the album as Rory might\u2019ve wanted to have a new composition of his own on the album, as most of the set, bar covers, is from Tattoo.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;Disc 7, the Cork After Hours recordings, were they done the day prior to the final gig?  Checking levels? Running the sound through the mobile?  That afternoon session seems a bit more than just checking out the Lane mobile though.  It\u2019s not just bits and pieces of songs, but full songs that seem very well polished as well.  Was it a bit of a fail safe mechanism then?  After all, this was their next to last chance at recording some material with the Lane mobile.  Maybe Rory was concerned that they wouldn\u2019t get enough material from the next day\u2019s show?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;It was my guess and Donal\u2019s memory that the City Hall Sessions \/ After Hours material came from the day before the last gig. We felt if the mobile unit was there prior to that, then it would\u2019ve been used to record the first Cork show so our feeling is that it arrived on  the Friday and they set about testing the studio out then. Some of the recordings are very much a sound check such as the acoustic medley and Dylan instrumental, just the band warming up as cables are plugged in, levels checked etc. The full song performances of \u2018Treat Her right\u2019 and \u2018I Wonder Who\u2019 that are so great might be because they were being filmed by Tony Palmer and Rory thought they might make it in the film, so he was aware of still having to really perform even at soundcheck.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shadowplays.com\/archive\/archiveimages\/robin_backstageIT74.jpg\" alt=\"robin\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size:smaller;\">Backstage with Rory Gallagher during the making of Irish Tour \u201974, &copy; Pat Galvin<\/div>\n<p> <\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;I didn&#8217;t realize that Tony Palmer filmed the recording of these gems.  A shame it didn&#8217;t make it into the documentary!   Filming Rory working out how best to do a song would be a fun thing to watch.  The bits and pieces of songs you&#8217;ve included in the After Hours session are interesting.  Nice to hear a bit more of Maritime.  The tune becomes a bit less Shadows and a bit more Rory towards the end, doesn\u2019t it?   <\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Maritime strikes me as Rory starting something as a bit of a Shadows parody but he then gets caught in the moment of coming up with something new and suddenly you can hear him playing a bit more seriously.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;  And the short bit of Dylan\u2019s &#8216;I Want You&#8217; that Rory plays during the Cork session was beautiful, makes me wonder if he ever had ideas of including a Dylan cover on one of his albums.  In later years he\u2019d play a few Dylan tunes during his show; such as, &#8216;Don\u2019t Think Twice,&#8217; &#8216;Just Like A Woman,&#8217; and even &#8216;Highway 61 Revisited&#8217;!  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;I think I read somewhere that in the early Taste days they used to cover \u201cDon\u2019t Think Twice\u201d, Bob Dylan was definitely Rory\u2019s favourite artist, he references him so often and seems to have really followed and studied all of Dylans work. Of anyone he could\u2019ve played with or alongside I\u2019m sure Dylan would\u2019ve been Rory\u2019s number one choice.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp; And then there&#8217;s the playfulness of Rory\u2019s playing in the Bill Justis tune, \u201cRaunchy\u201d, the exaggerated bending of the notes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;To be honest I didn\u2019t know the tune \u201cRaunchy\u201d and was trying to give the track a title till my Dad recognised it. It\u2019s got a cool laid back riff and I love the rockabilly muted chord arpeggios that Rory plays in this and actually in quite a bit of the album<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;  It\u2019s nice to see both Stompin\u2019 Ground version on the disc.  It\u2019s interesting to see the evolution of that song.  Surprised the tune didn\u2019t show up on Against the Grain. Same with the other complete songs from the After Hours sessions, though some were eventually used as CD bonus tracks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;I think Rory might have been taking advantage of having the mobile unit spare on that day to put some new ideas down as the two versions of Stomping Ground have overdubbed vocals in certain places so I imagine Rory hadn\u2019t finished writing the track and was trying out different ways to play it with the band. When he was mixing the album he recorded the new lines and added it to the track, that\u2019s why there\u2019s a weird slapback type sound to the vocals in certain places as the vocal overdubs were done on the room mic channel so sometimes double the vocal. Just to reassure there aren\u2019t any overdubs on any of the live material!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;Not always true with some other famous &#8220;live&#8221; albums, the Band&#8217;s &#8220;Last Waltz&#8221; immediately comes to mind, but with Rory what you hear on <strong>IT &#8217;74<\/strong> is how it sounded during the show. So is there anything else that wasn\u2019t included in this deluxe edition?  Any more bits and pieces of songs from the afternoon session?  The \u201cend of tour\u201d party?  I heard mention of an interview?  Tony Palmer doesn\u2019t have any footage lying around collecting dust, does he?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;I\u2019ve edited together Rory\u2019s guitar and music talk with Tony Palmer from the soundcheck which in the film is only a few minutes but runs to about 20 minutes in total. I couldn\u2019t get Sony to let me include it in the package on a ten inch vinyl, in fairness 8 discs is quite a lot. I\u2019ll try and find another way of getting this out.<\/p>\n<p>There was some bits of recording from the Cork Boat House after party and a few minutes of the Dubliners with Rory in the bar at the Gresham Hotel in Dublin but sadly nothing really usable as a complete song as there is so much background noise of people talking, pint glasses clinking etc.<\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"float:right;padding-left:9px;font-size:smaller;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shadowplays.com\/archive\/archiveimages\/lie.jpg\"><br \/><center>Live in Europe promo <\/center><\/div>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;With the deluxe version of Irish Tour &#8217;74 in the can, is there a possibility of doing a deluxe version of LIE?  Do you still have the recordings made from the Pye Mobile?  Robin mentioned 3 English shows that were possibly recorded using the Pye mobile: Luton, Nottingham(Birmingham?), and Leicester.  He also mentioned the Gerhard Henjes tapes from Germany and Holland. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;I\u2019d love to give Live In Europe the same treatment but as yet I haven\u2019t come across tapes of the other shows.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;Hopefully those tapes resurface!  <\/p>\n<p>Considering that LIE was taken mostly from one show, the Luton Town Hall gig and IT \u201974 was mostly from Cork City Hall, I wonder whether the cohesiveness and balance that a single concert produces was perhaps the missing piece for the StageStruck Live album, still a great album, but perhaps it would have been even better if it had come from a single show. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;With Stagestruck you can hear the heavy use of reverb to cover the sound changes of the different venues and, for me, that\u2019s why it isn\u2019t as strong a live album as the other two. Of that era I think the Notes From San Francisco live disc gives a really good impression of what the much heavier and louder three piece line up with Ted and Gerry was like.<\/em> <\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Pye mobile unit not only recorded the shows for <strong>Live In Europe<\/strong>, it was also used for the 1970 Isle of Wight recordings.  I understand you are now at work with the Taste material.  Are you looking to do an expanded Taste Live at the Isle of Wight lp?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;On the Isle Of Wight album we\u2019re looking to release the full concert in the setlist order but I\u2019m not sure yet whether this will be part of a DVD package or as a stand alone release.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;  Are we any closer to getting the Isle of Wight video released then?  What has been the biggest stumbling blocks with that?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">The biggest stumbling block is the amount of vested parties and their varying degrees of interest in the project happening. Murray Lerner ,the film director, and Strange Music are in agreement to make the film but the latest issues are who owns what rights to the audio, but I\u2019m hoping to start actual editing work on it very soon.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shadowplays.com\/archive\/archiveimages\/rg_iow.jpg\" alt=\"Isle of Wight\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size:smaller;\">Rory Gallagher at the Isle of Wight &copy; rorygallagher.com<\/div>\n<p> <\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;  I remember whining to Murray Lerner a few years back that I wanted to see a &#8216;Taste at the Isle of Wight&#8217; documentary before I died.  I&#8217;m not getting any younger, Daniel!  <\/p>\n<p>Will the entire Taste catalogue be reissued?  Any more Taste video out there?  I recall Ulster TV doing a special on Taste called, \u201cAn Evening with Taste\u201d, and wouldn&#8217;t Montreux have videotaped Taste&#8217;s appearance too?  Sad to think of all the television footage that has been erased, damaged or lost.  Still, just when you think you\u2019ve seen all there is, something new crops up.  That clip of Taste at the \u201969 Essen Pop &#038; Blues Festival was a pleasant surprise, despite the unusual directorial style.  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Getting some Taste audio released for next year is on the agenda, it\u2019s a different scenario for us than the solo Rory stuff where we come up with the idea for the next release and take it to Sony \/ Eagle Rock. Taste as a band is \u2018owned\u2019 by Polydor so we have to wait for them to want to do something but things are looking positive for possibly a 4CD set for next year.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve been searching for Taste footage everywhere, sadly the \u2018Evening with Taste\u2019 UTV no longer has and we\u2019ve checked with Montreux and they don\u2019t think the concert was filmed as they have no tapes of it. It\u2019s amazing the random clips that turn up such as the German old man shooting the poster of Taste and the recent find you sent me from the Essen Festival. Hopefully somewhere out there is a full Taste concert, focused solely on them.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;Something else that merits a deluxe offering is Rory&#8217;s performances at the BBC &#8212; both audio and visual.  The two disc BBC Sessions that Donal compiled is one of my favorite albums, but there&#8217;s much, much more from their archives, isn&#8217;t there?  Not to mention the video from his performances at the Hammersmith Odeon and Middlesex Polytechnic! <\/p>\n<p><strong>Daniel Gallagher:<\/strong><em style=\"font-weight:bold;color:orange;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;The beeb are pretty good, we\u2019ve had good dialogue with their archive and licensing team and they actually sent us masters of all the footage they have. In the main it\u2019s only what has been broadcast before so sadly no extra hour of unseen material etc but we can really work on the audio and visual so it\u2019d be far better than the VHS copies that are currently on youtube. Then I\u2019d need to go through all the audio concerts and sessions to see the magnitude of the set and then see which of our label partners would want to do the release and whether it\u2019s an audio and visual set or two separate releases etc. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shadowplays:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;  Sounds like we got some good things to look forward to, Daniel! Thanks for all your hard work with this latest release, the IT \u201974 deluxe edition; it\u2019s a wonderful addition to the Rory catalogue, and we look forward to more releases in the future.  And let&#8217;s give a quick shout out to Andy Pearce and Matt Wortham for a wonderful job mastering the extended IT 74, and Pat Galvin and Eric Luke for some excellent photographs that were included in the IT &#8217;74 booklet!  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Irish Tour &#8217;74, D\u00f2nal and Daniel Gallagher, brother and nephew to the guitar genius , have released an expanded deluxe edition of that incredible album, including the complete recordings from all three Irish Tour venues: Belfast\u2019s Ulster Hall, Dublin\u2019s Carlton Cinema, and Cork\u2019s City Hall.  The following is a recent interview I did with Daniel Gallagher about the making of this deluxe edition:<\/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":[326],"tags":[20,25,38,349,217,450,270,269,451,449,476,60,275,26],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3085"}],"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=3085"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3104,"href":"https:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3085\/revisions\/3104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shadowplays.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}