Inadequate
- yes, but also inevitable for here. Auckland was presented with the
unique opportunity to see the masters of two very different instruments
in one week. Beforehand, one could be excused for asking how this, the
last concert of Gallagher's Austral-asian tour , could possibly compare
with Sunday's effort by Rick Wakeman, yet afterwards one could only ask
how some people, when deciding between the two, had been foolish enough
to prefer Wakeman.
On the
face of it, Wakeman had all the advantages, playing The Springs with a
large retinue (complete with inflatable plastic dinosaurs and
Charleston dancers), while Gallagher was relegated to Auckland's
pathetic Town Hall and played with only a four-piece band. Yet he
managed to ignore these natural disadvantages and produce a very
exciting show in both sight and sound.
The
group exploded onto stage after a fumbled introduction which welcomed
the crowd to Wellington and immediately broke into the classic rocker Messin with the Kid. From then on,
the audience was theirs as they moved on through other rockers like Cradle Rock, slower blues numbers
like A Million Miles Away,
into an acoustic set for Pistol
Slapper Blues and finishing with another power rocker Bullfrog Blues.
Throughout
the night Rory exhibited his versatility on stringed instruments,
comparable to Wakeman's prowess on keyboards, as he played ordinary,
acoustic and slide guitars as well as a touch of mandolin, he also
provided the frantic vocals and occasionally blew some pretty fine
harp. The show was his as he pranced, danced, leapt, and rocked his way
about the stage. Dressed simply in denim, he was armed for most of the
time with a guitar so battered that one could easily imagine that he
bought it second hand off Pete Townsend.
But Rory
Gallagher is not just the man. It is also the tight backing band
featuring Lou Martin (keyboards), Rod de'Ath (drums), and Gerry McAvoy
(bass). Martin's keyboards were consistently good and the rhythm
section really came into its own with two fine solos on Bullfrog Blues.
After a
two hour concert followed by a strong 10 minute encore, the crowd
couldn't take any more. They had danced, stomped and clapped to the
point of exhaustion, they called for no second encore, not by way of a
put down, but rather because both the group and the crowd just couldn't
take any more, both had given their all in making this a truly great
evening.
A return
visit was promised for next February: don't miss this guitar hero the
second time round; and while you're waiting, you can still get the live
sound on vinyl with the double set Irish
Tour 74. Stewart
O'ReillyThis article comes from the
March 1975 issue of Hot Licks from New Zealand the background is a mutation
of a fuzzy photo in the magazine reformatted by roryfan
