Seventies
Recollection –
Rory
Gallagher
For being a blank week in
the calendar of my life
till then, the one starting with that famous fucking Monday February
14th 1972 was - musically speaking - very remarkable. Taking off with
the unforgettable VDGG's performance at the Space Electronic club in
the heart of the town of Michelangelo on Monday and subsequently
landing with Groundhogs's less than inspired blues set on Friday 18th,
the week reached its peak Thursday 17th with The Rory Gallagher Trio
live at the club. The place was packed, and the atmosphere still
charged with the excitement VDGG left behind them. Rory is a people's
choice. In the previous weeks the club's artistic director, the 20
year-old Jerry Gherardi, went around the ballroom asking the most
die-hard fans for suggestions about whom to choose between the Irishman
and the sensitive four-piece outfit from Charisma Label. The answers he
got left very little room for imagination. For instance, I replied to
his question with a sample of my two-word philosophy: 'Book both!'.
He did that.
Florence's
rock community loved Rory's first two solo albums ('Rory Gallagher' and
'Deuce'), and Taste's 'Live in Montreaux' was never too far from the
local boys' turntables. His coming was warmly welcomed.
And so,
here we are again, out of the pouring rain and the mediocrity of a
well-mannered city living on its past, with no so much hope in any
future (Florence's future is represented by its past - please take
note!) and no rock & roll stories to be told. Not yet, at least.
Not until this week, that is. All this because for the second time in
just one week we are here again into our future rock & roll life!
Tonight, 4 days into the week that changed our lives, we are beginning
to get accustomed to the real rock & roll life. Thanks to VDGG,
Rory Gallagher and The Groundhogs.
And now, ladies & gentlemen, it's showtime for Mr. Gallagher!
Rory
is a very easy-going guy. No frills, no star trip, just a plain good
ol' chap from Ballyshannon, Donegal, Ireland, ready to chat, crack a
joke and laugh - and he loves football (I mean the game otherwise
called 'soccer', not its rough Gaelic version). I meet him in person in
the glorious loo of the club (any historical rock club in the world
must have a glorious loo· ) just 15 minutes before the gig, pint
in
hand, chatting with a few local boys that, a little apart from the rest
of the crowd, are passing around a spliff. I'm offered a toke, but I
politely decline saying I'm too young; actually, though, I decline
mostly because my head is still somewhere else in time and space since
Van Der Graaf Generator's sonic attack of just 3 days ago. Being there
next to him, I realize his voice sounds exactly as on his eelpies,
which
makes me think that choosing a Marantz 30 w amp and an Akai AP 001 as
turntable with handmade 3 way speakers as new home stereo equipment
(X'mas 1971 gift from my parents) was not so bad an idea!
Tonight's
opening act is a still-unknown Roman 'progressive rock' band born just
a few months ago and whose atypical name - Banco del Mutuo Soccorso -
means nothing to me. Their lead singer is a funny, grossly overweight,
bearded guy who looks like he's straight out of a Fellini movie (I'll
discover later that Francesco Di Giacomo has actually worked with
Fellini, as an extra in 'Roma'!). Their music is well rehearsed and
textured, a little bit odd but fascinating. Within 6 months their debut
album will be in the uppermost part of the Italian chart. Tonight
people applaude them politely.
Now it's Gallagher's
time. The three-piece outfit
formed by him, Gerry McAvoy and Wilgar Campbell walk on stage cheered
by a noisy and happy crowd which launch themselves in a 3-minute long
stadium chant and rhythmic handclapping before the band hit a single
note. The happiness of the local rock community psychs Rory up, and for
the next 90 minutes the Irishman and his cohorts rock hard in a set not
too different from the 'Live In Europe' album (I recall noting a Revox
tape recorder next to the primitive mixing board), with crowd-pleasing,
applause-raising faves such as 'Messing With The Kid, 'Bullfrod Blues,
'Laundromat, 'In Your Town', 'I Could Have Had Religion', 'Going To My
Hometown'. Rory best kept secrets are simplicity and humility. He is
one of the hardest-working men in the show business this side of the
Ocean. He is positive and knows how to connect with a new audience.
Simply great!!! Gallagher & Co., with the smallest set of equipment
I've ever seen in my life (it fits in a canary yellow, battered Citroen
2CV, as I'll find out later on that same summer when I'll see the band
again on Sunday, July 23rd, at the glorious Piper Club 2000 - now
Caprice - in Viareggio), produce a rock-blues wall of sound which makes
you beg for more and more and puts you in an exceedingly good mood.
This is the so-called 'feel fine factor' - every artist should have
one! At the end of the third encore Rory thanks the crowd and says
goodbye, but it's immediately clear to him that the kids want more. And
so, tired but still smiling, risking to fall from the high stage, he's
back for a last number, a slow acoustic blues which closes down an epic
night.
In the years to come this
concert will be regarded
as a highly influential one by the next generation of Florentine rock
musicians, assuming a mythological status in the history of rock music
in the town of Michelangelo. I mean, if all those who say they attended
the show had actually been there, only the local ballpark (and not the
relatively tiny Space Electronic) could have accommodated so many
people!
When, 22 years after that night, I met Rory again, after
a rousing show at the Pistoia Blues festival, his music was the same,
but he was very different. He looked tired and bloated. On that
occasion I showed him a photo taken at the Space Electronic. He smiled
politely, trying to hide his physical pain - maybe his sadness too.
He died within less than one year, on June 14th, 1995. Death don't have
no mercy.
Ernesto de Pascale
Firenze June 16th, 2002
****************************************************************************************
The review was
taken from:
Il Popol del Blues (The People of
Blues) http://www.ilpopolodelblues.com/rev.html
Thanks to Claudio Vanzettor for passing it along
reformatted by roryfan
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