Japan
Tour Report
by Yoichi Shibuya
Energetic performance
with all his might and perfect unity with audience:
Rory Gallagher Japan Tour
As the bell
rings for the opening of the show and it gets dark inside the hall,
there comes loud applause. Not much whistle or call. When Rory gets on
stage following the other members, girls scream "Rory!" Rory
dresses as usual. And he holds that paint-less Stratocaster. He looks
very happy. When they start playing the first song, the hall
fills with shouts of joy. Rory couldn't be better and runs around the
stage as he plays. Once he gets very close to falling with, possibly
too much enthusiasm, but still keeps running. The atmosphere at the
concert hall is great and Rory seems to be really feeling good. The
sound is a little bit smaller than I prefer, but it is clear and
comfortable. A girl sitting behind me started crying with too much
excitement. After the first song, the hall gets filled with
tremendous applause and cheer. Rory gives "Thank you" a few times
rather bluntly, and proceeds to "Tattoo'd Lady"
The show goes on
showering us with music in delightful tempo. I don't recall
experiencing such a pleasant and thrilling concert recently. Not to
mention their wonderful play, but also the reaction of audience is so
great. Everyone has come to really love Rory's guitar and enjoy
it. The mood in here is very tight-knit and even this hall is
relatively large, I feel like I'm in a small cabin listening the music
condensed.
Except the
thunderous applause after each song, the audience is rather quiet, but
it is amazing that I can feel the excitement of the whole venue just
sitting here. There is no dull moment during the 2 hour concert.
Last year at
Rory's show, there was some clapping during a slow blues number and I
felt rather uncomfortable. There is no worry like that this year. As
usual Rory got on his own in a middle of the show and did banjo and
harmonica for 3 songs. Of course there was no untimely clapping, and
when needed it came as neatly as possible, and Rory seemed to be
comfortable.
I really felt
this time that what decides the outcome of a concert is not only
by power of a musician, but also by power of audience. It was rather
too good to be true when Rory played "Walk On Hot coals" right after it
was requested, but Rory and the audience worked in perfect harmony.
After the
introduction of members, Rory announced that next song would be the
last one for the night. Then many fans rushed to the stage and there
was a commotion. A middle aged lady sitting next me was frightened and
ran away. As soon as the last number was finished the lights came
back on as if the management has sensed some danger coming. We
were told that there would be no encore, but fans kept clapping for
nearly 10 minutes and they had their way and brought Rory and the band
back to stage.
Rory is a
scrupulous musician who plays always his best no matter under whatever
the condition is, and especially this day he has shown us the best
stage performance with the best condition. It was very moving for
me to see a boy about high school age kept saying "awesome, just
awesome" with his eyes all red.
At Shibuya
Kokaido 1/26/75
Notes: This venue
was originally built for the 1964 Olympics and opened in 1965. It has
since been renamed "C.C.Lemon Hall" after a popular Japanese soft drink
company purchased naming rights to the building from
2006-2011. j.g.
From the Japanese
publication "Music Life" 1975 March issue
Thanks to Brenda
O'Brien for sharing thsi article
Thanks to Reiko
Schenetzer for translating the article from Japanese
Photo found on
the internet
reformatted by
roryfan
368
added 12/16/07
