The recent
Jefferson Starship tour lost their opener, Rory Gallagher, when the
usually mild-mannered guitar whiz came to fisticuffs with either a) the
Starship's road manager or b) Paul Kantner.
Rory's
Irish temper flared while he was trying to convince the band to treat
their (vastly more popular) warmup acts with more respect, i.e., allow
them time for sound checks, rehearsals, etc.
One last
nyah-nyah......... after Rory split, the Starship let it be know that
any fans wanting their bucks back could indeed get a refund.
Imagine their surprise when more than half of the ticket holders took
them up on the offer! Must've been the bad karma.........
Always a big eater, Rory
enjoys two or three guitars each night before bed, or smacking Paul
Kantner, whichever comes first.
Go to Opening Act from the Rory
Stories section of RoryON!! for a good story from a fan about one of
the shows on this tour at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey
(Nov. 23, 1979).
Rory was a TOUGH act to follow! 2/06 I wrote to Donal for his
memory of this event. His reply came in 2 parts
Donal's first reply Hi John Thanks for your message, will
pen something for you shortly as I am a little up to my eyes. Yes,
there was an incident between the two camps but Rory didn't throw the
punches. Kind regards Dónal
Donal's second reply Hi John From memory, this situation
occurred as Rory would prefer to headline a club rather than be an
opening act. Our agents (ICM) had sold this package to us on the basis
that it was a double header, with Rory allowed to play a full set with
ample stage size, this worked for the first of two night at Passaic but
Rory's reception proved too good for Starship. Also, Starship had an
old pal of Rory's- Ansley Dunbar (Ansley Dunbar's Retaliation / John
Mayall) on drums.
The next day at the Capitol,
Starship's crew had reduced the stage (Rory's) size to 8 feet (drums
took up 6x4 ft alone) and restricted playing time so I protested to the
promoter who gave us permission to use the stage whatever way we
needed, Phil McDonnell (tour mgr.)Tom (backline), Julian (monitors) and
I moved whatever Starship (on a break) equipment so as to set Rory up
properly, when the Starship crew returned some of them attracted us and
blows where exchanged.
Paul Kantner came out from his
dressing room to try and pacify the situation, while giving us a
lecture as to how an 'opening act' should behave. Rory overhearing Paul
laying down the law got into a verbal exchange with him on the issue
(but no fisticuffs), Rory told him and all concerned that he would
rather not play then tolerate the treatment we were given, so, we
packed up and didn't play that show. However, after the crowd reaction
and loss of ticket sales that night, the promoter, who was doing the
run of dates, got Starship to review their attitude. Kind regards Dónal I don't have the source for this article
from 1979 ( looks like it might have been from CREEM) Photo from the article. (I made
up the title...it had none) reformatted by roryfan
