ALL-ROUND
Irish gentleman and veteran
Blues campaigner, Rory Gallagher, suddenly feels comfortable with the
current musical climate. Through the ‘60s, fronting Irish trio,
Taste, and the ups and downs of the two decades that followed, Rory
has weathered the roughest storms and emerged only to see current
trends turn full circle in his favour.
“Who
would have thought ten years ago
after the Punk thing that we’d get round to a full-blown Blues
revivaI? It’s fantastic and it’s even getting played on the
radio, which is brilliant. When I hear that I feel like making
records. I would even make a single if I thought it would change the
Pop picture.”
While
Rory is unlikely to rearrange the
sorry state of Pop as we know it, 1990’s ‘Fresh Evidence’
contains enough Blues-soaked gems to set even the most heathen of
toes a ‘tappin’, drawing on a genuine love of the genre rather
than any misguided attempt to jump on the tailboard of the Blues boom
bandwagon.
“I
wish people would understand that
there is more to it than the current successes and the obvious
influences. I respect people like Albert King, Freddy King and BB
King, but that’s just the top curve of the Blues. People don't
realize that it gets a lot deeper, with acoustic Blues or early
electric Blues.”
Spontaneity
itself is a key word with
Rory and it’s borne out during the recording of ‘Fresh Evidence’.
“When
it came down to recording the
album I just wanted to get straight into it. I knew I was going to
have to tour, but I went in to record without anticipating the tour of
the album, the T-shirt and the 185 days on the road. I wanted to do
something very raw and do it all in three months maximum. Instead it
took about nine months, which is ironic because it’s very
under-produced. But to keep things primitive, it took us longer than
if we used all these studio gadgets that we were surrounded by!"
laughs Rory, “When it came down to recording we tended to do
everything first take and then repair it. I’m not one of those
people who can mess around for six hours to get a particular sound. I
get very suspicious of people messing around with things in the
studio. I still believe in simplicity in the studio. I also believe
that somewhere in a primitive studio someone’s going to come up
with a raw Blues album that’ll be outrageous and that’ll change
the way things are. The Stones could do that very easily. They
could make a great Chuck Berry / Bo Diddley / Jimmy Reed style album,
but instead they’re using drum machines which is a great insult to
Charlie Watts. Them and Clapton could make genuinely great Blues
albums and turn things around.”
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