At
last I was able to meet Rory
Gallagher. Several interviews had been canceled, but now we sat in
the reception area at Polydor talking about his lifelong interest in
music.
I
asked him when his interest in the guitar first arose.
“I
must have only been about four or five years of age when I used to
listen to the guitar sounds of Tennessee Ernie Ford, Guy Mitchell and
whoever else was going at the time. At that age I couldn't really
distinguish them. But I knew what was there all right."
“When
Elvis Presley came along he really impressed me, but then I was
absolutely knocked out by Lonnie Donegan because I liked his skiffle
type mixture of folk and ragtime music with a bit of country blues
thrown in.”
“So
between Donegan on one front, and Elvis, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran,
and eventually Chuck Berry on the other, my musical tastes had a good
range. I was a very lucky kid, being able to hear these people at the
time.”
“I
didn't get my first wooden guitar until I was nine, but I had a plastic
one up until then, a ukulele it was really, and I'd learnt something
from that. I went on stage for the first time, a couple of weeks after
I got that wooden guitar.”
“I
could sing songs, but I had to learn some chords, so I worked hard at
it and started doing concerts in schools, boy scout shows and the usual
talent contests, with £2.10 as the first prize; I won the odd
contest, but I didn't like doing them really. You'd be in deep
competition with an acrobat or a dancer.”
Gallagher
never had musical training. He bought the Lonnie Donegan Guitar Tutor
and skiffle songbooks, and learned from them. Then, he says, he started
learning from watching other people play. And gradually he taught
himself.
“
I sometimes wish I'd had some training, “ he told me, “but if I had I
wouldn't be playing like I'm playing now.”
“Then
I tried to form a couple of groups, but I didn't really get a chance.
At that time people weren't very interested, and I couldn't get anybody
I liked to play with me. They were more wrapped in their traditional
music – something I like myself – but at the time I was more interested
in forming a rock group.”
“I
got my first electric guitar when I was 12. I did have a few impromptu
guitar sessions with other guitar players, but there was nothing
definite. So at the age of 15, I joined the Impact Showband.”
“It
was great fun and great training, as I had the opportunity to play
almost every night. We played everything from Chuck Berry to Top 20
material, to Jim Reeves.”
LOT
OF LUCK
“We
had a lot of luck and toured around Europe – actually visiting England
once or twice. But I eventually got sick of it because there was no
imagination in our act. I left the group two years later and I went off
to Hamburg with a small group which was a breakaway from the showband.
Then I drifted back to Ireland.”
“By
then the beat scene had become quite solid, and I met up with two
musicians who'd played with Cork's top group at the time, called the
Axles.”
“We
got together to form the original Taste in 1967, and it went on as it
was until the well known version of Taste came over here in 1968.”
“When
I did the first Taste album, John and Richie were well into my music.
We did a lot of gigs and made our name by playing all over the country.”
"Then
another album came out a couple of months later, 'On the Boards'. They
were the only two albums we officially released, but the record company
brought out a live album after the split to which we hadn't really
consented.”
"The
public wanted
and deserved another album, and the company had to find one some way.”
“Taste
split up in
October and I had a few things, like
contracts, to sort out. I wanted to start afresh, so I got a new
contract with Polydor and I went in the studio to make my first
album.”
“I
tried out a few
musicians, but Wilgar Campbell (drums) and
Gerry McAvoy (bass) were always in the back
of my mind. I'd seen them in playing in Belfast over the years, so I
auditioned them. And they've been with me since.”
I
asked him who his main influences are.
“I've
been influenced by just about everyone I've heard. You can listen to a
record that's pretty awful, but they might do just one lick in a song
that would leave a strong impression.”
“If
Dylan or Muddy Waters bring out an album, I'll go and get them
immediately because I really like their music. I'm an avid record fan,
so I'm listening to a lot of things all the time. And learning all the
time.”
How
is the new band, I asked, going down at concerts?
“Our
concerts are going very well, and I'm delighted with it all. I'm
prepared to play nearly every day of the year, because if you keep
working all the time you keep yourself nimble, building up on what
you're playing.”
“But
it's no good if you're going to retire to Cheshire for three months and
pretend to write a book. It doesn't work at all. I just like to go on
the road and work and work, and play and play.”
“I
like traveling and seeing different places, and I enjoy being a
traveling musician.”
IMPORTANT
“I
treat all my performances with equal importance. I'd treat a gig in
Japan the way I'd treat one in Newcastle or London. But you get some
musicians standing on the stage in a remote town thinking that they
needn't bother, just because it isn't London.”
“Every
gig is as important as the other one. You've got to treat them all the
same.”
Does
he write all his own material?
“I
can't say I write continually because I can go for weeks without
writing a song. Then I'll maybe put down about 12 at once. But even
when I'm not writing, I'm thinking mentally and building myself up to
it. I always try to keep a bit of paper and pencil on me all the time
in case I get inspiration on a taxi or a bus.”
And
his recording plans for the future?
“My
third album is in the studio, and then I may be releasing a live album
which would probably be released after the studio LP.”
“The
others in the band can write pretty well, I believe, but I only use
them in the capacity of playing for me. Both of them come from Belfast
and their playing has improved enormously in the last few months.”
“At
first they weren't really used to playing my sort of music and it took
them a while to adapt themselves to what I wanted. But they've grasped
it now.”
They're
strong and solid for my kind of music. They're right behind me just
when I need them.” From
the February 19, 1972 issue of New Musical Express
background mutated from a photo with the article reformatted
by roryfan
