by André Depienne

The Irish singer and guitarist played the gui- tar already at the age of 9, and joined the “Fontana Show Band” at the age of 15. La- ter they changed the band’s name into “Im- pact”. Being a Blues and Rock’n’Roll fan, his musical idols were Lonnie Donegan, Muddy Waters and Leadbelly. His breakthrough in 1968 was in London at the “Marquee Club” and at the legendary “Isle of Wight-Festival”, with the group called “Power trio”. Since 1970 Rory recorded and performed under his own name. Nearly all of his albums were produced by himself. He wrote most of his music himself and rarely covered other blues songs. A critic once wrote that Rory’s lyrics balanced between “American myth” and “Iri- sh melancholy”. He recorded his most popu- lar album in 1974, while touring Ireland, and simply called it “Irish Tour 74”. The fact that Gallagher was an excellent guitarist was un- derlined by the fact that he was requested to play for bands Cream, the Rolling Stones or Deep Purple, whenever they lost their lead guitarist like Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor or Richie Blackmore for example. Rory however preferred to continue as a solo musician, and so he did. He died on June 14, 1995, during a liver transplantation due to his alcoholic pro- blems.