Rory Gallagher – 27 Years On
Writes Cormac Mc Carthy
It’s quite incredible the footprint that Cork can have on the wider world. The city produces all of the world’s Viagra and its people have gone on to become sporting icons and civil rights leaders. (It should be noted that those two things have nothing to do with each other.)
In the music world there is no footprint quite as large as the one left by Rory Gallagher. With shaggy hair and unassuming demeanour, from a modern perspective it is hard to fully grasp the status as a rock sensation that Rory possessed. He was and still remains to this day one of the most influential artists in rock music. While he had a vastly prolific solo career, his starting point is regarded as his time involved with the band Taste. The band was formed in 1966 as a trio. The line-up consisted of Rory Gallagher on guitars and vocals, Eric Kitteringham on bass and Norman Damery on drums. After moderate success around Hamburg and Northern Ireland the band replaced its line up with Ritchie McCracken on bass and John Wilson on drums in 1968. With this the band released two albums and toured all over Europe and the United States. Taste dismantled on New Year’s Eve in 1970. What followed was a prolific solo career where Rory Gallagher released a further 13 solo albums and toured extensively. He passed away after an extraordinary career in 1995 aged 47.
Having been born a few years after his death, I had never really grasped the true extent of his influence. In 2017 and again recently, I managed to interview John Wilson, drummer in Rory’s first band Taste to try and understand Rory’s origins and his legacy. In 2006 drummer John Wilson reformed the band with a new frontman Sam Davidson and old bassist Ritchie McCracken. The band had a successful run with a critically acclaimed album, “Wall to Wall”. They reformed again to play a one-night-only gig in the Everyman a few years ago. I had the esteemed pleasure of interviewing Wilson then with Sam Davidson and new bassist Alan Niblock. Although in his 70s, Wilson is bursting with enthusiastic energy for his craft. While in the dressing room before the show, he seems completely at ease and eager for the concert starting in an hours’ time. He talks about life after Rory Gallagher’s death in 1996, “People started asking us, “Why don’t you get together and play some of Rory’s old music?” because at the time nobody was playing taste music. So Ritchie McCracken, I and Sam did some shows just after Rory died as a tribute to his music but not as a Rory Gallagher tribute band.”
Wilson, being the only original band member, has a distinct fondness for Gallagher- but only as a member of Taste. He says that he didn’t know Gallagher after he decided to pursue a solo career, “We were just three musicians who didn’t have any equipment, no roadies. We would just turn up somewhere and we’d play and there was no messing about, no show business. But Rory had turned into this Rory Gallagher machine and I didn’t know him.” It was very well known that the main reason the band dismantled was that Gallagher was taking all of the spotlight. “It wasn’t Rory Gallagher and Taste, it was just Taste. And Rory liked it that way. Just being in a band. But when somebody suddenly says that you have to go to the front, it’s your show, come on and do the show. That wasn’t the Rory we knew.”
Sam Davidson, the guitarist that evening, describes his admiration for Gallagher and the daunting task of filling his role. “Rory wasn’t just a guitar player he was an institution. Some of the places we played in Germany had shrines to the guy. It was crazy, it was like playing in Jesus’ band.” Davidson comes off as a quiet man, deeply focused on the music. The gig that followed was a fantastic rendition of classic blues featuring Taste’s back catalogue with some blues standards thrown in for good measure. Wilson gets his night’s worth by throwing in some solos lasting nearly 15 minutes.
While Rory Gallagher certainly may be gone, his influence is not. Many of his songs have managed to gain a second life on streaming platforms. Many tunes including “Wheels Within Wheels” and “Bad Penny” still rack up radio airplay all over the world.