‘Rory Gallagher – His Life and Times’ – Marcus Connaughton (The Collins Press)
Written by Mark Ashby
Saturday, 15 December 2012 04:00
It almost beggars belief that, apart from Jean-Noël Cohne’s hastily produced and disappointingly bland 1997 tome, there has been no major biography of the supremely talented guitarist known to his legions of fans as simply the ‘G Man’ in the 17 years since his untimely death.
Marcus Connaughton – a lifelong fan and widely acknowledged expert on the Irish music scene (mainly via his role as producer with state broadcaster RTE) – has gone some way towards redressing that balance with this long overdue tribute to the man who can justifiably be referred to as Ireland’s first true international rock star.
Appropriately, this biography does not start with Rory himself, but with the story of the distinctive 1961 Fender Stratocaster which he bought as a 15 year old schoolboy and was to become as much part of Rory’s music and mystique as the man who played it. It’s a story that’s well-known to every self-respecting Irish music fan – of how the teenage Rory visited Crowley’s Music Store on Cork’s Merchant Key, close to his home, and at first could not afford the shiny new Strat in the window, but rejected any alternatives to wait (probably impatiently) for a more affordable second-hand model to become available.
Drawing on a wealth of interviews, from music store owner Michael Crowley (whose shop has become something of a mecca for Rory fans worldwide) through many of the figures who were to perform with and help shape Gallagher’s subsequent career, from the days of learning his trade playing remote dancehalls (the early sixties were the days of a peculiarly Irish phenomenon know as the ‘Showbands’) right up until his brother Donal’s surprisingly dispassionate account of his death, at the stupidly young age of just 47 in 1995.
There are many invaluable insights, such as Connaughton’s well-observed dissertation on ‘The Scene’ against which backdrop Rory grew and evolved as a guitarist, and excellent chapters of Gallagher’s associations with Muddy Waters, Jerry Lee Lewis and a particularly evocative few pages on his collaboration with the Irish folk artist Davy Spillane, which helps to highlight the diversity of styles to which the great man was able to turn his hand, as well as his appreciation for all types of music in their truest and most honest forms. Other excellent contributions include those from the filmmaker Tony Palmer, whose recounting of the story behind the seminal ‘Irish Tour 74’ is a superlative insight of Gallagher at the height of his powers, and from sound engineer/minder Joe O’Herlihy.
The interviews with Gallagher himself, many of them originally recorded by the author for various radio programmes and transcribed in their fault-filled entirety, are superb, reflecting the humility and gentleness of the man, the two traits which characterised the man and which really shine through throughout this tome.
My only criticism is that, being an Irish publication, readers from outside the island may have some (minor) difficulty understanding some of it centric-ness in this regard, but the author does his best to make sure that every anecdote is contextualised to the best of his ability.
This may not be the definitive biography which the ‘G Man’ deserves, I suspect that is very much still in the works, presumably under the expert guidance of Donal Gallagher. But it is authoritative, eloquent and informed, and a valuable insight into the life of a hugely talented and respected gentle man.
‘Rory Gallagher – His Life And Times’ is available now and you can buy your copy via the link below.
To pick up your copy of ‘Rory Gallagher: His Life and Times’ – CLICK HERE
