Every Moment Has A Song

(via The Telegraph) by Neil McCormick

Long before Noel and Liam Gallagher of Oasis sent the nation into a Britpop frenzy, there was only one rock and roll Gallagher that mattered. His name was Rory, and nearly 30 years after his untimely death, there’s plenty who would consider the Irish guitar slinger the only Gallagher worthy of being acclaimed a genuine musical genius.

On October 17, Bonhams auction house in London will host a sale of Rory Gallagher’s guitar collection, along with amps and accessories from his career. Amongst the items is Rory’s original 1961 Fender Stratocaster, bought second hand from Crowley’s Music Store in Cork in 1963. Gallagher was just 15 but already a professional working musician, playing covers on the Irish showband circuit. He paid £100 on credit for the guitar, persuading his parents that it would ultimately save money because he could play rhythm and lead at the same time, so wouldn’t need a second guitarist in his band. Today, it’s value is estimated at up to a million pounds.

It is a beautiful, battered looking instrument that Gallagher played all his life, as he rose to become Ireland’s first rock star. It is the instrument he would have been playing when his original power trio Taste supported Cream for their final concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 1968. Eric Clapton later credited Rory for “getting me back into the blues.” Before he formed Queen, Brian May was a huge Gallagher fan, attending many shows at the Marquee in London. “He could make his guitar do anything,” according to May. “It seemed to be magic. I remember looking at his battered Stratocaster thinking ‘how does that come out of there?’”

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/the-gallagher-who-was-actually-a-musical-genius/ar-AA1pYIJn?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=8de382b08bd345ffb76534a8ad13cf1e&ei=50#