
But I also
remember reading, in Melody Maker if memory serves correctly, about a celebrated
incident relating to a performance by Rory at Birmingham Town Hall. He’d arrived there a day ahead of the band and
crew, apparently because of some publicity commitments, only to find on the
night of the gig that band and gear were all stranded on the motorway because
of fog.
So what did
the bold Rory do? He went on stage with
an acoustic guitar, apologised for the problem and promised to come back and do
a full gig for free – and then delivered a set that brought the house
down. There are various accounts of this
performance, such as these from the forum on the Rory Gallagher website. Oh, to have been in the audience that night!
This story
came back to me last year, after going to see Eric Clapton play at the SSE
Hydro in Glasgow. Notoriously, Clapton
found the sound not to his liking, and walked off stage in the middle of ‘Cocaine’,
which turned out to be the last song in his main set. When he came back he offered a quick “Sorry
about that”, did an encore, and that was that - not even a reprise of ‘Cocaine’. And you ask yourself, would Rory Gallagher
have done that?
Happy
birthday Rory – a class act.
No comments:
Post a Comment