Rory Gallagher was an Irish blues and rock guitarist, singer and songwriter. Born in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, on 2 March, 1948, he grew up in the city of Cork. Based in London during most of his 30 year career, he toured extensively, sold 30 million records, and had a worldwide following of loyal fans. He died in London at the early age of 47, on 14 June 1995, from complications following a liver transplant. Although he had suffered health problems for some time, he toured until falling seriously ill late in 1994. Gallagher was a master of the guitar and he was influenced heavily not only by rock and roll, but by blues and jazz also.

He led off in the venue that had "Fleetwood Mac" before the girls (when they were good, my opinion anyway) and "Deep Purple" as the headliner. I was mesmerized by the whole show. Gallagher was fantastic (the main reason I went to the show). Fleetwood Mac was OK, but the kicker was when after a very long delay, the promoter came on stage to quiet the restless crowd. He said that Ian Gillan, the lead singer with "Deep Purple" had lost his voice and would not be able to perform. (The crowd grew belligerent) He also said that all the rest - Gallagher - Fleetwood - and the rest of Deep Purple had agreed to come out and jam. 

I thought this was a fantastic idea, but there were a lot of idiots in the crowd that night and within seconds a riot had broken out. Bottles were flying, chairs were flying, this big biker looking dude was pummeling some poor guy, this chick was scratching another guys eyes. I just sat there (luckily in the upper deck of the old Las Vegas Convention Center) not believing what was happening. I was among the last out of the place with two girls I went to the show with and we encountered more violence outside. Police cars overturned and fights. It was a really strange night. Great at first and then truly crazy !!

After the show I tried to find as many "LP's" by Rory as I could, cause now I really loved his music and could not get enough. I now have a pretty extensive Rory Gallagher library of some 25 CD's plus the old "LP's", and it is still growing. The best source I have found is:

I didn't know that Rory had passed away until 1997 while searching on the Internet for stories about him. To say the least I was flattened, devastated. My main goal is to touch someone else in the world that has not had the pleasure of hearing Gallagher belt out one of his blues songs or play his stratocaster guitar like no one else. I turn people on to Rory's music whenever I can. Cork, Ireland has to be proud of this guitar genius. I have links to other Rory Gallagher pages and lyrics, as well as Taste lyrics.