41 Facts About Rory Gallagher

William Rory Gallagher was an Irish guitarist, singer and songwriter.

Rory Gallagher formed the blues rock power trio Taste in 1966, which experienced some moderate success in the UK.

Rory Gallagher found success with a solo career releasing music throughout the 1970s and 1980s and selling more than 30 million records worldwide.

Rory Gallagher was voted as guitarist of the year by Melody Maker magazine in 1972, and listed as the 57th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.

Rory Gallagher was born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, and raised in Cork, Munster.

Rory Gallagher's popularity had declined throughout the 1980s due to changes within the music industry and poor health.

Rory Gallagher received a liver transplant in 1995, but died of complications later that same year in London at the age of 47.

Daniel Rory Gallagher had played the accordion and sang with the Tir Chonaill Ceili Band while in Donegal; their mother Monica was a singer and acted with the Abbey Players in Ballyshannon.

At age nine, Rory Gallagher received his first guitar from them.

Rory Gallagher built on his burgeoning ability on ukulele in teaching himself to play the guitar and perform at minor functions.

Rory Gallagher began performing in his adolescence with both his acoustic guitar, and an electric guitar.

Rory Gallagher was initially attracted to skiffle after hearing Lonnie Donegan on the radio.

Rory Gallagher began experimenting with folk, blues, and rock music.

Unable to find or afford record albums, Rory Gallagher stayed up late to hear Radio Luxembourg and AFN where the radio brought him his only exposure to the actual songwriters and musicians whose music moved him most.

Further, throughout the next few years of his musical development, Rory Gallagher began learning to play alto saxophone, bass, mandolin, banjo, and the Coral electric sitar with varying degrees of proficiency.

Rory Gallagher began playing after school with Irish showbands, while still a young teenager.

Rory Gallagher left with the bassist Oliver Tobin and drummer Johnny Campbell to perform as a trio in Hamburg, Germany.

In 1966, Rory Gallagher returned to Ireland and, experimenting with other musicians in Cork, decided to form his own band.

However, despite a number of his albums from this period reaching the UK Albums Chart, Rory Gallagher did not attain major star status.

Rory Gallagher is documented in Irish Tour '74, a film directed by Tony Palmer.

Rory Gallagher said in several interviews that there were not any international Irish acts until Van Morrison and he, and later Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy.

Rory Gallagher went over for a jam with the band "just to see what was going on," but did not join the group, happy with his solo career.

The Rory Gallagher band performed several TV and radio shows across Europe, including Beat-Club in Bremen, Germany and the Old Grey Whistle Test.

Rory Gallagher recorded two "Peel Sessions", but only the first was broadcast.

Rory Gallagher collaborated with Jerry Lee Lewis and Muddy Waters on their respective London Sessions in the mid-1970s.

Rory Gallagher played on Lonnie Donegan's 1978 album Puttin' on the Style.

Rory Gallagher played a worn sunburst 1961 Stratocaster for some years.

My mother was saying we'll be in debt for the rest of our lives and Rory Gallagher said, 'Well, actually with a guitar like this I can play both parts, rhythm and lead, we won't need a rhythm player so I can earn more money and pay it off.

Rory Gallagher installed a five-way selector switch in place of the vintage three-way type.

In late October 2011, Donal Rory Gallagher brought the guitar out of retirement to allow Joe Bonamassa to perform with it on his two nights at the Hammersmith Apollo in London.

Rory Gallagher used a number of models of amplifiers during his career, generally preferring smaller 'combo' amplifiers to more powerful Marshall 'stacks' popular with rock and hard rock guitarists.

When Rory Gallagher was with Taste, he used a single Vox AC30 with a Dallas Rangemaster treble booster plugged into the 'normal' input.

Rory Gallagher used an Ibanez Tube Screamer, and several Boss effects, including a flanger.

Later in the 1970s, when Rory Gallagher was moving towards a hard rock sound, he experimented with Ampeg VT40 and VT22 amplifiers, and used Marshall combos.

Rory Gallagher was an early adopter of Boss ME-5 all-in-one floor based effects units, and used such a unit for his live work until his death.

Rory Gallagher used Stramp 2100a amplifiers, which can be seen in his appearances on the German Beat Club program.

Rory Gallagher had been prescribed paracetamol for the pain, a drug that can be extremely harmful to the liver when taken in large doses and for long periods of time.

Rory Gallagher was admitted to London's King's College Hospital in March 1995, and it was only then that the extent of his ill health became apparent; his liver was failing and the doctors determined that, in spite of his relatively young age, a liver transplant was the only possible course of action.

Rory Gallagher was buried in St Oliver's Cemetery, on the Clash Road just outside Ballincollig near Cork City, Ireland.

Rory Gallagher was listed on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, at 57th place.

Rory Gallagher released 14 albums during his lifetime as a solo act, which included 3 live albums:.