44 Facts About Rory Gallagher

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

Rory Gallagher has sometimes been referred to as "the greatest guitarist you've never heard of".

Rory Gallagher played over 2,000 concerts worldwide throughout his career, including many in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

Rory Gallagher's health began to deteriorate, resulting in a liver transplant in March 1995 at King's College Hospital in London.

Rory Gallagher has been commemorated posthumously with statues in Ballyshannon and Belfast, a memorial sculpture in Cork, and public spaces renamed in his memory in Dublin, Cork, and Paris.

Rory Gallagher has been commemorated on an An Post set of postage stamps and a Central Bank of Ireland commemorative coin.

Rory Gallagher was born on 2 March 1948 to Daniel and Monica Rory Gallagher at the Rock Hospital in Ballyshannon in County Donegal, Ireland.

Rory Gallagher was baptised in the nearby St Joseph's Church.

Rory Gallagher attended the North Monastery School and, later, St Kieran's College.

Rory Gallagher developed a love for music at a young age through the radio, listening to broadcasts from Radio Luxembourg, the BBC and the American Forces Network.

Rory Gallagher later discovered rock and roll, particularly Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, and Chuck Berry, before finding his greatest influence in Muddy Waters.

At age nine, Rory Gallagher received a plastic Elvis Presley model ukelele for Christmas, on which he taught himself basic chords.

Rory Gallagher was eager to form a band but struggled to find anyone in Cork who shared his interest.

Rory Gallagher impressed the band with his audition and lied about his age to secure the position.

Around this time, Rory Gallagher was invited by the showband The Victors to play as a session guitarist on their recording 'Call Up the Showbands'.

Rory Gallagher persuaded Kitteringham and Damery, who were working as a printer and an insurance broker at the time, to go fully professional, and they agreed.

All ten tracks were composed by Rory Gallagher and showcased his progressive blues style, mixing blues rock with acoustic ballads and experimental jazz-blues fusion.

The situation worsened when Taste's van was broken into the night before the Isle of Wight Festival, and Wilson accused Rory Gallagher of orchestrating the break-in because only his drum pedals were stolen.

Rory Gallagher agreed to transfer the Taste royalties, though he claimed to have no money.

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 on 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.

The main instrument that Rory Gallagher played throughout his career was a sunburst 1961 Fender Stratocaster.

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.

In 1967, while in Dublin to visit Pat Egan at the Five Club, Rory Gallagher's Stratocaster was stolen, along with a Telecaster he had borrowed from a friend.

Rory Gallagher contacted the producers of a television programme called Garda Patrol, who featured the stolen guitars in one of their segments.

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.

In July 2024, Donal Rory Gallagher announced that he would be auctioning the Stratocaster through Bonhams.

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 programme.

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 in Ballincollig, near Cork City, in Ireland.

Rory Gallagher was listed in 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 three live albums:.