Rory Gallagher tribute band play Galway on farewell tour

The music of Rory Gallagher will be celebrated when Sinnerboy play the Róisín Dubh on Saturday, February 27. The show is also part of the band’s farewell tour, but front man Barry Barnes plans to keep on playing Gallagher’s music.

“I’ve got a solo tour of Holland and a solo tour of Greece coming up,”he says. “It is, of course, still Rory. And I will get another band together. But the thing about it is Dave [Burns, bass] and Steve [Tansley, drums] are so good that I couldn’t just turn up six months later with an inferior product. We’ve been working together for a very long time, it’s a great band and it’s very tight. To find that calibre of musician is difficult.”

Barry organised his first Rory Gallagher tribute show in 1996, one year after the bluesman’s death. It took place in Manchester, where Barnes is based. What began as an informal celebration eventually led to Barnes taking Gallagher’s music on the road.

“That concert was at a local pub in Manchester, very low-key,” he recalls. “Just a lot of my pals, jamming with my band. The place was full, it was packed and I had a lovely time. Then in the morning my wife said when I came down ‘you’d better listen to this’. She pressed the button on the answer phone and a voice said ‘hello, my name is Donal Gallagher. I’m looking for Barry Barnes because I’ve heard he did a tribute to my brother. Get in touch’. So I got in touch with Donal and we’ve been friends ever since.”

Like any true Rory Gallagher fan, Barnes can pinpoint the exact year he first the Ballyshannon born legend play.

“1969 –yes I am old!” he laughs. “I was 17 and it was at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. I walked in and I was really disappointed because I’d seen Jimi Hendrix and I’d seen Cream, and they all used this great big wall of Marshall amplifiers.

“All I saw was this was tiny Vox amplifier on a kitchen chair. And a tiny drum kit and a tiny bass amp, and I thought ‘I don’t think I’m going to like this, this is going to be a bit light for me’.

“Anyway,” Barry continues. “Rory walks in, plugs his Stratocaster into the Vox – and, well, it changed my life really. It was magnificent, absolutely magnificent, and I’ve been a total fan ever since. My hero.”Rory Gallagher never attained the level of superstardom that many felt was his due. Guns N Roses guitarist Slash has spoken of his admiration for Gallagher, as has U2’s The Edge, but he never sold the volumes that his admirers have.

“I was watching a Wim Wenders film the other day about all the guitar players that brought the blues back to America, like Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck,” says Barry. “And these things never mention Rory. If you asked any of those guys, in their heart of hearts, who they look up to and they’d say Rory and Jimi [Hendrix].

“However, I’ve stopped being angry about it because Rory himself didn’t want it,” he adds. “He actively turned down stardom. He was very in touch with the blues, really faithful to the blues and he didn’t really want it. So I can’t get too angry about it.”

Last year, bassist Dave Burns and drummer Steve Tansley decided that their next tour with Sinnerboy will be their last. Barry will continue to play Gallagher’s music as a solo act, but understands why the lads are leaving.

“We are the biggest Rory Gallagher tribute in the world but we can’t make a good living at it,” he says. “If we were a Rolling Stones tribute band, or a Queen band, people would flock to our gigs. But it’s very difficult to find enough Rory fans. It’s sad, but it’s because he was so low-profile.”

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.