On the crest of a wave paying tribute to Rory
A tribute to Rory Gallagher will take place in Monroe’s Backstage Bar on Friday, July 10. The band are led by red-hot guitarist Barry McGivern, a Belfast native and Gallagher devotee since 1969.
“My two other older brothers who were eight and nine years older had got tickets to see Clapton playing Belfast, in Romano’s Ballroom,” Barry recalls. “Taste replaced Clapton, because basically he was on the booze and the drugs. My brothers came back that night and it was just ‘forget about Clapton, there’s this guy called Rory Gallagher’.
“Then the first time I saw Rory was on Ulster Television in late 1969,” he adds. “It was called An Evening with Taste, and we badgered my mum and dad into getting a reel-to-reel tape recorder. That was the first time I saw Rory, and I wouldn’t be telling you a word of a lie to say it was a labour of love from then.”
That labour of love led to Barry picking up a guitar and devoting himself to the six-string. Gallagher has been a constant in his life since.
“I probably saw Rory 30 times live,” Barry says. “There were lots of other great artists over the years, but Rory just had that wee bit extra that made him stand out from everyone else. I really couldn’t get by the guy.
“One of the last times I saw him playing was at the Powerhouse in Birmingham. He wasn’t suffering health problems at that stage; I can’t remember what year it was. He was blistering.”
Although Barry enjoys the work of other artists, for him Rory Gallagher will always leave them in the shade.
“I would say these past 10 years, I’ve done nothing but Rory and Taste material,” he says. “In actual fact, I’ve probably forgotten how to do Lizzy songs now.”
See the full story in this week’s Connacht and City Tribune.