Rory Gallagher

Incredible think that this album was released 50 years ago – the maturity, the skills and the sheer joy of his playing are not what you normally expect to find in a young man of only 23.
Some of the songs here were still standard items in his setlist when he passed away 24 years later at the ridiculously young age of 47.

This has been released to celebrate the original release of ‘Rory Gallagher’ in 1971 and the package is quite superb containing the original album, 2 CDs of outtakes and alternate versions and a CD worth of live sessions from both the BBC ‘Sounds of the Seventies’ sessions and from a John Peel session. All of it was mastered at Abbey Road.

You also get a DVD with an interview with Gallagher and a previously unreleased live solo show from Paris in ’71.
Add to all that a hardback booklet with pictures etc and it is an impressive collection.

Frankly, if you are a newcomer to Rory Gallagher you should be out finding a copy of the original album and use that as a springboard to find out just why he was one of the most loved Blues players – loved by his fans AND his peers – to come out of Europe.
However, if you are an afficionado, then the outtakes and alternate versions as well as the live material and the DVD are well worth getting your hands on as his skill and personality is really made clear here.

1971 was an amazing year for music and there are a lot of anniversary editions of the incredible albums released that year. This one is one of the very best though and well worth investigation.