'My 1983 scoop..an interview with Rory Gallagher' 

The 30th anniversary of the death of the legendary Rory Gallagher falls tomorrow.

The Cork rock guitarist left behind many memories among his fans - but I have one in particular that dates back more than 40 years ago, when I was a UCC student, and got to interview the great man at a small Cork hotel.

As an elected UCC Student Union officer in the early 1980s, I found myself in charge of the publications and decided to create a new one. I called it Raven.

We had two interviews for the first edition. The first was with the then Taoiseach, Dr Garrett Fitzgerald. The other was with Rory.

I naturally selected the interview of greatest international importance for myself, and so gave Fitzgerald to some other guy. I did Rory.

I still the walk on a lovely August evening to Moore’s Hotel in Morrisons Island, a long-gone little place where I’d had a summer job the previous year.

Armed with a cassette recorder, I could scarcely believe I was about to meet a legend. Until the moment he showed up, in fact, I didn’t believe it at all.

When he did, it was not what I’d expected. Though a tsunami of energy and genius on stage, Rory in person was a quiet and gentle person. His main concern appeared to be that I couldn’t make my tape recorder work - I suspect because my hands were trembling so much.

Ever the electronic engineer, I finally pressed the right button (there was just the one) and captured the interview intact.

Anyone who saw Rory live knew what he was, and he wasn’t like anyone else. I’d seen him live before that interview, and some months later saw him again at The Gleneagle Hotel in Killarney. He recognised me from the stage, grinned, and mouthed: “Which one”?

“ Shin Kicker,” I mouthed back, and he then ripped into my favourite Rory track.

Not many can say they had a song played to them by that guy. But I can.

When we lost Rory 30 years ago, the country - and indeed the wider music-loving world - lost one of the last true greats, and we need no ghost comeback from the grave to tell us that much.

I’ve seen The Who. I’ve seen Jerry Lee Lewis (with whom Rory once jammed) live in Boston. I’ve seen many other great bands all around the world, but I’ve never seen a better live performer than Rory Gallagher - never.

To young folks today I’d say this - take a look back at some of the footage.

And to a guy called Micheál Martin, who was in the UCC Student Union the year before me and apparently went into politics, I’d say get Rory into the U.S Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. If, as Taoiseach, you really must spend St Patrick’s Day with Donald Trump, call in a favour and make it worthwhile.

And while you’re at it, name Cork Airport after Rory too.

As for me, I’ll always treasure that August evening in 1983.

Thanks, Rory.

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Highlights from Mike's interview with Rory Gallagher in 1983

About the band Taste: “Well, it was very important in as much as it was the first group, and I was playing the sort of music I wanted to play. Before that, I was just playing with odd get-together bands and showbands like Fontana. Yeah, and it really wasn’t my cup of tea, but it was an outlet and it was a way of playing before people through an amplifier.

“So, I mean, by the time Taste got together it was a serious attempt at playing rhythm ‘n’ blues come rock and roll come what have you, so it was serious. But I didn’t see it as a platform for my own talent. Everybody’s talent has to come across.”

Rory told Mike of the break-up of Taste in 1970: “Splits do occur. It’s just that some seem more traumatic than others, and people take them to heart, you know. I mean, no-one wants to split up, but sometimes it just happens.”

About accusations that Rory was becoming like Motorhead by 1983: “Ah well, I’d be worried if I was bordering on Motorhead. See, you’re always caught in a dilemma. You write contemporary material that comes under a rock banner. I mean. everyone knows I’m a blues fanatic beneath all that, but I have other influences, like slight folk influences, and I’d never write a full album that’s hard rock.

“Every album goes right across the rainbow, from very hard rock to R&B. But I don’t intentionally try to be heavy metal. It’s not my style at all. If you’re going to rock, you might as well rock hard. I don’t like soft rock.”

Rory told Mike his influences included Blindboy Fuller, Leadbelly, Muddy Waters, and Jerry Lee Lewis, and groups from the 1960s when he was growing up.

About trying to conquer the USA: “We’ve never gone for the big publicity kill in America. We’ve done 20 tours over ten years. That mightn’t sound like it means anything, but thay stand for something in America. We’ve covered all the states. We’ve got a good following.”

About talk of Rory ing The Rolling Stones: “Yeah, but that’s all hypothesis now. The Stones thing was just a recording session, really, for a couple of nights. I prefer to do my own thing. I’m a Stones fan. I was then and still ire a lot of the things they do.”

On not having many hit singles: “Well, Philby was a kind of single. Shadow Play was on a 10 inch thing. But we never consciously went in to make a single. I don’t dislike it. It’s a love/hate thing.

“The point is that most of the singles in the chart I don’t like for a start, and I don’t want to be identified with that ‘thing’. It’s just the stuff that goes along with having a hit record.

“But if I could take a song like Philby, which I’m proud of, and if all the DJs would play it, and it ended up in the charts, that’s great on paper. I’d be delighted with that. But then you add on all the other silly bits you’ve got to do.to get the record in the charts.”

He added: “ A lot of DJs don’t touch my stuff with a 40ft pole because they can’t programme it, then, if you happen to do a track that’s over two minutes and 30 seconds, they panic. because these fellas are like robots, working like Swiss watches.

“By the same token, I don’t worry about it nights. I’m more album-conscious.”

Mike even asked Rory if he ever wanted to marry: “Slow to jump the broom, I suppose. Same as every other fella. I mean, what’s the rush?

Asked by Mike if it was a case of ‘why settle for a crumb when there’s a pie on every tour!’, Rory replied: “Not at all! That’s a Rod Stewart attitude, y’know what I mean, like?

“If you bump into someone and marriage is the route you want to take, fine, and if not, that’s fine too. But I imagine it’ll happen along the way.”

******

Mike Galvin was born in the Bons - “right next door to UCC” - and grew up in Bandon.

He said: “I knew Graham Walker (now Graham Norton), who was also from Bandon, well at UCC, we were in the same English Literature tutorial group at one point.

“My family moved to Glanmire in 1973 and I attended boarding school in West Cork and then UCC.

“Since I graduated, I’ve mainly been involved with education at IB (International Baccalaureate) schools.”

Mike left Ireland in 1985 after graduating from Trinity, Dublin, and has not lived here since.

“I spent four years in the USA, mainly on the east coast. In the 1990s, I taught at colleges in Western Samoa and Tonga, both in the South Pacific.

“Later, I spent time in Japan, South Korea, and worked in China for almost ten years from 2001.

“I now live in the English Cotswolds and have two daughters - one at medical school, with another about to her there.

“I still travel a little, though I think I’ve logged enough air miles for three lifetimes - I think there might be a statue of me at Heathrow. A drive to the seaside is enough for me these days.”