FRESH EVIDENCE
“For me, it’s just the talking between takes. Those are special little moments, as his nephew and also loving his music… hearing him… it’s a weird thing.” Daniel Gallagher has spent much of his adult life working with Rory Gallagher’s huge archive of gear and recordings. When we ask him to pick out a highlight of the meticulous process of creating the brand-new collection of rare and unheard material entitled Blues, it’s clear that it was a personal journey as much as a musical one. “I don’t think anyone but the hardcore would want them on the album,” he chuckles, “but you get all these jokes, false starts… the drummer drops a stick and it starts a big argument… they’re really special.”
We’re sat in the rather lovely surroundings of New Kings Road Vintage Guitar Emporium – the legendary London guitar shop a stone’s throw from the house where Rory lived before his tragic death in 1995 and where Daniel grew up. Understandably, the location alone brings back plenty of memories of his uncle.
“Obviously, we weren’t out boozing together!” Daniel jokes. “But he’d come over a lot for Sunday lunch, because he lived up the road from us. I remember 1987 was the first time I saw him play live, at the Hammersmith Odeon. My dad took me and my older brother. He didn’t tell us where we were going and next thing we knew, we were at the side of the stage, and my uncle saw us and just started duck-walking across to us!
“It was crazy, because even though he would tell me he was a musician… I thought he said he was a magician – because he’d always do magic tricks for me! So I’d never really thought too much about it as a five-year-old! But I was just totally blown away by what he was doing… and then to look out and see this audience going crazy. I didn’t realise he and my dad were that cool!”
CALLING CARD
The process of putting together the full
