RORY GALLAGHER
The Beat Club Sessions
(Eagle Records)

 

A real sonic revelation for fans of the late, great Irish rocker Rory Gallagher, the 12 track 2010 CD release of The Beat Club Sessions presents the guitarist in the finest light yet. Perhaps the first thing you notice is just how well Radio Bremen recorded Gallagher and his band, here including Gerry McAvoy (bass) and Wilgar Campbell (drums). Sure this is live but it’s live for radio broadcast in the studio, so it’s a little like a variety of the live in the studio, BBC type recordings that resurfaced on CD, from a number of bands including The Beatles, for the first time in the ‘90s and ‘00s. Actually, Gallagher first played the Beat Club show with his innovative power trio, simply called Taste, yet these 12 cuts are taken from three different shows Rory played as a solo artist in ‘71 and ‘72. Gallagher had just released his famous first solo album in 1971, here in the U.S. on ATCO, and the first five cuts on his Beat Club CD shows just how well Rory played music from that album in a live "in the studio" setting. The intimate, yet live nature of recordings for Radio Bremen shows why Rory was the hardest working guitarist on the blues rock scene back in the early ‘70s. Eagle's CD packaging is fantastic too with silver hued artwork, liner notes and rare color pics. After spinning this classic audio CD relic, fans may also want to pick up on a new double DVD released on Eagle Vision called Ghost Blues: The Story Of Rory Gallagher. Disc one of the 179 minute DVD set is a superb documentary of Rory’s meteoric rise to blues rock superstardom, even eclipsing giants like Alvin Lee and Kim Simmonds, in his heyday. The DVD documentary combines vintage video footage of Rory growing up and out of Ireland with current interviews of Rory’s brother Donal Gallagher, Bob Geldof, Cameron Crowe, Slash, Bill Wyman of the Stones, along with long time Gallagher band mates Gerry McAvoy and Ted McKenna. The double DVD packaging is excellent, complete with DVD booklet depicting a number of memorable, scaled down Melody Maker magazine covers back when Rory was on the cover. To seal the deal, disc two of the Ghost Blues release is an expanded 16 track video version DVD of Rory performing the music documented so well on The Beat Club Sessions CD. www.EagleRockEnt.com / www.RoryGallagher.com

 

 
   
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