For some reason, I bought this album via mail-order.
It was 1972. I was fourteen years old and I paid the going rate of around £2.25 (in postal orders) to the record store I’d seen advertised in ‘Sounds’ magazine.
For two weeks, I rushed home from school in excited anticipation of its arrival. After what seemed an eternity, it arrived … with a note stating my remittance was (I think) about 25p short. Yet the nice, ever so trusting people at the record store just asked I send another postal order with my next order.
However, by the time I‘d saved enough from my paper round to buy my next LP, I’d discovered Listen Records and Virgin Records in Glasgow. I never did order from the mail-order store again.
A few months later, I read in ‘Sounds,’ the company had gone bust! Was it my 25p that sent them over the edge?
I’ve carried that burden of guilt now for fifty-one years!
The record itself, though: this was ‘big boys’’ music!
A mix of self-penned and rearranged standards, the seven tracks blew me away with their intensity. Driven by the furious bass playing of Gerry McAvoy, and crashing drums of Wilgar Campbell, Rory’s searing Stratocaster playing cuts through like a knife. His playing has everything – little flecks of jazz inspired backing to his quieter vocal moments; big, chunky heavy riffs, like in his own composition, ‘Laundromat,’ and of course, the blues! Whether it be fast and loud as in the opening’ ‘Messin’ With The Kid’ or the slower, almost metronomic ‘I Could Have Had A Religion,’ Rory pre-empted, and answered, the query posed by Deacon Blue, seventeen years later: yes – not only can a white man sing the blues, he can damn well play them too!
Yet, though heavily blues influenced, ‘Live In Europe’ has such a variation in sounds that it remains fresh and exciting from start to finish – even after over fifty years of regular play!.
‘Pistol Slapper Blues’ is an acoustic cover of Blind Boy Fuller’s song from ‘nineteen twenty something or other,’ as Rory himself says; ‘Going To My Home Town’ is one of Rory’s own compositions – a real stomper of a track, the famous Strat being swapped for a mandolin.
‘In Your Own Town’ is another of Rory’s, this time almost ten minutes of heavy blues and spectacular guitar playing. Album closer is ‘Bullfrog Blues,’ another ‘traditional’ blues song written the Twenties and re-arranged by Rory. It’s a truly explosive ending, with terrific bass and drum solos thrown in for good measure.
The production and sound quality is top notch, something that can’t be said for many ‘Live’ albums and I can attest the album truly replicates the sound and atmosphere of a Rory concert.
Not only was ‘Live In Europe’ my proper introduction to heavy rock, it also took me down the rabbit hole of blues music – a tunnel I am still exploring. It’s influenced my music of choice from a spotty fourteen year old to grumpy old git, and remains the most treasured record in my collection.
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onceuponatimeinthe70s.com 
Thanks for the post and reminding my of Rory Gallagher – what a killer performer, an artist who I know it may sound a bit cliche truly left it all on stage. A guy who wasn’t flashy and who was all about the music. And that f’d up Fender Strat – just priceless!
Unfortunately, his passion is also what ultimately killed him. He didn’t take care of himself and his health well. Instead, he was always focused on the next gig. It’s been a while I listened to Rory Gallagher. I need to revisit his music!
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He was amazing on stage. I was lucky enough to see him five times in the early to mid Seventies. 🙂
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That’s cool. I know Rory Gallagher performed on the German TV music broadcast “Rockpalast” in 1982, which I saw on TV.
It was open air at Freilichtbühne Loreley in Germany, a great venue on top of the Loreley rock by the Rhine river.
In part I remember it since my all-time favorite German-singing band BAP was on the same bill.
That said, sadly, I cannot specifically recall Gallagher’s show, but thank goodness there’s Setlist.fm: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/rory-gallagher/1982/freilichtbuhne-loreley-st-goarshausen-germany-13d6b501.html
And there’s also YouTube! 🙂
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Thanks Christian – I hadn’t seen that particular video before … great bass solo from Gerry McAvoy too.
(And that’s some length of setlist … I haven’t added up the timings, but that must be getting into Bruce Springsteen territory! ) 😉 😀
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All of this really makes me want to revisit Rory Gallagher. I recall an anecdote reading somewhere about BAP frontman Wolfgang Niedecken reminiscing that he got to meet Rory backstage at that gig. Niedecken was a fan, and apparently Rory was very kind to him.
Supposedly, Niedecken was staring at Gallagher’s beaten up Stratocaster. When Gallagher noticed he asked Niedecken whether he wanted to play it. I men, shit, can you imagine?
Niedecken said he got so nervous that all he managed to do was a G chord. I don’t know to what extent he may have embellished, but it’s certainly a cool story! 🙂
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You bankrupted the company!
What a hell of a guitar player he was…I’ve listened to his albums all the way through at a friends house…excellent player.
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Wow that’s a serious admission, “all time favorite”, holds a lot of weight when coming from a serious writer and if I may say audiophile. I haven’t heard this album before but I have listened to and read enough of Rory to believe he was one of the best to ever grace the guitar. That’s a fine choice in my books.
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Yeah .. I have many ‘favourite’ albums in my collection, but I guess I hold this one ‘special’ as Rory was the first ‘band’ I saw play live (well, technically it was Greenslade who were the rather mis-matched support act, but you know what I mean.)
Rory Gallagher was also my first favourite away from Glam Rock and as I said in the piece, ‘big boys music.’
It’s hard to put into words exactly WHY it holds such a special accolade … it just does. 😉 😀
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Reporter: ‘So Jimi (Hendrix), what’s it like to be the world’s greatest guitar player?’
Hendrix: ‘I don’t know, ask Rory Gallagher’
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