Johnny Marr: 'There was a purity about Rory Gallagher'

Irish Daily Mirror

a day ago

JOHNNY Marr has a new addition to his studio.
'I'm looking at a poster of him now that I got from Jill Furmanovsky about three weeks ago,' he says.
'I had it framed and put up in the studio. Rainbow Theatre, March, 1973. It's a sweet picture.'
The him is Rory Gallagher. Blues virtuoso, check shirt wizard, prodigal son of Cork and Donegal, Ireland's first rock star and guitar hero to many around the world, including Smiths legend Marr.
'There was a purity about him without him being puritanical,' says Marr.
'There was more to him than just showbusiness. It was almost something religious. You knew there was a vocation there.
'People who were moved by his records or shows never really lose their affection for him.
'It's not about nostalgia, it's something to do with his integrity.'
Gallagher died 30 years ago this month in London aged just 47. It's impossible to overstate his importance to Irish music.
With Taste he lit the flame for every Irish band that followed. As a solo artist, he sold millions of albums, was labelled the best guitarist in the world and was courted by The Rolling Stones.
Born in Ballyshannon and reared in Cork, Gallagher illuminated the North in the darkest days of the Troubles and had a huge following across Europe. There's a street near Paris named in his honour.
But he was a reluctant superstar, adopting the romantic image of a lonesome gunslinger in washed-out denims, something that would eventually be part of his undoing.
'Live by the guitar die by the guitar sort of philosophy, which turned out to be quite prophetic,' says Marr.
'I was such a big fan of him as a teenager. Not only did I enjoy his music and loved his shows, but I kinda clocked him in a way of carrying yourself as a musician…
'To walk on stage and with no pretensions just blow the roof off the place.
'It's all very well doing that with lasers and banks of keyboards, but when you're doing it with a really beat-up old guitar and beat-up amps in jeans and sneakers, without all the bells and whistles, it's pretty powerful.
'The message he seemed to send out was, 'All you need in life is your guitar and maybe an amp and everything's alright'.
'As a young idealistic musician that was really alluring.'
Marr himself has long been regarded as one of the greatest guitarists of his or any generation.
Manchester-born to parents from Athy in Co Kildare, he is revered for his music with The Smiths, Electronic, The The, Modest Mouse, The Cribs, The Healers and Hans Zimmer, amongst others, as well as a hugely successful solo career.
But it all began with Rory.
'My bedroom was a shrine to Rory at one time,' he says. 'When you're lucky enough to have those figures who influence you, people who make an impact on your life, they do tend to become part of your life story.
'Even my family were touched by it. My family, they knew his stuff because I used to play it so much as a kid.
'As a parent myself I know what that's like. It becomes a touchstone for your family.'
Gallagher was famed for his raw energy shows in the 1970s. Marr was a dedicated disciple.
As a teenager, he slept in train stations after going to see Gallagher play and walked home from Manchester city centre to the suburbs of Wythenshawe.
'And it being Manchester it was raining,' he laughs. 'But that was because I wanted to stay back and get an autograph after the show and he gave me a guitar pick.'
Between 1971 and 1979 Gallagher released eight studio albums with a mixture of powerhouse and acoustic blues in a period of ferocious creativity.
The music is hard-wired into Marr's soul.
'What you pick up in your formative years stays with you,' he says. 'I didn't quite realise it in the '80s because my head was on new agendas, but as you get older you identify things.
'I think What Difference Does It Make sounds like Secret Agent. Had I not learned how to play Secret Agent… The way it's played, it's a similar kind of thing.
'Also, Daughter of the Everglades, you can hear his influence on me. And Rory did have a song on his first album called There Is A Light.'
On stage is where Gallagher came alive and his albums Live In Europe and Irish Tour '74 captured him at his most forceful with bassist Gerry McAvoy by his side.
But his output and success declined in the 1980s and 1990s.
Alcohol and prescription medication impacted his health and he was hospitalised in March 1995 for a liver transplant. He died three months later on June 14, 1995 after contracting an infection in hospital.
'He was living around the corner from me at that time,' says Marr. 'We'd kinda gotten to know each other a little bit before he passed away.
'I bumped into him a couple of times and he called me on the phone a couple of times.
'I was working on a The The session when I heard. It was just really sad.'
Gary Moore, Adam Clayton, The Edge, Ronnie Drew and John Sheahan were among the mourners at the funeral in Cork.
A telegram from Bob Dylan which arrived too late was read out in the church: 'Get well quick, with God's speed, and keep playing.'
In a 1976 interview for the Irish Times, Gallagher told Joe Breen he wanted to write film scores, screenplays and a concept album in the future.
'Most of all, I would like to envisage myself at 60 years of age like Muddy [Waters]…' he said. 'If I can affect people like he affects me at that age, I'll be happy.'
Sadly it wasn't to be.
'I think had he got through the difficult period in music near the end of his life, I think he would've enjoyed a new chapter,' says Marr.
'You could imagine him being on the Jools Holland show every couple of years, playing at the Albert Hall. You could imagine him having the same kind of career as Bonnie Raitt. Or Nick Lowe.
'Someone who could've comfortably got into his vintage years, but there was just a weird curve that happened in the '80s and '90s that made him estranged from popular music.
'I think that's what happened. It sort of rocked him a bit. Had he got round that corner who knows what might've happened.'
But the music lives on.
Last weekend the annual Rory Gallagher Festival took place in Ballyshannon and blues great Joe Bonamassa will play Gallagher's music for three nights in Cork next month.
A new statue of Gallagher was unveiled outside the Ulster Hall in Belfast earlier this year and a road will soon be named in his honour in Cork.
His faithful Fender Stratocaster was also donated to the National Museum of Ireland after being sold at auction for more than €1million. It will go on display at Collins Barracks in September.
Marr has played the signature Strat a number of times, including one memorable night at Shepherd's Bush Empire in London.
'It caused quite a stir with the band and crew, it was like Excalibur had arrived,' he laughs.
He owns another of his hero's old guitars – a bronze Silvertone 1415 which Gallagher used on A Million Miles Away.
'One of my prized possessions.'
Over the years he's introduced the likes of Noel Gallagher and Bernard Butler to the Ballyshannon bluesman's music.
Marr and his wife Angie have two grown-up children, Sonny and Nile, and Rory is part of their lives too.
When Marr played in Athy, Limerick and Donegal last year it seemed like the perfect opportunity for a Johnny Marr Irish Tour '24 album.
'Why didn't I think of that?' he says, laughing. 'I might have to do some shows for that – Irish Tour '26!'
Make it happen, Johnny. All you need is a guitar and maybe an amp.
They might even let you borrow the one in Collins Barracks again.