Edged In Blue: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Odyssey with Rory Gallagher

Author:Dónal Gallagher

Sometime in the mid 1950’s, The Gallagher family of Cork and assorted cousins descended on Cork Railway Station, waiting for the train from Cobh, at the far end of Cork harbour.

Cobh was where all of the big liners docked, and had been the final port of call of the RMS Titanic before its fateful voyage to New York, some forty years earlier.

The Gallaghers of MacCurtain Street were assembled to welcome the youngest brother of Mona Gallagher, Jimmy, who had sailed over from America, where he’d been working for two years to raise the money to put himself through university. Mona, mother of the Gallaghers, had her two boys with her, six year old Dónal and his brother, older by eighteen months, Rory.

The passengers from the ocean going liners disembarked at Cobh Harbour and boarded the train into Cork City. When the train pulled in and the Gallaghers had spotted Jimmy stepping down from the carriage, no one was more impressed than Rory. He stared at his uncle who was dressed in a brown leather jacket, jeans and a checked shirt. Whilst his clothes were standard worker’s attire where he’d come from, to young Rory Gallagher he looked like the coolest man he’d ever seen.

And so was born a look that guitarist, Rory Gallagher, stole and maintained as his own worker’s clothes, on-stage, for the rest of his life.

This evocative tale comes in the first few pages of a book about Rory, written by Dónal Gallagher, (with help from Jamie Dickson,) and it sets the tone for a manuscript that races along and reeks of the love of a brother.

Dónal was there throughout his famous brother’s life, first as a driver and roadie, later as his unofficial manager and finally as his de facto carer. Through their life in Derry, Cork and London, Dónal tells a rich tale of the development of one of the world’s great blues and folk guitarists, mapping their time together through relentless touring and recording, peppering the story with anecdotes involving Bob Dylan, Jack Nicholson, The Stones and Muddy Waters.

However, most of the best stories don’t involve the big-name superstars; from the ‘boy almost next door’ who became the Officer Commanding of the IRA prisoners in the H Block, to the Falcon Showband days and then the disastrous American tour when Rory’s band, Taste, were supporting the supergroup, Blind Faith and their thug of a drummer, Ginger Baker.

Dónal has great recall for on-the-road details and, as his brother lived most of his life out of a suitcase, there’s plenty of them. There is a well known tale of touring America with The Faces when, at a show in Tucson, Faces keyboard player, Ian McLagan, announced to the crowd that the band were staying at The Hilton, and that all 10,000 of them were invited back after the show. What happened in the ten hours that followed is like something out of a parody of Spinal Tap, which is already a parody itself. The telling of the aftermath, and Rod Stewart’s devious method of avoiding any blame, is hilarious.

The decline of Rory’s health, and Dónal’s attempts to help his big brother, make for increasingly sad reading but, it is Dónal’s undying love for Rory that shines through the sadness of the guitar-hero’s untimely death at the age of just 47.

There have been four major books about Rory Gallagher, some good, some not so good. To be honest, they all pale into insignificance when compared to Edged In Blue. A book written by his devoted and loyal brother was always going to have a head start but to find that it is so well crafted is a wonderful bonus.

I doubt that I’ll read a better book about a musician, this year.

Length of Read:Medium

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Rory’s music, the blues, guitar players, everything Irish, musicians, touring life, social history and a well-written book.

One thing you’ve learned

Never upset a bunch of drunk fishermen.

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