On this day 69 years ago William Rory Gallagher was born at the Rock Hospital in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal. Let’s celebrate! This wonderful guitarist’s performance ,Here’s the final number from Rory’s appearance at the Old Grey Whistle Test on his birthday in 1976. Rory’s incredible appearance on the classic British music show, Old Grey Whistle Test, Shepherds Bush Empire, 02nd March 1976.
At The BBC is a 3 cd/1 dvd box set featuring all of Todd Rundgren’s BBC radio and television appearances between 1972 and 1982.
Remastered from the BBC master tapes, the set includes 30 unreleased performances, including two songs from the 1982 Old Grey Whistle Test performance that weren’t broadcast.
The years covered on this three-CD/one-DVD set are the peak years of Todd Rundgren’s stardom, when he was not only touring on his own but with his often bizarre arena-prog outfit Utopia. “Todd Rundgren at the BBC” tips heavily in favor of the Utopia period, with two of its CDs devoted to a BBC Radio One In Concert sessions from 1975 and 1977, while the DVD contains two Old Grey Whistle Test appearances with the band. There is some solo Todd, though, including a lengthy Old Grey Whistle Test from 1982 (several songs here were originally not broadcast) but the most interesting thing here is the earliest material, a BBC Radio One In Concert from 1972 that captures Todd alone at the piano. He’s joshing with the audience, particularly on “Piss Aaron,” where he spends time discussing the verses at length, and he takes the piss out of “Be Nice to Me,” claiming it’s a silly song. Silliness can be heard elsewhere, including a broadly campy version of “Something’s Coming” from West Side Story, and that helps lighten a load that winds up getting slightly leaden due to the long stretches of Utopia at their densest. This era of Todd remains divisive — some love it, while others will never warm to it — and that keeps this set from being a must for fanatics, yet there’s no denying that there’s plenty of endearing, enduring eccentricity from one of pop’s great madmen to be heard.
The best Live two song set by LITTLE FEAT on Youtube – “Fat Man In The Bathtub” plus “Rock and Roll Doctor”, recorded on the Old Grey Whistle Test January 17th, 1975 .
See Lowell George and his band at their peak, Lowell would die of heart failure approx. four and a half years after this very performance on June 29th, 1979.
Drummer Richie Hayward (Feb.6, 1946-Aug.12, 2010) passed away from complications of lung cancer and chronic liver disease in Canada, penniless from his time with the band, fans gathered together to help Richie financially until his passing. All the other members of the Band are still alive and some even tour.
The songs come from the LP’s “Feats Don’t Fail Me Now” 1974 and “Dixie Chicken” 1973
Did you know that in a 1975 Rolling Stone article, Jimmy Page claimed Little Feat was his favourite American Band!
It has been said that someone once asked Jimi Hendrix what it was like to be the greatest guitarist ever. Jimi supposedly said . I don’t know, you would have to ask Rory Gallagher.
If he was still with us, Rory would have turned 68 years old on March 2nd. Rory recorded solo albums throughout the 1970s and 1980s, after forming the band Taste during the late 1960s. He was a talented guitarist known for his charismatic performances and dedication to his craft. Gallagher’s albums have sold in excess of 30 million copies worldwide.
Rory Gallagher received a liver transplant in 1995, but died of complications later on June 14th, in London, UK at the age of 47.
We know it is hard to say who the best guitarist ever is / was as everyones tastes differ. But we do know that when you ask most people to name their top 5 favorites, Rory Gallagher is usually on that list.
From March 1976 – Rory Gallagher performs a cover of “All Around Man”, Originally by delta blues great Bo Carter this performance was taken from Rory’s incredible appearance on the classic British music show, The Old Grey Whistle Test.
In the second of the two videos, see his entire performances from the Old Grey Whistle Test, including amazing live versions of, “I Take What I Want”,”Bought And Sold”,”All Around Man”,”Out on the Western Plain”, “Souped Up Ford” and “Bullfrog Blues”.
As this appears to be from a BBC broadcast in the mid 90s, shortly after Gallagher’s passing, it also contains an introduction by Slash, where he talks about meeting Rory and the influence he had on him as a young guitar player.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYAnFU6Gn1A
Robin Trower and his band stopped by the BBC studios in 1974 and 1975 to perform on the classic TV show, The Old Grey Whistle Test. On each appearance they gave us two classic tracks which can be viewed in the videos
In the first two, see “Little Bit of Sympathy” and “Bridge of Sighs” from the ’74 show, featuring vocals from James Dewar and Reg Isidore on drums. The ’75 appearance can be seen in the bottom two clips and also feature Dewar but with Bill Lordan taking over on drums, for renditions of “Alethea” and “Fine Day”.
John Martyn – May You Never performed on the [1973] Old Grey Whistle Test, John Martyn was one of the UK’s most respected singer-songwriters. Born Iain David McGeachy in 1948 he changed his name to John Martyn when he took his first tentative steps in the folk clubs of Glasgow and London in the mid 1960s. He soon came to the attention of Chris Blackwell at Island Records who signed him to the label in 1967.” May You Never” is one of the best of John Martyn.
Rory Gallagher Live in Madrid back in 1975, an amazing performance which is still remembered well.
Rory Gallagher Million Miles Away The Old Grey Whistle Test Live
I attended my second ever rock concert around 1969 But In the coming years the gigs I still recall the most and always an absolute blinder was with Rory Gallagher one of the most consummate and charismatic showmen on the circuit pulling out all the stops in Birmingham Town Hall that was so hot by the end it felt like a Florida swamplands With his beat up old Sunburst Fender Stratocaster he was a guitar player of such staggering ability that seasoned guitarists and bluesmen would watch in shock and awe. In the seventies this unassuming Irishman spent so much time on the “Old Grey Whistle Test” and European TV broadcasts that he ought to have paid council tax to the BBC. Indeed in those days before video I recorded his 1976 OGWT special on a Grundig Reel to Reel Tape Re-corder with a the microphone taped to the television speaker .
Gallagher was one of the most prolific touring artists and his great live albums of this era especially the “Irish Tour 1974” are peerless. He was also constantly in demand from television across the US and Europe and thus we have the Beat Club Sessions. These are previously unreleased live recordings made for the German TV series of the same name and recorded over three different appearances in the early seventies.
Patti Smith is to celebrate the classic album and her breakthrough debut “Horses” recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York and also featured Televisions Tom Verlaine and Blue Oyster Cult’s Allen Lanier and released in 1975 . Horses 40th anniversary with a series of Gigs and events in Paris, London and New York, the date is November 10th as its a true milestone recording the original album was due to be released on October 20th the birth date of poet Arthur Rimbaud the 19th century poet, but due to shortages of vinyl at that time the date was put back to November 10th which was the anniversary of Rimbauds death the album that contained the single “Gloria” and also concert staples like “Redondo Beach” and “Free Money” and “Kimberly” the band still features guitarist Lenny Kaye drummer Jay Dee Daughtery both of whom played on “Horses” , when the 30th Legacy edition was re-issued a second live album recorded in the The Royal Festival Hall at the Meltdown Festival in 2005 was include with the same running order. Also Patti is finishing a new book a follow up after the “Just Kids” which profiled her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe from 2010.
Horses was one of the most important albums for me when I bought it I played it non stop for months, it has a great live feel to it too,
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