Tom Dunne: Rory Gallagher's links to the Aiken family forged at the height of the Troubles
Rory Gallagher will be celebrated at Live at the Marquee in Cork next year.
The Rory Gallagher celebration starring Joe Bonamassa at the Marquee in Cork next July will be significant for so many reasons. Joe will be playing most of the set list from the Irish Tour ’74 album. I’m not saying Irish music wouldn’t be where it is now without that album. But it would be different.
Large sections of that album were recorded at City Hall in Cork. But a lot was recorded in Belfast, after the Christmas of 1973 and into the early new year. That was not an easy thing to do then. Around 250 had died in the Troubles in 1973 alone. People thought playing there was crazy. But Rory was determined.
The gig was promoted by Jim Aiken. Initially a schoolteacher, Jim had drifted into promotion by convincing the Royal Showband to play a New Year’s Eve gig in Belfast in 1959.
By 1964 he’d left teaching and was managing dance halls and showbands. He was particularly making a name for himself by booking international acts. Roy Orbison, Charley Pride, Elton John and Neil Diamond all made the trip north of the border. The reaction was ecstatic.
But the Troubles changed all that, and as Northern Ireland dominated the headlines for the wrong reasons, fewer and fewer of the big acts wanted to take the risk. The logistics around carrying equipment and late-night load-outs all just seemed too dangerous to be worth it.
But not Rory. When he played Belfast on New Year’s Day in 1972 it was the first music event in the city in six months. Reaction had been off the clock. Roy Hollingsworth wrote in Melody Maker at the time of never having seen “anything quite so wonderful, so stirring, so uplifting, so joyous as when Gallagher and the band walked on stage.”
He continued: “The whole place erupted, they all stood up and they cheered, and they yelled, and screamed, and they put their arms up, and they embraced. Then as one unit they put their arms into the air and gave peace signs. Without being silly, or overemotional, it was one of the most memorable moments of my life.”
But it wasn’t just audiences Rory was lifting. The gig, and its visibility, was a lifeline for Jim Aiken’s business too. And not just in terms of the gig itself. Rory touring the world and elsewhere would share hotels with the other big international acts, particularly in the UK, and say “Belfast is safe.”
But not just safe. Belfast also guaranteed the kind of audience – wildly enthusiastic to put it mildly - that most bands would remember playing to forever. By Rory’s example and frequent encouragement, other bands slowly decided to make the trip.
And then came Irish Tour ’74. Rory was at the height of his powers, but a Belfast gig still looked very unwise. It was recommenced the Northern Ireland show should take place south of the border with northern fans bused south. Rory wouldn’t hear of it. The subsequent show remains the stuff of legend.
There is no doubt that Rory and his determination to both play Belfast and promote it helped keep live music alive in Northern Ireland in those lean years. And don’t forget, it was Jim that would later bring Bruce to Slane. An event it is impossible to imagine music in Ireland without.
But it is the fan element of Irish Tour ’74 that is significant. At a time when Ireland seemed to be mostly showbands playing covers, Rory gave aspiring musicians an example of home-grown original talent that they could look up to and aspire to be.
Those years changed Ireland musically for ever. In early 1972 it really was just Van, Rory and as aspiring Phil that flew a flag for original Irish music. By 1976 it was Horslips, Thin Lizzy, The Rats, the Radiators, a fledgling U2 and a host new punk acts. A sea change had occurred, and Rory was a huge part of it.
That’s a lot of music history to take on board when Joe Bonamassa takes to the stage next year. The first song on Joe’s first ever album, A New Day Yesterday, was a version of Rory’s ‘Cradle Rock’. We don’t talk much of “best guitar players” these days, but in a world of Jimi Hendrix’s and Eric Clapton, Rory genuinely was.
Now, if the powers that be could just buy a certain guitar, from the €14 billion perhaps, for Joe to play those songs on!
