Rory Gallagher’s amp helps lifeboat stay afloat

An amplifier which travelled the world with late blues guitar legend Rory Gallagher has helped raise €7,000 for the lifeboat station in a fishing village whose cliffs he loved to walk during breaks from touring.

The rehearsal amplifier bought in the mid-1970s by the bluesman, who died in 1995, was put up for auction by his brother Dónal to raise funds for the Ballycotton RNLI lifeboat, along with a replica of his Fender Stratocaster sunburst-effect guitar.

“This amp went with him everywhere, absolutely everywhere. You couldn’t get a more personal thing to Rory,” said auctioneer Ian Whyte as he opened bidding on the items on Saturday evening.

While revellers were celebrating his life and music at the Rory Gallagher Festival in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, where he was born, the hammer dropped at €7,000 on the lot as part of a rock and pop memorabilia auction at Whyte’s saleroom in Dublin. The items had already attracted pre-sale bids of at least €5,600 before the lot came up, with internet and phone bidding pushing the price up and netting a major financial boost for the Ballycotton lifeboat station in east Cork.

A copy of his 1976 album Calling Card, signed by Gallagher, was another of the top-selling lots, bringing a hammer price of €1,000.

Earlier, a set of autographs by The Beatles and a ticket for their November 1963 appearance at Dublin’s Adelphi fetched €6,000, and another set of Beatles autographs sold for €3,200. A black fedora hat signed by Michael Jackson brought a hammer price of €1,400 and a limited-edition print of David Bowie, signed by the singer, made €1,600.

The highest price made in Whyte’s earlier auction of vintage movie posters was €4,800 for a rare poster of the 1958 Hammer version of Dracula, starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Other top sellers included posters for 1959 sci-fi movie Forbidden Planet (€2,400), James Bond movie Goldfinger (€1,600), Star Wars (€1,250), and two for Alfred Hitchcock classic Psycho made €1,150 and €1,100.