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William Rory Gallagher ( GAL-ə-hər; 2 March 1948 – 14 June 1995) was an Irish musician and songwriter. He is known for his virtuosic style of guitar playing, and is often referred to as "the greatest guitarist you've never heard of". A number of guitarists, including Alex Lifeson of Rush, Brian May of Queen, and Eric Clapton, have cited Gallagher as an influence. He was voted as guitarist of the year by Melody Maker magazine in 1972, and listed as the 57th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine in 2015. In 1966, Gallagher formed the blues rock power trio Taste, which experienced moderate commercial success and popularity in the United Kingdom. After the dissolution of Taste, Gallagher pursued a solo career, releasing music throughout the 1970s and 1980s and selling more than 30 million records worldwide. Gallagher's popularity declined throughout the 1980s due to changes within the music industry and poor health. He received a liver transplant in 1995, but died of complications later that same year in London at the age of 47. Early life Gallagher was born to Daniel and Monica Gallagher in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland, in 1948. His father was employed by the Irish Electricity Supply Board, who were constructing Cathaleen's Fall hydroelectric power station on the Erne River above the town. He played the accordion and sang with the Tír Chonaill Céilí Band in County Donegal. His mother sang and acted with the Abbey Players in Ballyshannon. The main theatre of the Abbey Arts Centre where she used to perform was renamed the Rory Gallagher Theatre in 2005. In 1949, the family moved to Derry City, where Gallagher's younger brother Dónal was born later that year. Dónal would act as Gallagher's manager throughout most of his career. In 1956, Gallagher, his mother, and his brother moved to Cork, where Gallagher attended North Monastery School. Gallagher displayed musical aptitude at an early age. He taught himself how to play the ukulele, and received a guitar from his parents at age nine. He began performing at minor functions, and won a cash prize in a talent contest when he was twelve that he used to buy a new guitar. Three years later, in 1963, he purchased a 1961 Fender Stratocaster for £100. This guitar became his primary instrument and was most associated with him during his career. Gallagher was initially attracted to skiffle after hearing Lonnie Donegan on the radio. Donegan frequently covered blues and folk performers from the United States. He relied entirely on radio programs and television. Occasionally, the BBC would play some blues numbers, and he slowly found some song books for guitar, where he found the names of the actual composers of blues pieces. While still in school, playing songs by Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran, he discovered his greatest influence in Muddy Waters. He began experimenting with folk, blues, and rock music. Unable to find or afford record albums, Gallagher stayed up late to hear Radio Luxembourg and AFN where the radio brought him his only exposure to the actual songwriters and musicians whose music moved him most. Influences he discovered, and cited as he progressed, included Woody Guthrie, Big Bill Broonzy, and Lead Belly. Singing and later using a brace for his harmonica, Gallagher taught himself to play slide guitar. Further, throughout the next few years of his musical development, Gallagher began learning to play alto saxophone, bass, mandolin, banjo, and the Coral electric sitar with varying degrees of proficiency. By his mid-teens, he began experimenting heavily with different blues styles. Gallagher began playing after school with Irish showbands, while still a young teenager. In 1963, he joined one named Fontana, a sextet playing the popular hit songs of the day. The band toured Ireland and the United Kingdom, earning the money for the payments that were due on his Stratocaster guitar. Gallagher began to influence the band's repertoire, beginning its transition from mainstream pop music, skirting along some of Chuck Berry's songs and by 1965, he had successfully moulded Fontana into "The Impact", with a change in their line-up into an R&B group that played gigs in Ireland and Spain until disbanding in London. Gallagher left with the bassist Oliver Tobin and drummer Johnny Campbell to perform as a trio in Hamburg, Germany. In 1966, Gallagher returned to Ireland and, experimenting with other musicians in Cork, decided to form his own band. Taste Having completed a musical apprenticeship in the showbands, and influenced by the increasing popularity of beat groups during the early 1960s, Gallagher formed The Taste, which was later renamed simply Taste, a blues rock and R&B power trio, in 1966. Initially, the band was composed of Gallagher and two Cork musicians, Eric Kitteringham (died 2013) and Norman Damery. However, by 1968, they were replaced with two musicians from Belfast, featuring Gallagher on guitar and vocals, drummer John Wilson, and bassist Richard McCracken. Performing extensively in the UK, the group played regularly at the Marquee Club, supporting both Cream at their Royal Albert Hall farewell concert, and the blues supergroup Blind Faith on a tour of North America. Managed by Eddie Kennedy, the trio released the albums Taste and On the Boards, and two live recordings, Live Taste and Live at the Isle of Wight. The band broke up shortly after their appearance at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, and the live album from the festival was released a year later. Creative differences and an issue with management led to the band breaking up, with Gallagher stating that "we just came to the end of our natural life. The drummer wanted to play jazz and I wanted to play blues. We also had management problems that went on to cause me terrible legal hassles; I couldn't play for six months after Taste split up because of the contract I was under". In a later interview in 1977, he was more forthright: "Everything went amicably, but I did want to get rid of my manager, a real bastard. That is when he passed on all those stories, to defame me". Rory Gallagher's brother Dónal, who took on the role of his manager, insisted they bring his previous manager, Eddie Kennedy, to court to recoup royalty payments. The episode made Gallagher reluctant to seek out 'big' management deals in future, and he later turned down an approach from Led Zeppelin's manager, Peter Grant. Towards the end of the band's existence, relations were strained. Wilson refused to go back onstage for an encore at a gig in Glasgow, and Gallagher claims they were not talking to each other at the Isle of Wight Festival. They played their final gig together around Christmas 1970. Solo career After the break-up of Taste, Gallagher toured under his own name, hiring former Deep Joy bass player Gerry McAvoy to play on Gallagher's self-titled debut album, Rory Gallagher. It was the beginning of a twenty-year musical relationship betwe.... Discover the Rory Power popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Rory Power books.