"This castle was
built in 16th century.
The guy on the
right is Rory's brother.
He looks sort of like Rory."
I reached his mother's place around
twelve. Rory's brother and his mother met at the entrance, but
Rory was still asleep. No wonder he would be really tired after
big
concert and totally relaxed after a long time from his home on the
road. I really felt bad for waking him up, but asked his
mother to do so . Waiting for him to appear, the three of us
tried to listen to a new album
- but this is not his new album, it's a solo album of violinist of
ex-East of Eden. Rory had played slide guitar on one song . This
album is filled with instrumental tunes and you can feel the big
melancholy through the album that comes from typical Irish traditional
songs. I got caught up with his slide guitar technique - his playing
catches the theme so well - after listening for a long while.
THEN RORY COMES UP
Rory appeared around one in the afternoon, I met him once before
almost
a year ago, then said hello to him for this great second meeting. He
looked so fine, with enough sleep and completely in a relaxed mode,
plus
the bright Irish sunshine shining through the window made his face look
healthy and feeling good. While I thought he would have started with a
Guinness in his
morning
break, he did take coffee. I can imagine he was brought up with Irish
coffee
since he was little.
After having coffee, he seems to get away from sleep completely and
gets
his
brain clear, so I try to do the interview. I handed him a copy of our
"Player"
magazine and as well a number of additional Player magazines, then
tried
to
explain to him about the interval announcement of the readers'
poll (he was in
10th
place in the rankings at that moment). We chatted in a friendly
atmosphere.
I was totally surprised by Rory. He was totally into looking at
our
magazine. Besides the fact that he can't understand Japanese,
surprisingly he looked
at
the guitar of a guitarist in the pin-ups, and also looked at our other
copies of
Player magazine. He was totally into looking at the wiring diagram
because
it
seemed to be the first time for to him to look at it (of course it is
totally
common
to all guitar players all over the world! ) in the featured article on
Fender and Gibson guitars. On the advertisement page of Guyatone
guitars, he
was totally thrilled to find his guitar model called "Marroly". He's
interested not only
in
Guyatone guitars, he is interested in other Japanese guitars. Actually
he
did have lots of knowledge of other kinds of them. Because he takes the
contact microphone for "Bug" of Ibanez on his Martin and Harmony
acoustic
guitar, also he puts some Ibanez parts on his electric guitar.
Additionally, I have to add that he did join our readers' poll. I put
the copy of
his
poll of readers seat, it might be hard to read, most of his favorite
guitarists are blues men like Muddy Waters, or American guitar hero
like
Robbie Robertson, I can't deny it is typical Rory Gallagher's taste.
Then I tried to interview him, it will be on our November
issue,
hope you all readers can wait with much expectation!
After the interview, he brought some of
his guitars up to the room, but
these guitars seemed to be different stock because his famous
Stratocaster
and Telecaster are in the storehouse in London. What grabbed my eye in
his collection first was Marroly guitar of
Guyatone. It is a re-released one with containing Rory's new
idea. He had played a Guyatone guitar once
before (he called it as "Gai-ya-tone" / we call
it
as "Gu-ya-tone") but at that moment it wasn't suited to his playing- He
left it then, but he missed it dearly and was then almost
desperate to
get it again. When he came over to play in Japan, he tried to get it
again,
and asked around for it, even the maker, but sadly The Guyatone guitars
weren't stocked anymore. Then they made a new model based on Rory's
idea.
It's one of his favorites.
And also there was a Harmony's 12string guitar, a Yamaha guitar, an
electric Mandolin made by Chris Eccleshall, an custom made guitar by
Mr.
Tomioka (Guyatone) (Rory said this guitar's tone and volume switches
are
really in a very good position to play), and Jimmy Page's favorite
Danelectro, a Fender Telecaster deluxe. Try to imagine, if he brought
his
famous Stratocaster and National dobro guitar, you could see all of his
guitars.
All guitars are altered to his liking, and he tried to play each of
them
very carefully.
When the interview was over, we tried to leave his house, but he
came
out to the sunny garden with his Harmony 12string guitar
in his hand. It was
nice weather day. He had the complete look of one of those guitar
freaked-common
nice
guys, you can find everywhere. When he stood behind the clear blue sky,
a
bit
of lake flavored-sweet air and green glass in his garden, he looked
totally
different from a rock star who plays hard and energetically on
the stage . What in the world gives this quiet, good young man has so
much tough energy? ...I wondered when I looked at Rory who sat on
garden roller, playing
a strange freakish instrumental number without any pause.
He tried to strike a variety of poses for photo session, like standing
in
front
of his house, playing with his dog, sitting in his brothers' car,
a Jensen. At the moment he lives in Belgium, and he spends his private
life
there, but this is completely the first time showing his house in Cork
off
for
press. And I never thought he might cooperate with my making the
report as he
is famous for hating to be photographed. But he didn't allow me to take
picture of his mother because after his father's passing three years
ago, he
seemed to get totally nervous about his private life.
"Rory spends a holiday a while after
the festival in Germany.
Escaping from the
hard schedule in the city,
he enjoy spending holidays in a relaxed mood."
"Rory's brother's beloved car,
a Jensen"
"Playing with his beloved dog.
He seems to be tired a bit?"
At almost 2 in the afternoon making my report was over. Sadly I
declined their invitation to have dinner together because I had
reserved my
flight at
three. I drove to the airport, but the check-in counter
said they didn't know when they would fly, so I drove back to him and
had dinner with
him
and his family. When I re-arrived at his house, he was still
looking
into our extra issue!
P.S.
While all the guitars I wanted to report on were not in his house in
Cork, I
did see THE Stratocaster at Rory's storage area of Chrysalis Record in
London. I
can MEET his four main guitars which are totally famous for his stage
photo,
(from left to right: National Dobro guitar, Stratocaster, Telecaster,
Martin
D-35) each of them are extraordinary powerful looking through heavy
playing.
I will do article on them on "Close up series" soon, just wait for a
month!
Rory will come over to play in this October, his third Japan tour. No
doubt will see his full energetic playing in front of our eyes and ,of
course,
with his Strat!
This article comes from "THE HAND
BOOK" (Player Corporation, Japan, 1977)
report & photos by Toshinori Yajima (1977), translation by Shinolez
(2007)
LOTS of thank you's and credits
for this article
My thanks to Reiko Schnetzer for connecting me to Nero's Japanese
Tribute page
maybe I will
(check it out) and to Nero for allowing me to use the translated
article.
Credits
The original material was found and provided by Hideki Hoshi
. Then Naoko asked Shinobu to translate it.
Translated by Shinobu Nagao. The article and photos formatted and
arranged by Naoko Watanabe
With permission, I did some modification on the wording &
reformatted the article to fit RoryON!!
370
added 12/30/07
