Red letter day
for Brisbane as Rory Gallagher
music pumps from
Guitar Shop sound system.
The
following is an extract from an email I sent to my Auntie Bob a couple
of weeks ago............
I'm having an RDO today, so I went into my
favourite guitar shop to do some tyre kicking, and what do you think
they had, a Rory Strat. Retail price about two and a half times that of
an ordinary Strat. So there I am gazing at it lovingly, strike, I
haven't looked at the cook in the same way in years (LOL), and this
young salesman sashees over and says to me "Bet that fooled ya dinnit"
- probably meaning that I thought it was a beat up old axe and why
would they have it on display in the pride of place.
"Nah"
I says, adopting my 'Lore of all things Rory' voice, "it's a Rory
Gallagher tribute Strat, pretty realistic too" as I caressingly lift it
off the wall, "even got the dodgy machine head, and the splits in the
scratchplate in the right place".
Then I floor him "the woods not right though,
too smooth, should look like a railway sleeper, all gouged and pock
marked, and the bridge should look like the bottom of a Clydesdale
Steamer, all rusty, hmm see they got the clay dot right ". The guys jaw
drops, as I continue "dya listen to much Rory? He's on the back foot
now like some up and comer in a Mohammed Ali fight, "nn nn not for a
while he says" as I burst into the opening salvo of Follow Me (about
all I could play upside down, me being a lefty) I says to him "mind if
I come back tomorrow and get my photo taken with it, I'll bring ya a
Rory boot for your trouble" "No" he replies in a bewildered voice.
Anyway, after some prompting from dear old
Aunty,I decided to do just that. So today, I armed myself with a DVD
and a VCD of Hammersmith - the intention being that they could give the
VCD to whoever bought the guitar, plus the cook and camera and off we
went.
Well,
I can't remember ever being treated like Royalty before. They whipped
the DVD into their gi-normous TV and off we went to the strains of 'Can
You Hear Me'.
Now
this is what you have to consider, I'm only used to sharing Rory in the
flesh so as to speak
with John Spreckley, sure I talk to others
about him but I think they just listen politely. To suddenly watch half
a dozen people stop, look and listen and hear the dude I gave the DVD
to, say to one of the customers all knowingly, "oh that's Rory
Gallagher, not bad hey". And then some other punter who's trying out a
bass rig starts playing along, I tell you it nearly bought a tear to my
eye.
The
dude who runs the shop genuflected and thanked me, shaking my hand and
I said to him "there's a VCD as well as the DVD" and before I can
finish, he buts in "yeah I might take that home myself and have a good
look".
Several photos later,as the cook and I walk out of the shop, it's then
that we realize that the shop has speakers set up outside, and they
were pumping out Rory at about 10 on the Richter scale, rocking half of
the Valley (name of the suburb) as I air guitared my way back to our
car much to the astonishment of several passers-by.
What a day.....................if I can work out how to upload a photo
or two I'll do so.
My
work is done!
Cheers
from downunder
Nick "Rocky" Smith
Australia
9/2005
28