"Check Shirt Wizard: Live In '77" by RORY GALLAGHER (March 2020 UK UMC/Cadet Concept/Chess 2CD Compilation – 20 Previously Unreleased Tracks from His January and February 1977 UK Tour – Remastered from Original Tapes by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road Studios) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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"...Jack-Knife Beat..."

 

In the Seventies especially, Rory Gallagher live as opposed to Rory on record and in the studio were two entirely different beasts.

 

And after two stormingly good studio albums for his new signing to Chrysalis Records - "Against The Grain" (October 1975) and "Calling Card" (August 1976) – and with the band as a four-piece (Lou Martin added on piano and keyboards) as opposed to a trio of old – Rory and his Classic Blues Rock Band of Boogie Pirates were firing on all cylinders. In full flow, there were few who could touch him and many legendary axe players of the time and since, who rate his as one the greatest.

 

So you can imagine the excitement among true fans when this 2CD compilation of 20 Previously Unreleased live tracks from his January and February 1977 UK Tour was announced – making available for the first time shows that are probably indelibly branded on noggins of punters lucky enough to have actually been there. 

 

And I am thrilled to say that "Check Shirt Wizard: Live In '77" delivers on that promise. You have to only listen to the extended 7:15 minutes of "Bought And Sold" or the slow chug of "Calling Card" to tell that not only is RG enjoying himself - he's playing with a fluidity and learned talent from a decade of solid touring that is truly fantastic. To the Jack-Knife Beats and that Souped-Up Strat of his.

 

UK/EUROPE released 4 March 2020 - "Check Shirt Wizard: Live In '77" by RORY GALLAGHER on UMC/Cadet Concept/Chess 0836946 (Barcode 602508369469) is a 20-Track 2CD Compilation of Previously Unreleased Live Versions that plays out as follows:

 

CD1 (59:58 minutes):

1. Do You Read Me 2. Moonchild

3. Bought And Sold

4. Calling Card

5. Secret Agent

6. Tattoo'd Lady

7. A Million Miles Away

8. I Take What I Want

9. Walk On Hot Coals

Tracks 1, 2 and 6 recorded at The Brighton Dome, 21 January 1977

Tracks 3, 5 and 8 recorded at Sheffield City Hall, 17 February 1977

Tracks 4, 7 and 9 recorded at Hammersmith Odeon, London, 18 Jan 1977

 

CD2 (61:23 minutes):

1. Out On The Western Plain

2. Barley Grape Rag

3. Pistol Slapper Blues

4. Too Much Alcohol

5. Going To My Home Town

6. Edged In Blue

7. Jack-Knife Beat

8. Souped-Up Ford

9. Bullfrog Blues

10. Used To Be

11. Country Mile

Tracks 1, 2 and 3 recorded at Sheffield City Hall, 17 February 1977

Tracks 4, 5 and 7 recorded Hammersmith Odeon, London, 18 Jan 1977

Tracks 8 and 9 recorded at The Brighton Dome, 21 January 1977

Tracks 6, 10 and 11 recorded at Newcastle City Hall, 18 February 1977

All songs by Rory Gallagher except five cover versions - "I Take What I Want" (Sam & Dave), "Out On The Western Plain" (Huddie Ledbetter), "Piston Slapper Blues" (Blind Boy Fuller), "Too Much Alcohol" (JB Hutto) and "Bullfrog Blues" (Traditional Blues).

 

RORY GALLAGHER – Lead Guitar, Mandolin, All Vocals

LOU MARTIN – Piano and Organ

GERRY McAVOY – Bass

ROD De 'ATH – Drums

 

The gatefold card Digipak has inner flap colour photos of our hero on stage with his trademark battered Fender Strat and titular check-shirt – a look that will make any RG fan smile. A nice touch is to show the original tape boxes under the see-through CD trays – all of it recorded on The Rolling Stones Mobile (Howard Kilgour Producer) and Jethro Tull's La Maison Rouge Mobile (Trevor White Producer). There are no liner notes per say, but it does reproduce two telling reviews on either side of live photos – one by Brian Harrigan of The Melody Maker for his 29 January 1977 gig at The Hammersmith Odeon and another from John Hamblett of the NME for the Leeds University concert on 5 February 1977. Both talk of his guitar prowess, his distinct lack of showiness that so enamoured him to the ordinary punter, but mostly they talk of the good time RG and his band gave the audience. But – as in the first review – we should talk about sound.

 

The tapes have been Remastered by FRANK ARKWRIGHT at Abbey Road Studios, but even with the best will in the world, you would have to say that at times it feels ever so slightly muffled. But – and I cannot overstate this – the sheer force of the performance comes roaring out of the speakers for every number. You only have to listen to his brilliant cover of the Sam & Dave Atlantic Records hit "I Take What I Want" (originally on the 1975 album "Against The Grain" LP) – then any audiophile nitpick goes out the window – his inventive playing, the soling sidebars, the band, the sheer slide-guitar brilliance of it blows you away. 

 

Another cool surprise is the revisits to older material like the 1971 "Deuce" riffage killer "Used To Be", the bluesy "A Million Miles Away" from "Tattoo" and "Walk On Hot Coals" from "Blueprint" – both albums issued in 1973 on Polydor Records. You would have to say that the Mandolin is too far back in the mix on the foot-stomping crowd pleaser "Going To My Home Town" and that the "Live! In Europe" version still remains definitive. "Souped-Up Ford" and "Bullfrog Blues" are incendiary numbers that contain hair-raising guitar-work and another impossibly hooky killer is "Jack-Knife Beat". And on it goes...

 

I miss the great man – so many of us Seventies kids do. And you cannot but say that this timely reminder of Rory Gallagher's simple genius is anything other than a winner. 

 

"Check Shirt Wizard: Live In '77" - Edged In Blues Rock and all good points between...