The Friday Night Darkblues Show! (05 Dec 2014)

[TheDarkBlues]

This week, we take a trip down a guitar heroes life.

Born in Belfast in 1952 and grew up on Castleview road with 5 other siblings. He started playing guitar at the age of eight, his first guitar was a battered old acoustic guitar.

Despite being left-handed he played right-handed from the word go, mainly because he was forced to do everything right-handed.

At the age of 14 he moved out his parents house due to troubles within the family, his parents split a year later and he then moved to Dublin at the age of 16. 

One of his early influences was a guitarist called Peter Green (of the band Fleetwood Mac), who became his playing mentor during his days performing in Dublin.

Other influences were Albert King, Elvis Presley, The Shadows and the Beatles. He developed his own style of rock/blues after seeing Jimi Hendrix at a gig in his home town of Belfast and this would follow him for the rest of his playing career.

His first real band that brought him any recognition was Skid Row, he teamed up with Neol Bridgeman and Brendan Shiels. He was soon earning a reputation in the music industry for his brand of playing. he left Skid row in 1970 to move to England, he did have some short spells in the USA and under his own name he released his first album called 'Grinding Stone' which recieved Album of the Year accolades by various music stations across the USA.

In 1974 he moved back to England, and it was there that he would meet another musician that he would become best friends with and would join another Irish act that would shoot him to be a household name. He Joined Thin Lizzy with Phil Lynott after founding member Eric Bell left.

During the years 1975 to 1978 he became a member of Colosseum II, this band collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber on the Album Variations in 1978.

However during this time he rejoined Thin Lizzy first as a temp replacement for Brian Robertson and then as a permanent member.

In 1979, he left Thin Lizzy to start his own career, still remaining the best of friends with Phil Lynott who helped him during his early solo years. One of the biggest and now a classical song that they both played and sang on,  Parisienne Walkways. This song became synonymous with his playing style.  Later he would rejoin Thin Lizzy to play on one of their best albums 'Black Rose: A Rock Legend'. This album reach number 2 in the album charts.

During his hard rock/metal phase, he produced another classic in 'Empty Rooms' from the album 'Murder in the skies'. He would then return a few years later to the style that he loved most... the Blues.

In 1990, he released another epic album... 'Still got the blues'. On this album there were contributions from many legends in the blues field. Albert King, Albert Collins and George Harrison. He remained playing the blues until 1997, when he played around with different formats, hard rock, pop and dance. He the returned to his blues roots again in 2001 with 'back to the blues'. His last album was released in 2008 titled: Bad for you baby'.

This artist was known for the scars on his face, reportedly he received these in a pub fight.

His death shocked the guitarist world in 2011, he died of a heart attack at the age of 58 during the early hours of 6th February in a hotel in Spain. He was on holiday with his girlfriend. Apparently, after dinner, the two took a stroll along the beach, went to their room and at 4am he had a heart attack. 

His death was confirmed by Thin Lizzy manager Adam Parsons.

I must admit, that this gentleman was the biggest influence in my guitar playing, songs like Empty Rooms and The Loner are songs that I learnt and played to death just to understand this man's playing method.

I give you the one and only: Gary Moore:

[TheDarkBlues]

Empty Rooms live, one of the best recordings of this song:

From the same live show. The Loner: