Rory Gallagher: Golden jubilee video marks 50 years since his debut album Deuce

Rory Gallagher and his band Taste would cost members just 5/- or 25p in today’s money to see the trio play raw good time blues.

Rory loved the tiny downstairs room and came back several times to sold out music loving fans who packed the place. Good friends with guitarist Eric Clapton, Taste opened for his band Cream at their farewell show at the Royal Albert Hall before touring the US with his next group Blind Faith.

This month with the 50th anniversary of Rory’s solo album Deuce as a box set and this week a new video has been issued combining a stage performance and some sensational Irish amateur surfing enthusiasts.

Made by film maker Fionn Rogers in association with the Rory Gallagher Archives Crest Of A Wave is an alternative cut, take two and features his distinctive vocals and some mean bottleneck guitar.

The single is part of the Deuce box set and never before released along with twenty-eight unheard takes from those sessions plus a new mix of the original album. Deuce was his second solo album and released just three years after his debut show in Kirkcaldy.

He wanted to create the live feel of those sweaty concerts and chose Tangerine Studios in Dalston (East London). His band was Gerry McIlroy on bass and Wilgar Campbell on drums with Robin Sylvester engineering and production duties by Rory himself.

There is a green vinyl limited LP coming, a 3 LP set, a double CD and a box set of four CDs with home demos, acoustic versions and alternate takes so far unheard.

This set includes a December 1971 session for Radio Bremen has seven tracks including songs from Deuce and Messin’ With The Kid along with a six track BBC In Concert set recorded at the tiny Paris Theatre in January 1972.

A fascinating 64-page hardback book tells the album story with unseen images from the late Mick Rock and includes a foreword by Johnny Marr (The Smiths) who said, ‘There was one day when I was playing along with the Deuce album which was a complete turning point for me as a guitar player’. Testimony indeed.