By Eamonn Keyes

It was like the air itself was alive, and every breath I took tasted of other people’s sweat. 

Waves of noise were coming from hundreds of hoarse throats in every corner of the Ulster Hall and were rolling towards the packed front of the stage where a mass forest of hands applauded in time with the chant.  RORY, RORY, RORY…

It was January 1^st 1972 and Rory Gallagher was the only ‘name’ musician to visit the disintegrating city of Belfast on a regular basis, bringing out the young music fans in probably the only cross-community activity happening at that time. To give some context, in the few months leading up to the gig the Green Howards Regiment, based locally, had suffered 6 dead and 100 injured, and 4 weeks in the future the Bloody Sunday shootings would take place. Rory’s band also featured Gerry McAvoy on bass guitar and  Wilgar Campbell on drums, and notably both were from Belfast.

The gig had been announced just before Christmas, and it had sold out very quickly. Bombs had gone off during the night to ‘celebrate’ the New Year coming in and despite the risks Rory and his band decided to play on. The seasoned music journalist Roy Hollingsworth from Melody Maker was there to cover the gig and subsequently wrote a fantastic article about the importance of the concert as Rory and the band ignored the bomb blasts to play to the kids of the city:

“I’ve never seen anything quite so wonderful, so stirring, so uplifting, so joyous as when Gallagher and the band walked on stage. The whole place erupted, they all stood and they cheered and they yelled, and screamed, and they put their arms up, and they embraced. Then as one unit they put their arms into the air and gave peace signs. Without being silly, or overemotional, it was one of the most memorable moments of my life. It all meant something, it meant more than just rock n’ roll, it was something bigger, something more valid than just that.

High praise indeed from one of the best at Melody Maker, captured by the importance of the gig.

Rory stalked the stage, often leaping from a standstill at the mike to the front of the stage to tease the crowd in a continuous prowl, tearing to the back to urge drummer Wilgar Campbell to even greater heights and driving the audience wild with the solid beat and wailing guitar. 

Rory, soaked in sweat, was wearing his customary stage garb of tartan shirt, jeans and ‘bumpers’- white toed black baseball shoes. 

Over at stage right bassist Gerry Mc Avoy, dressed in a flowered hippy tunic jacket, pounded away on his instrument, linking rhythm and melody gloriously whilst holding the backing tight for Rory’s extended guitar solos. It was hard to believe three people could make this much noise and wring such emotion for so long from the near-ecstatic crowd. 

Gerry moved backwards and forwards on the stage, digging deep into his Fender Precision Bass as he played, totally unaware that a 15 year old me was about 10 feet away from him at the side of the stage, with my 4 year old brother Jim down between me and the stage crash barrier.

Melody Maker Chief Photographer Barrie Wentzell was taking photographs at the show for Ray Hollingworth’s piece, and when the music paper came out a few days later there was a full front page splash photo of the band on stage at the end of the gig, inadvertently also capturing me, my brother and a few friends. Today a high quality print of this adorns my studio wall, thanks to my wife Sharon who tracked Barrie Wentzell down to his Canadian home some fifty years later. On January 4^th 2025 a statue of Rory was unveiled outside the Ulster Hall, showing him in the pose caught for posterity by that photograph.

Whilst being a fitting tribute, it fails to catch the utter exhaustion and elation I saw on his face at that moment, and which probably pushed me into starting to play guitar within a year of the gig.

Gerry spent over 20 years at Rory’s side, playing on all 14 solo albums as drummers came and went, and other than Rory’s brother Donal there is probably nobody with a better perspective on the guitar legend.

Jump forward over 53 years later and I’m chatting to Gerry McAvoy in the foyer of the Royal Hotel, Stromness. Gerry has come up to Orkney as a special guest for the Orkney Blues Festival, now curated by Dylan Pepper. He’s been playing with a pick-up band featuring Orkney guitar wizard Andrew ‘Pandy’ Taylor with just a couple of hours rehearsal time and is just about to embark on a ‘Stories From The Road’ Meet and Greet upstairs. 

As I walk into the venue he walks out of the bar and we meet, so I hail him in my best Belfast accent. Gerry stops and looks puzzled. 

“Where are you from?” he asks.

“Ardoyne in Belfast” I reply.

“So am I, Highbury Gardens!” says Gerry.

“I’m from Stratford Gardens!” 

And so I find out a 50 year old rumour I’d heard was true. Gerry and I had grown up 4 streets and about 300 yards apart. We chat briefly and then both head upstairs for the Meet and Greet.

About 20 people are there waiting, most of them of vintage years like myself.

Gerry is introduced and flanked by Colin Campbell from Blues Matters Magazine, who ensures the conversation flows between questions from the audience. Gerry Mc Avoy looks in incredibly good shape for a man of 73, and is charming, informative and often humorous as he recounts his  tales of meeting and working with Rory, the evolution of the band, song writing and the sad decline of Rory due to mounting health problems. He dealt with his own early days in the band Deep Joy, often supporting Rory’s band Taste, and with both breaking up towards the end of 1970.  Rory contacted Gerry and also Wilgar Campbell, who had also been with Deep Joy as a drummer, they had a few jams and together they started on Rory’s eponymous first solo album.

Remarkably, after similar jams Rory had passed on working with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell from the Jimi Hendrix Experience, now at a loose end after Jimi had passed away a few months earlier.

Gerry also touched on the recent auction of Rory’s iconic Stratocaster guitar and the fact that it absolutely needed to stay in Ireland to inspire future generations of musicians.

I briefly met Gerry afterwards to get a facsimile of that historic Melody Maker cover signed, along with a copy of the Rory Gallagher Band’s ‘Irish Tour 74’ DVD. We shook hands and I moved on. It had been a rewarding and unexpectedly comfortable hour in his company.

In the meantime Gerry plays on with his Band Of Friends, touring frequently  and keeping the flame of Rory’s music alive all over the world. He has always been a songwriter, although that was never his role in Rory’s band, and has also released two solo albums, ‘Bassics’ in 1980 and ‘Can’t Win Em All’ in 2010.

In 2005 Gerry decided to write a book called ‘Riding Shotgun’ about his time working with Rory and his subsequent time with Blues band Nine Below Zero, which also lasted a surprising 21 years.

It is available from Waterstones in hard back edition, priced £20.

---