On 6th February 2011 we received the news that Gary Moore, on of my all time favourite guitarists has died of a heart attack while holidaying in Spain. Below is a tribute to a man who will be sorely missed in the world of rock music.

I first came to the notice of Gary Moore during the early 1980's when Gary was enjoying one of his many stints with the band Thin Lizzy, but it wasn't until he released the single 'Out In The Fields' with Thin Lizzy frontman Phillip Lynott that I really took notice of his talent. I searched high and low for the 45rpm record and finally found it, then played it endlessly for the next couple of months, along with the b-side 'Military Man'. I was impressed with his guitar work which I found exceptional. However, at the time I wasn't really that much into the heavy rock he was playing at the time. I would discover this period of his life a few years later.

It was with his breakthrough blues rock album 'Still Got The Blues' that sat up and took notice of Gary's talent. I liked every song on this album and over the years have owned a copy on vinyl (LP), cassette and CD. I've lost count of the many road trips I've taken where this album has helped me while away the many kilometres of driving. It may have all ended there until friend of mine, Craig, gave me a gift of his second blues album 'After Hours'. From there I was hooked. I searched high and low for everything I could by Gary Moore and this included his earlier heavy material and I found some great songs, but especially the album 'Wild Frontier' which has become a much loved favourite. Being a fan of the early blues playing Fleetwood Mac it was no surprise that I eagerly awaited his next blues release on CD. This was 'Blues For Greeny' an album of covers, but all written by Peter Green, the original founder of Fleetwood Mac and a man who greatly imspired Gary Moore during his early years. Notably Peter Green is the only guitar player I rate higher than Gary Moore and that includes the likes of Clapton and Hendrix (and I'm a fan of both) I sat in my loungeroom entranced as I watched the video 'Blues For Greeny Live', marvelling at his fretwork and fingering. Gary then brought out an album with a more mellow sound titled 'Dark Days In Paradise' which was okay but not, in my opinion, as good as his previous work. It was a great relief to discover he had returned to the blues with 'Back To The Blues' soon after.

It was through the music of Gary Moore that I started to discover other blues rock acts, most notably Stevie Ray Vaughan and over the years I have been able to discover the albums he recorded with Colosseum II and even locate a copy of the singles 'Parisienne Walkways' which he also recorded with Phillip Lynott and the previously unheard of 'Spanish Guitar'.

You know how the song goes - "If there's a rock n roll heaven you know they got one hell of a band" - well, with Gary Moore fronting on guitar and his old buddy Phillip Lynott on bass, that song line could well be 100% true.

Below is a write-up from Wikipedia - the online Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Moore

Robert William Gary Moore (4 April 1952 ? 6 February 2011), better known simply as Gary Moore, was a musician from Belfast, Northern Ireland, best recognized as a blues rock guitarist and singer. In a career dating back to the 1960s, Moore played with artists including Phil Lynott and Brian Downey during his teens, leading him to membership with the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy on three separate occasions. Moore shared the stage with such blues and rock luminaries as B.B. King, Albert King, Colosseum II, Greg Lake and Skid Row (not to be confused with the heavy metal band of the same name), as well as having a successful solo career. He guested on a number of albums recorded by high profile musicians, including a cameo appearance playing the lead guitar solo on "She's My Baby" from Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3. Moore died of a suspected heart attack[2] in his hotel room while on holiday in Estepona, Spain, in February 2011.[3][4]

Moore started performing at a young age, having picked up a battered acoustic guitar (a Framus guitar) at the age of eight. He got his first quality guitar at the age of 14, learning to play the right-handed instrument in the standard way despite being left-handed. He moved to Dublin in 1968 at the age of 16. His early musical influences were artists such as Albert King, Elvis Presley, The Shadows and The Beatles. Later, having seen Jimi Hendrix and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers in his home town of Belfast, his own style was developing into a blues-rock sound that would be the dominant form of his career in music. Moore's greatest influence in the early days was guitarist Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac who was a mentor to Moore when performing in Dublin. Green's continued influence on Moore was later repaid as a tribute to Green on his 1995 album Blues for Greeny, an album consisting entirely of Green compositions. On this tribute album Moore played Green's 1959 Les Paul Standard guitar which Green had lent to Moore after leaving Fleetwood Mac. Moore ultimately purchased the guitar, at Green's request, so that "it would have a good home".

While less popular in the US, Moore's work "brought substantial acclaim and commercial success in most other parts of the world ? especially in Europe". Throughout his career, Moore was recognised as an influence by many notable guitarists including Vivian Campbell, Patrick Rondat, John Norum, Joe Bonamassa, Adrian Smith, Zakk Wylde, Randy Rhoads, John Sykes and Kirk Hammett. He collaborated with a broad range of artists including George Harrison, Trilok Gurtu, Dr. Strangely Strange, Colosseum II, Albert Collins, Jimmy Nail, Mo Foster, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce, Jim Capaldi, B.B. King, Bob Dylan, Vicki Brown, Cozy Powell, Rod Argent, the Beach Boys, Ozzy Osbourne and Andrew Lloyd Webber on the composer's Variations album in 1977. He experimented with many musical genres, including rock, jazz, blues, country, electric blues, hard rock and heavy metal.

In 1968, aged 16, Moore moved to Dublin to join the group Skid Row with Noel Bridgeman and Brendan "Brush" Shiels. It was with this group that he earned a reputation in the music industry, and his association with Phil Lynott began. Moore released his first solo album in 1973, Grinding Stone (billed as "the Gary Moore Band"). In 1978 his solo career continued with help from Phil Lynott. The combination of Moore's blues-based guitar and Lynott's voice produced "Parisienne Walkways", which reached the Top Ten in the UK Singles Chart in April 1979 and the Thin Lizzy album Black Rose: A Rock Legend which reached number two in the UK album chart. Moore appears in the videos for Waiting for an Alibi and Do Anything You Want To. In 1987, he collaborated on the UK charity record "Let It Be", a cover of the Beatles track. He performed a guitar solo for inclusion on the recording, which was released under the group-name of 'Ferry Aid'. The record raised substantial funds for the survivors of the MS Herald of Free Enterprise disaster. In 1993, he was included on a cassette called Rock Classics Vol. 1 with "Run to Your Mama", and "Dark Side of the Moog".

After a series of rock records, Moore returned to blues music with Still Got the Blues, with contributions from Albert King, Albert Collins and George Harrison. The album was well received by fans. He stayed with the blues format until 1997, when he decided to experiment with modern dance beats on Dark Days in Paradise; this left many fans, as well as the music press, confused. With Back to the Blues, Moore return to his tried and tested blues format in 2001: he continued with this style on Power of the Blues (2004), Old New Ballads Blues (2006), Close As You Get (2007) and Bad For You Baby (2008). He also contributed guitar sections to Richard Blackwood's 2000 album, You'll Love to Hate This. He also took part in a comedy skit entitled "The Easy Guitar Book Sketch" with comedian Rowland Rivron and fellow British musicians Mark Knopfler, Lemmy from Motorhead, Mark King from Level 42, and David Gilmour.

Moore grew up on Castleview Road opposite Stormont's Parliament Buildings, off the Upper Newtownards Road in east Belfast, as one of five children of a promoter named Bobby and housewife, Winnie, but he left the city as a teenager, because all was not well in their household. His parents parted a year later. He left just as The Troubles were starting in Northern Ireland. Aiming to become a musician he moved to Dublin at the age of 16 and joined Skid Row, a band that then included Phil Lynott. Moore would later join Lynott again in 1973 when he first joined Thin Lizzy, after the departure of founding member Eric Bell and again in 1977. He moved to England in 1970 and remained there, apart from two short periods in America. In 2002 he bought a five-bedroom detached Edwardian house in Hove, just west of Brighton, Sussex, to be near his locally-residing sons, Jack and Gus, from his former marriage which had lasted from 1985 to 1993. Since 1997 he was living with his partner, an artist named Jo, and their daughter Lily (b. 1999) and Saoirse. His residence was reported to be on Vallance Gardens in Hove, East Sussex.

Gary Moore died of a suspected heart attack, at the age of 58 during the early hours of 6 February 2011. At the time, he was on holiday at the Kempinski Hotel in Estepona, Spain, with his girlfriend, who raised the alarm at 4:00am. His death was confirmed by Thin Lizzy's manager Adam Parsons.

Here are my three favourite Gary Moore Albums

BACK TO MUSIC HOME