Rory and The Island - next stop Edinburgh

F… The Covid was the name of one of the songs composed by Rory Gallagher in the aftermath of the pandemic.

The Kilcar man has come out the other side slightly bruised but not broken and is in the middle of a mini-World tour at the moment.

Rory was in Lanzarote last week for three nights and it brought back memories of his nights in his bar The Island, which he ran from 2013 to 2018. He has recently taken over a smaller bar in Lanzarote, Rory’s Corner Bar, but for his live gigs, he availed of a bigger venue, The Spinnaker, run by his friends Gareth and Nicola Brown from Inch Island.

The tour will continue with various venues in Ireland and Scotland including a homecoming in Kilcar on August 6 for the Fusion Festival. In the middle of opening a new bar in Lanzarote and the World Tour, Rory and his wife Cara have also taken on another big venture with a new bar in her homeplace, Edinburgh.

“This might be the craziest thing we have done yet after our heartbreaking venture with the Wildcat Bar during the pandemic,” says Rory, referring to the fact that they had a chastening experience when they last tried to open a bar in Edinburgh, in the very month that Covid-19 hit in March 2020.

But with the Corner Bar now open in Lanzarote, Rory wanted to have a project closer to home so that he could spend more time with his kids and participate in their activities. Rory and Cara have two boys, Aidan (7) and Shea (4).

“So let's not think about Brexit, crippling inflation, possible WW3 and let’s focus on having a few drinks, the craic and listening to a few live tunes in BAR 13,” says Rory.

The Edinburgh building PO Box number is 13, and 13 years ago they got married in St John’s Church, just a stone's throw from the bar on Princes Street. That’s where the name came from and there is an official opening planned for Sunday, June 25.

Rory’s latest album Centre Comes Together went in at No 8 on Irish charts in April 2022 which led him to playing many sold out shows in the likes of Dublin, London, Glasgow and Belfast. He will be glad now to have a base in Edinburgh in Bar 13 as the constant touring schedule was getting a bit draining.

While Edinburgh and Bar 13 will now be his base, he will always be associated with Lanzarote and he has gigs there until November in the Spinnaker.

His association with Lanzarote began after his first band The Revs broke up in 2006. He first played in Charlie’s Bar, owned by the late Charlie Chapman of the Miami Showband fame. “He was an iconic figure, the first to bring live music to Lanzarote,” Rory says.

Of course the big breakthrough came in 2012 when Rory’s song Jimmy’s Winning Matches to celebrate Donegal’s All-Ireland success, launched him into a whole new world.

“We said we would take a chance six months after the madness of Jimmy’s Winning Matches,” he adds. “We felt we had a good thing going, we’ll chance on our own place, and we opened up The Island then. That was 2013. We were open for five years until 2018 when we moved back to Kilcar. The plan then was to try and open our own place there and we looked at a few different premises in Fintra and Kilcar but we could not get anything that would fall into place money wise or licence wise.

“About a year after living in Kilcar a lease came up for a city centre bar in Edinburgh, where Cara is from, so we felt it was a now or never type of thing. But we didn’t think it would be such a bad decision. We went over and it turned out to be March 2020, and we got stuck.

“We didn’t have proper UK paperwork done and Jesus, it was a scary time. Lockdown went on for a year and a half and we’ve been there since. In the first week of lockdown, I had a wee panic so I went and did delivery driving for Amazon. I was doing that for one day and a few days later I saw that people were doing live gigs online.

“I was encouraged to give it a go because people were supportive of musicians, who were all out of work. I made more doing the two- hour Facebook gig than I would driving the Amazon van for a week. So I just said this is what I’m going to focus on for the next - we didn’t know how long it was going to be. So about three months into the pandemic we handed back the keys of the bar in Edinburgh. They were only freezing the rent, about £4,000 a month. We had paid the lease, that was gone; that was a waste of money. We had done it up and that was a waste of money as well.

“We didn’t know if it was going to be three months, five months. It was all a gamble. Luckily enough, because we would have been freezing rent for 14 months; that would have been some bill. I always think of the song, The Gambler. You have to know when to hold them, when to fold them, when to walk away,” says Rory, laughing.

While already well-known, the Facebook gig during lockdown opened up a whole new audience for Gallagher.
“Yeah, it did,” he adds. “I was doing Lanzarote for about 12 years and I think people associated what I was doing with having a good time, sunshine, cocktails, beer, etc. So I took that into the show, even if it was pouring rain outside in Scotland.

“So I went with a very colourful background and flashing lights and good craic,” he says as his Facebook followers grew to about 12,000 and it increased by 1,000 a week.

“It has worked out well because since that time I have been able to tour. I haven’t been able to do that since The Revs. I can go to cities like Glasgow, London and Cork and sell 150 to 2,000 tickets.”

Now they are setting out on a new road. “Cara is an expert at running a bar and I would like to have a situation like Matt Molloy’s in Westport. If people know who you are. It’s a nice little career.

“I can also do the gigs in Lanzarote. It’s only three to four nights a month. It’s not the hardest shift and I can get a bit of sun as well.”

The popularity of Rory’s music was there for everyone to see at his three gigs in the Spinnaker last week. He can entertain audiences from teenagers to those in retirement.

“When I was young I really enjoyed the music that my father and mother had. And I can see now the way young people still enjoy the music of the 70s and 80s. I would be using the Roy Keane method of playing. I’m not the greatest guitar player; not the greatest singer but my thing is putting 110% into it and getting a room going and that has worked well for me.”
When put to him that that was a modest summation, he says: “I would say I’m the worst singer in the family. I just play the guitar and sing. I would look at it I would be more Roy Keane than Ryan Giggs.”

His performances, though, are energy filled as he does everything with just a guitar and a foot drum and the way he integrates different songs can really get an audience going.

“I took that from DJs in the 90s who did a lot with their mixing of three records. It is similar to some stand-up comics who can integrate a couple of jokes. It keeps people on their toes.”

And in relation to being an entertainer he says: “I used to get annoyed at first when people called me an entertainer. I’d say no, I’m a serious musician. But now I’m just being myself and if that’s entertainment, I’m not going to fight it. As long as the audience goes home happy.”

His energetic performances require plenty of strong neck muscles as he powers out songs. “That came from the Rev days when there was a lot of twitching and head banging going on,” laughs Rory.

It was no surprise that Rory Gallagher took music as his career. He was blessed with musical talent from his parents Paul and Mary B as well as the extended Gallagher and Cannon families.

Rory remembers the great times they had growing up with sing-songs and get-togethers where his godfather Ighneachain would compose and sing an original in the middle of one of these sessions.

“We used to meet often but it’s a shame in a way that that generation of parties is starting to fade away a bit. We get the occasional wedding every three years when it seemed to be every three months,” says Rory, who remembers the gang gathering in a house at six in the evening and they would be there until six in the morning with party pieces galore.

Life is now busy but enjoyable for Rory. The Covid song is a reminder of the past, but with new ventures, a new chapter begins.