Letterkenny shop selling 'incredibly rare' Rory Gallagher 1974 vinyl record

Universal Books Letterkenny shop owner, David Faughnan, told Donegal Live that a mint-conditioned Rory Gallagher vinyl record is a “pretty outstanding” find.

The record, being sold on behalf of a friend, is an extremely rare Rory Gallagher promo record for his 1974 Irish tour, of which it is thought only a handful existed, and is being sold just as the latest Rory Gallagher International Festival in Ballyshannon concludes.

“I have been in business for 29 years selling music, and I have never seen this,” said David. 

“It came out of a house in Liverpool. It is not my record, I wish it were. It was part of a collection of somebody who passed away, and somebody cleared the house. A friend of mine in Dublin said, ‘Look at what I found.’ I am advertising it for him.

“With the weekend that it was, I thought it would be great to show off, especially with the Rory Gallagher International Festival this weekend. 

“The nice thing about this record is that it is a promo that would have been sent out for scrutiny. It didn’t have its artwork, so this is a really early copy of the Irish tour of 1974.”

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As well as the record being incredibly rare, it came with a quirky coincidence that David couldn’t fail to notice. 

He commented: “The code on this record is C155065. Every record has its own telephone number and this code that is scratched inside the record, you can start searching the code and find out more about the record. It was really funny that this came up with the same code. I thought that was unique.

“The code, C155065 is the catalogue number of the Fender Stratocaster guitar that was owned by Rory Gallagher and sold for €1.1 million and donated to the National Museum in Dublin. I think they were worried that the guitar would be sold outside of Ireland.”

David spoke of the importance of the Irish Tour ‘74, which was Rory Gallagher’s sixth album and recorded at concerts in Belfast, Dublin, and Cork.  

“It is a very famous tour,” said David. “To get a promo copy is pretty outstanding. These things don’t turn up every day, so that would have had to turn up directly from the production line. There would have been few copies of it made. They hadn’t decided on the artwork or final sound. This would have been very rare, not hundreds made, more like a handful.

“Over the weekend, we were blaring out that 1974 tour. It is such a fantastic album, and it just sounds great live. 

“The Rory Gallagher Festival is such a boom for Ballyshannon. One of the pubs said it would pay for the entire year for them. I hope that they had a great festival.”

David and the staff at Universal Books Letterkenny are still looking for the next great find. If you are clearing a house or if you have stuff that has to be gone, please call the staff at Universal Books Letterkenny.