Rory Gallagher

"Laundromat"

Montreux festival - 1975

Lyrics -music by Rory Gallagher, CD: Live! in Europe.

Live! in Europe is an album released by Irish Blues guitarist Rory Gallagher in 1972. As the title suggests, it is a series of live recordings made by Gallagher during his European tour.

Live in Europe is considered by many critics to be a landmark live recording, as it carefully blends the musicians with the crowd to create a gig-like atmosphere so craved by those who enjoy or produce live albums. Gallagher always insisted that his studio albums failed to capture the raw energy of his live acts and as a result released a number of live albums, many of which contain what are considered the "definitive versions" of some of his better known songs. Bob Dylan requested to record the song I Could've Had Religion that features on this album with Gallagher, but this recording never happened.
Live In Europe broke into the Top 10 of the UK albums chart, consolidating the success of his first two studio offerings. Rory's high-octane blues-rock was well suited for the stage, a fact to which anyone who saw him in concert or has heard this or other live albums like Irish Tour '74 and Stage Struck can attest. The set kicks off with two rockers, Junior Wells' "Messin' With the Kid" and the original "Laundromat," before Gallagher slows down for "I Could've Had Religion" and Blind Boy Fuller's "Pistol Slapper Blues." The pace quickens for "Going to My Home Town," a showcase for some fierce mandolin playing with enthusiastic audience participation, and the rocking boogie of "In Your Town." "Bullfrog Blues" provides the finale during which the other two thirds of the power trio—bassist Gerry McAvoy and drummer Wilgar Campbell get to solo for the appreciative crowd.
Live In Europe became Rory's first gold album, and his second chart album success in the States.
Tracks seven and eight did not appear on the original release, but have appeared as bonus tracks on almost every edition of the album since.

The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland and one of the most prestigious in Europe; it is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva. It is the second largest annual music festival in the world after Canada's Montreal International Jazz Festival.
The Montreux Jazz Festival was founded in 1967 by Claude Nobs, Géo Voumard and René Langel^[1] with considerable help from Ahmet Ertegün and Nesuhi Ertegün of Atlantic Records. The festival was first held at Montreux Casino. It lasted for three days and featured almost exclusively jazz artists. The highlights of this era were Keith Jarrett, Jack DeJohnette, Bill Evans, Soft Machine, Weather Report, Nina Simone, Jan Garbarek, and Ella Fitzgerald.

Originally a pure jazz festival, it opened up in the 1970s and today presents artists of nearly every imaginable music style. Jazz remains an important part of the festival. Today's festival lasts about two weeks and attracts an audience of more than 200,000 people.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rory Gallagher born William Rory Gallagher (2 March 1948  – 14 June 1995) was an Irish blues-rock multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and bandleader. Born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland,^[3] and raised in Cork, Gallagher recorded solo albums throughout the 1970s and 1980s, after forming the band Taste during the late 1960s. A talented guitarist known for his charismatic performances and dedication to his craft, Gallagher's albums have sold in excess of 30 million copies worldwide.^[4][5] Gallagher received a liver transplant in 1995, but died of complications later that year in London, England aged 47.^[6]

Gallagher was born in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal; his father, Daniel, was employed by the Irish Electricity Supply Board, who were constructing a hydro-electric power plant on the Erne River above the town. The family moved, first to Derry City, where his younger brother Dónal was born in 1949, and then to Cork, where the two brothers were raised, and where Rory attended the North Monastery School. Their father had played the accordion and sang with the Tir Chonaill Ceile Band whilst in Donegal; their mother Monica was a singer and acted with the Abbey Players in Ballyshannon. The Theatre in Ballyshannon where Monica once acted is now called the Rory Gallagher Theatre. Both sons were musically inclined and encouraged by their parents: at age nine, Gallagher received his first guitar from them. He built on his burgeoning ability on ukelele, in teaching himself to play the guitar and perform at minor functions. After winning a talent contest when he was twelve, Gallagher began performing in his adolescence with both his acoustic guitar, and an electric guitar he bought with his prize money. However, it was his purchase three years later of a 1961 Fender Stratocaster for £100 that became his primary instrument most associated with him for the span of his lifetime.^[7] Gallagher was initially attracted to skiffle after hearing Lonnie Donegan on the radio; Donegan frequently covered blues and folk performers from the United States. Subsequently, Gallagher began experimenting with folk, blues, and rock music. Unable to find or afford record albums, Gallagher stayed up late to hear Radio Luxembourg and AFN where the radio brought him his only exposure to the actual songwriters and musicians whose music moved him most.^[8] Influences he discovered, and cited as he progressed, included Woody Guthrie, Big Bill Broonzy, and Lead Belly. Initially, Gallagher struck out after just an acoustic sound.^[7] Singing and later using a brace for his harmonica, Gallagher learned to play slide guitar. Throughout this time, Gallagher began learning to play on the alto saxophone, bass, mandolin, banjo, and the coral sitar with varying degrees of proficiency.^[9] He found it difficult to track down the names of the authors of the blues songs that he heard; usually through the likes of skiffle musicians like Lonnie Donegan. He relied entirely on radio programs and television. Occasionally, the jazz programs from the BBC would play some blues numbers, and he slowly found some song books for guitar, where he found the names of the actual composers of blues pieces. While still in school, playing songs by Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran, he discovered his greatest influence in Muddy Waters. By his mid-teens, he began experimenting heavily with different blues styles.^[10]

Gallagher began playing after school with Irish showbands, while still a young teenager. In 1963,^[11] he joined one named Fontana, a sextet playing the popular hit songs of the day. The band toured Ireland and the United Kingdom, giving him the opportunity to acquire songbooks for the guitar, where he found the names of the composers of blues songs, in addition to earning the money for the payments that were due on his Stratocaster guitar. Gallagher began to influence the band's repertoire, beginning its transition from popular music, skirting along some of Chuck Berry's songs and by 1965, he had successfully molded Fontana into "The Impact", with a change in their lineup into an R&B group that played gigs in Ireland and Spain until disbanding in London.^[9] Gallagher left with the bassist and drummer to perform as a trio in Hamburg, Germany.^[11] In 1966, Gallagher returned to Ireland and, experimenting with other musicians back home in Cork, decided to form his own band.