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MYSTERIOUS: 2 - What They Never Told You

“I am beyond blown away that this is now in my possession”: Joe Bonamassa is now the proud owner of the treble booster that blew a young Brian May’s mind and made Rory Gallagher’s Stratocaster sing

Gallagher's number one Dallas Rangemaster was up for auction. But the late Irish blues-rock icon's family kept it back and gifted it to Bonamassa

MusicRadar

“I managed to stay behind at The Marquee when everyone had gone home. I asked him, ‘How do you get that sound?’ He said, ‘Well, it’s easy...’” In 1969, a young Brian May hid in a venue to speak to Rory Gallagher –and it led to his tonal breakthrough

The Irish blues rock legend gave May a tonal template that he says he’s never bettered

Guitar World

“Gary was one of the greatest ever guitarists and deserves to be honored in his home city”: Plans are in place for a Gary Moore statue to be erected in Belfast

The announcement comes just weeks after the statue of another iconic guitarist, Rory Gallagher, was unveiled in the city

Guitar World

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“Kim Deal with Bruce Springsteen’s guitar”: Statue of Rory Gallagher is unveiled in Belfast... but fans aren’t happy

Wrong guitar and too feminine, it seems

MusicRadar

“No Strat? Not too clever”: A Rory Gallagher statue has finally been unveiled in Belfast – but some fans aren’t too happy with it

The statue was green-lit in 2016, and recreates one of the late guitar great’s most famous poses from a 1972 Melody Maker cover

Guitar World

"It looks like Kim Deal with Bruce Springsteen's guitar": The long-awaited Rory Gallagher statue has been unveiled in Belfast and fans are not happy

Fans have claimed the statue looks like several different female musicians, and criticised it for showing Gallagher playing a Telecaster instead of his trademark Strat

Louder

"I'm not Rory; I don't want to be a tribute act": Joe Bonamassa on paying homage to Rory Gallagher in Ireland

Next year, Joe Bonamassa plays the music of the late, great Irish guitarist Rory Gallagher at three special shows in Cork.

Louder

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“There is a difference in the tone compared with just the simple wrapover bridge, which resonates more in your body”: Why Rory Gallagher’s “Kid Gloves and Walkin’ Wounded” Gibson Les Paul Juniors were two of his best-sounding guitars

They may be among Rory Gallagher’s lesser-known electrics, but these Les Paul Juniors are unquestionably among the finest-sounding he owned

Guitar World

“I can’t play jigs or reels or any of that traditional Irish stuff, but I have got a good ear for blues, the tonality of it”: 3 ways to supercharge your lead guitar playing like Rory Gallagher

Improve your blues with this lesson on the Irish rocker's style

MusicRadar

“AC/DC signed my Strat. I had everybody sign it: Neil Young, Jeff Beck… When Angus saw Beck’s signature he said, ‘Oh, the bouffant!’” Jim Suhler on being married by Billy Gibbons, the advice SRV gave him and why he didn’t pay Joe Bonamassa for a sick solo

Best known as George Thorogood’s right-hand man, the Texan slide demon has racked up plenty of adventures with his Monkey Beat trio

Guitar World

“He came out to the studio, sick, did the solo and killed it after a couple of passes. I tried to pay him some money, but he wouldn’t accept it”: Jim Suhler on the time Joe Bonamassa played on one of his tracks – and delivered a searing solo while sick

Suhler met Bonamassa back in 2001, when the then-rising star was supporting George Thorogood, and has stayed in touch with him ever since

Guitar World

“I had a meltdown. Cocaine psychosis took over – it’s a form of paranoid schizophrenia”: How Deep Purple split from Ritchie Blackmore and made a funky masterpiece in Come Taste The Band

Ritchie Blackmore was out, US hotshot Tommy Bolin was in and Deep Purple’s Mk IV line-up were about to make the most under-rated album of their career

Louder

“I see no reason for not playing Belfast”: What Rory Gallagher said about recording his greatest album

The amazing story of Irish Tour ’74

MusicRadar

“The best news I have heard all year. Bless them for keeping this guitar in Ireland”: Rory Gallagher’s prized 1961 Strat to be donated to the National Museum of Ireland

Joe Bonamassa, who threw his weight behind the movement to keep the guitar in Ireland, publicly expressed his approval of the decision

Guitar World

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“One of the world’s most recognizable guitars”: Rory Gallagher’s 1961 Fender Stratocaster sells at auction for a whopping $1.16 million

The historic Strat – the sale of which attracted the attention of senior members of the Irish government, who hoped to keep the instrument in Gallagher's native country – went under the hammer along with dozens of other guitars from the legendary player's collection

MusicRadar

“You realise these things are designed for hospitals, and MRI machines?”: Joe Bonamassa reveals the secret to keeping his tube amps sounding their best night after night – and he “nicked it” from Angus Young

Tube amps are like fine wine; they often don’t travel well. But a power gizmo designed for clinical settings keeps Bonamassa’s epic touring rig in top form

Guitar World

“He was backstage in the Marquee cleaning off his guitar and said, ‘Look!’ The paint was starting to come away in chips – he was almost crying”: How Rory Gallagher's 1961 Strat got its now-iconic relic’d finish

Gallagher's brother, Dónal, recalls the time Rory noticed that the paint on his beloved guitar was chipping away

Guitar World

“He seemed to get so much out of so little, didn't he?”: Former Primal Scream guitarist Barrie Cadogan reacts to playing Rory Gallagher’s golden-era Gibsons

Cadogan notes how Gallagher managed to create such a distinct sound, even with relatively simple gear, as he tries out the legend's 1963 Gibson Melody Maker

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Louder

Watch Rory Gallagher and The Kinks set The Midnight Special ablaze in 1974

Includes the fastest version of The Kinks' You Really Got Me you're ever likely to witness

Louder

"Gallagher delivers electrifying performances of his heavier numbers": Rory Gallagher's BBC Collection showcases the very best of the real deal

The blues boy from Ballyshannon at his peak

Guitar World

“The decline of America’s biggest guitar companies during the ’70s was essentially a hangover from the over-ambitious reaction to the Beatlemania-inspired guitar boom of the ’60s”: Why the ’70s was a time of innovation and folly for guitar gear

The ’70s gets a bad rep from some guitarists but it's too easy to say this was a bad time for Gibson and Fender and that's the story. There were some real treasures and technological breakthroughs

Guitar World

“The band had come on, but no Rory: most unusual. He was in astate of shock and couldn’t bring himself to step on stage”: The night Rory Gallagher was spooked by his childhood hero – as the Royal Albert Hall waited in anticipation

Gallagher’s iconic Strat is one of the most storied guitars in the world. But the day Rory, with untold thousands of gigs under his belt, became stage struck in the presence of his hero is one of his brother Donal Gallagher’s favorite tales

Louder

“Ozzy put a pint glass over his mouth and sucked it until he burst all the blood vessels around his face. Then he turned into a character from Planet Of The Apes”: Gary Moore’s wild tales of Ozzy Osbourne, Phil Lynott and Led Zeppelin

Ozzy, Robert Planet, Rory Gallagher, Peter Green, Ginger Baker – late, great guitarist Gary Moore crossed paths with them all

Guitar World

“It feels a bit wrong to play it. But I don't think anyone who has a guitar that they love would want it to never be played after their death”: Fontaines D.C. guitarist Carlos O'Connell reacts to playing Rory Gallagher's prized guitars

O'Connell also tries out Gallagher's 1959 Silvertone, 1963 Epiphone Coronet and 1968 Martin D-35 ahead of the much talked-about auction

Guitar World

“I think it’s a national treasure that should stay here. I threw in a couple grand into the GoFundMe anonymously”: Joe Bonamassa throws his support behind the movement to keep Rory Gallagher's famous Strat in Ireland

Bonamassa was previously rumored to be one of the big-name guitar collectors interested in bidding on Gallagher's 1961 Strat

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