About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Gary Moore

Encyclopedia : G : GA : GAR : Gary Moore

 

For other uses, see (disambiguation)}}}.
For the former TV host, see Garry Moore.
Gary Moore (born on 4 April, 1952 as Robert William Gary Moore in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is acknowledged as one of the finest guitarists to have originated from Ireland. In a career dating back to the 1960s he has played with bands including Thin Lizzy, Colosseum II, Greg Lake and Skid Row as well as having a successful solo career.

Moore started performing at a young age, having picked up a battered acoustic guitar at the age of eight, and got his first quality guitar at the age of fourteen. His career has lasted over thirty years.

Contents

Connection with Peter Green

According to numerous interviews he has given to guitar magazines, he was the protege of British blues pioneer Peter Green, whom he had always admired ever since the Bluesbreakers days. When Green quit Fleetwood Mac and the entire music scene, he sold his famous nasal-sounding 1959 Gibson Les Paul to Moore, for the same price that Moore had managed to sell his then guitar (a Gibson SG) for. The nasal sound of the neck pick-up on Green's guitar was not, as used to be believed, the result of the pickup having been turned backwards, but instead its two coils had been - perhaps accidentally - reconnected in parallel and out of phase, as per the "in between" positions of a Fender Stratocaster. Moore has used this guitar in the recordings of some songs of his albums Still Got the Blues, After Hours and Blues For Greeny. Peter Green and Moore also reportedly had a disagreement regarding what guitar the former was playing in the song "Albatross". Moore insists it was the Les Paul, because the guitar tone was particularly warm and rich in the bass, while Peter Green maintains he was using a Strat, as the vibrato in that song was not finger vibrato, but subtle tremolo arm vibrato. Nevertheless, up to this day, Green and Moore remain good friends.

Guitars used

Over the years Gary has used numerous guitars. These include: Peter Green's 1959 Gibson Les Paul, Peter Green's 1961 Fender Stratocaster, and the 1950s Gibson Les Paul Junior. He has also used guitars from Charvel, Ibanez, Hamer, Jackson and Heritage. Amplification has generally come from Marshall, although Soldanos and Fender have also been used, as well as transistor-driven Dean Markley units (especially in the studio). He also has used numerous effects over the years. These include; Delay units such as the Echoplex, Overdrive/Booster units such as the BOSS DS-1, Ibanez Tubescreamer variants, Marshall Shredmaster, Bluesbreaker and Guv'nor pedals as well as wah-wah pedals such as the Vox Wah. He appears nowadays to favour Gibson and Fender guitars, through Marshall amplifiers, with any of the above Overdrive pedals and Wah pedals to make his sound.

Skid Row

In 1970 he formed the group Skid Row with Noel Bridgeman and Brendan Shiels. The music was eclectic, covering a wide range including jazz, rock and blues. It was with this group that he earned himself a reputation in the music business, and his association with Philip Lynott began.

Albums

Colosseum II

Colosseum II is a band that came from the ashes of Colosseum and featured Don Airey, John Mole, Jon Hiseman and Gary Moore.

Albums

Thin Lizzy

Gary played in Thin Lizzy for several periods and worked with Phil Lynott subsequently in his solo career.

Albums

Greg Lake

He participated in the recording of Greg Lake's two solo albums, Greg Lake (1981) and Manoeuvres (1983). He also played live in Greg Lake's line-up. Some notable performances of his touring stint with Lake, were the live covers of King Crimson songs "21st Century Schizoid Man", "In The Court Of The Crimson King", as well as "Parisienne Walkways".

Moore's 1984 album Dirty Fingers (which also featured ex-Ted Nugent vocalist Charlie Huhn, former Rainbow/Wild Horses and later Dio bassist Jimmy Bain, and ex-Black Oak Arkansas/Pat Travers and later Ozzy Osbourne/Whitesnake/Ted Nugent drummer Tommy Aldridge) had a song called "Nuclear Attack", which he also performed on the Greg Lake album.

Solo career

In 1973 he released his first solo album Grinding Stone billed as the Gary Moore Band. In 1979 his solo career started again 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 number 2 hit album, [[Black Rose: A Rock Legend]].

After a series of powerful rock records Gary returned to blues music with Still Got the Blues, with contributions from B. B. King, Albert King and Albert Collins. The album was well received by fans and a huge success. Gary 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. Back to the Blues, unsurprisingly, saw Gary return to his tried and tested blues format.

Albums

Selected Singles ( α Credited to Gary Moore and Phil Lynott.

β Cover version of The Easybeats 1966, No. 6 UK hit.

DVDs

Formed in 1994 the group comprised Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker (both formerly performers with Cream) and Gary Moore. The band made one critically lambasted blues based album.

Album

Scars

Formed in 2002 the band issued an eponymous album Scars which was released on September 10, 2002. The band featured Gary Moore (Vocals/Guitar), Cass Lewis (Bass guitar/Backing vocals) and Darrin Mooney of Primal Scream (Drums).

Album

Tourdates

June
16th - Rockin' Hellsinki, Jäähalli, Helsinki, Finland
17th - Sonderborg Amfie Theatre, Sonderborg, Denmark
24th - Beroe Stadium, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria

July
20th - Hohentwiel Festival, Singen, Germany
22nd - Lovely Days Festival, St.Polten, Austria
24th - Blue Balls Festival, Lucerne, Switzerland
29th - Race & Rock Festival, Seinäjoki, Finland

August
4th - Town Festival, Lulea, Sweden
5th - Notodden Blues Festival, Notodden, Norway

External links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: