Rock guitarist Gary Moore dies

Gary Moore was a guitarist with Thin Lizzy and was also acclaimed for his solo work

The renowned rock guitarist Gary Moore has died, the BBC has learned.

Mr Moore, 58, was, originally from Belfast, and was a former member of the legendary Irish group Thin Lizzy.

Adam Parsons, who manages Thin Lizzy, told the BBC that Mr Moore had died in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Mr Moore was originally drafted into Thin Lizzy by its singer Phil Lynott. He later gained acclaim for his solo work and was a former member of the Irish group Skid Row.

Gary Moore (born Robert William Gary Moore, 4 April 1952 – 6 February 2011) was a musician best recognized as a blues rock guitarist and singer from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

In a career dating back to the 1960s, Moore played with artists including Phil Lynott and Brian Downey as early as his secondary school days, leading him to a membership twice with the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy. Moore has shared the stage with such blues and rock luminaries as B.B. King, Albert King, Colosseum II, Greg Lake and Skid Row (not to be confused with the glam metal band of the same name), as well as having a successful solo career. He has guested on a number of albums recorded by high profile musicians, including a cameo appearance playing the lead guitar solo on “She’s My Baby” from Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.

Gary Moore died on 6 February 2011 in his sleep while on holiday in Spain

Moore grew up on a road opposite Stormont, off the Upper Newtownards Road in east Belfast and started performing at a young age, having picked up a battered acoustic guitar at the age of eight. Moore got his first good-quality guitar at the age of 14, learning to play the right-handed instrument in the standard way despite being left-handed. Moore’s early musical influences were artists such as Albert King, Elvis Presley and The Beatles. Later, having seen Jimi Hendrix and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers in his home town of Belfast, his own style was developing into a blues-rock sound that would come to dominate his career.

Moore’s greatest influence in the early days came from guitarist Peter Green, of Fleetwood Mac fame, who was a mentor to Moore when performing in Dublin. Green’s continued influence on Moore was later repaid as a tribute to Green on his 1995 album Blues for Greeny, an album consisting entirely of Green compositions. On this tribute album Moore played Green’s 1959 Les Paul Standard guitar which Green had lent to Moore after leaving Fleetwood Mac. Moore ultimately purchased the guitar, at Green’s request, so that “it would have a good home”.^[3]

While somewhat less popular in the US, Moore’s work has “brought substantial acclaim and commercial success in most other parts of the world – especially in Europe”.^[4] Moore throughout his career has been recognised as an influence by many notable guitarists including Patrick Rondat,^[5] Jake E. Lee,^[6] John Norum, Joe Bonamassa, Adrian Smith, Randy Rhoads, John Sykes, Kirk Hammett.^[7], Gus G^[8]

Moore collaborated with a broad range of artists including George Harrison, Trilok Gurtu, Dr. Strangely Strange, Colosseum II, Albert Collins, Jimmy Nail, Mo Foster, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce, Jim Capaldi, Vicki Brown, Cozy Powell, the Beach Boys, Ozzy Osbourne and Andrew Lloyd Webber. He experimented with many musical genres, including rock, jazz, blues, country, electric blues, hard rock and heavy metal.^[9]

Skid Row

In 1969 Moore joined the group Skid Row with Noel Bridgeman and Brendan “Brush” Shiels. It was with this group that Moore earned a reputation in the music industry, and his association with Phil Lynott began.

Albums

• Skid (1970)
• 34 Hours (1971)
• Gary Moore/Brush Shiels/Noel Bridgeman (1971) Released (1990)
• Live And On Song – BBC Live in Concert (1969–71) Released (2006)

 Solo career

Moore released his first solo album in 1973, Grinding Stone (billed as “the Gary Moore Band”). In 1978 his solo career continued 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 album Black Rose: A Rock Legend which reached number two in the UK album chart. Moore appears in the videos for Waiting for an Alibi and Do Anything You Want To.

In 1987, Moore collaborated on the UK charity record “Let It Be”, a cover of The Beatles track. Moore performed a guitar solo for inclusion on the recording, which was released under the group-name of ‘Ferry Aid’. The record raised substantial funds for the survivors of the MS Herald of Free Enterprise disaster.

In 1993, Moore was included on a cassette called Rock Classics Vol. 1 with “Run to Your Mama”, and “Dark Side of the Moog”.

After a series of rock records, Moore returned to blues music with Still Got the Blues, with contributions from Albert King, Albert Collins and George Harrison. The album was well received by fans. Moore 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 saw Moore return to his tried and tested blues format in 2001: he continued with this style on Power of the Blues (2004), Old New Ballads Blues (2006), Close As You Get (2007) and Bad For You Baby (2008). Moore also contributed guitar sections to Richard Blackwood‘s 2000 album, You’ll Love to Hate This.

Moore also took part in a comedy skit titled “The Easy Guitar Book Sketch” with comedian Rowland Rivron and fellow British musicians Mark Knopfler, Lemmy from Motorhead, Mark King from Level 42, and David Gilmour.

 Studio albums

• Grinding Stone (1973)
• Back on the Streets (1979)
• G-Force (1980)
• Gary Moore (1982)
• Corridors of Power (1982)
• Victims of the Future (1984)
• Dirty Fingers (1984)
• Run for Cover (1985)
• Wild Frontier (1987)
• After the War (1989)
• Still Got the Blues (1990)
• After Hours (1992)
• Blues for Greeny (1995)
• Dark Days in Paradise (1997)
• A Different Beat (1999)
• Back to the Blues (2001)
• Power of the Blues (2004)
• Old New Ballads Blues (2006)
• Close As You Get (2007)
• Bad for You Baby (2008)

 Live albums

• Live at the Marquee (1983)
• We Want Moore! (1984)
• Rockin’ Every Night – Live in Japan (1986)
• Blues Alive (1993)
• Live At Monsters Of Rock (2003)
• Live At Montreux DVD [The Definitive Montreux Collection] (2007)

 Compilation albums

• Ballads & Blues 1982-1994 (1994)
• Ballads & Blues 2 (1996)
• Out in the Fields: the Very Best of (1998)
• Blood of Emeralds: the Very Best of (1999)
• The Best of the Blues (2002)
• Have Some Moore – The Best of (2002)
• Parisienne Walkways: The Blues Collection (2003)
• Back on the Streets: The Rock Collection (2003)
• The Essential Gary Moore (2003)
• Blue Collection/Rock Collection (2004)
• The Platinum Collection (2006)

Thin Lizzy

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

 Albums

• Night Life (1974) (note that he only appears on the song “Still in Love with You“)
• Remembering – Part 1 (1976) (Compilation)
• Black Rose: A Rock Legend (1979)
• The Continuing Saga of the Ageing Orphans (1979) (Compilation)
• The Adventures of Thin Lizzy (1981) (Compilation)
• Life (1983)
• Dedication: The Very Best of Thin Lizzy (1991) (Compilation)
• Thin Lizzy Greatest Hits (2004) (Compilation)

 Colosseum II

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

 Albums

• Strange New Flesh (1976)
• Electric Savage (1977)
• War Dance (1977)

 Greg Lake

Moore 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 1980 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.

 BBM

Formed in 1994 the group comprised Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker (both formerly performers with Cream) and Moore.

 Albums

• Around the Next Dream (1994)

 (Gary Moore’s) Scars

Formed in 2002 the band issued an eponymous album Scars which was released on 10 September 2002. The band featured Moore (vocals/guitar), Cass Lewis of Skunk Anansie (bass guitar/backing vocals) and Darrin Mooney of Primal Scream (drums).

Note: This group is not to be confused with the Scottish punk/post-punk band called Scars, which existed from 1977 to 1982.

 Albums

• Scars (2002)

 DVDs

• Thin Lizzy Live at Sydney Harbour ’78, (1978)
• The Old Grey Whistle Test 2, (2003)
• Live at Monsters of Rock, (2003)
• Gary Moore & The Midnight Blues – Live at Montreux 1990, (2004)
• Gary Moore and Friends: One Night in Dublin – A Tribute to Phil Lynott, (2006)

 Videos

• Gary Moore – Wild Frontier Tour: Live At Isstadion, Stockholm 1987, (1987)
• Gary Moore – Emerald Aisles, (1984)
• Gary Moore – The Singles
• Gary Moore – Live In Belfast: After The War Tour, (1989)
• “An Evening of the Blues” with Gary Moore & Midnight Blues Band – featuring Albert Collins & Albert King (1990)

Published by rbtaleman

Heavy metal (fiend/friend?) Writer, frustrat(or), frustrat(ee), decorated U.S. Navy veteran, Husband(twice), father(three times), grandfather(of seven), FM radio veteran, Concertgoer, music collector, muscle car aficianado. Grown up since five. Child since 45. View all posts by rbtaleman