Remembering Gary Moore, born on this day in 1952.

Robert William Gary Moore (4 April 1952 – 6 February 2011) was a Northern Irish musician. Over the course of his career, he played in various groups and performed a range of music including blues, blues rock, hard rock, heavy metal and jazz fusion.

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Influenced by Peter Green and Eric Clapton, Moore began his career in the late 1960s when he joined Skid Row, with whom he released two albums. After Moore left the group, he joined Thin Lizzy, featuring his former Skid Row bandmate and frequent collaborator Phil Lynott. Moore began his solo career in the 1970s and achieved major success with 1979’s “Parisienne Walkways”, which is considered his signature song.

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During the 1980s, he transitioned into playing hard rock and heavy metal, with varying degrees of international success. In 1990, he returned to his roots with Still Got the Blues, which became the most successful album of his career. Moore continued to release new music throughout his later career, collaborating with other artists from time to time. He died on 6 February 2011 from a heart attack while on holiday in Spain.

Moore was often described as a virtuoso and has been cited as an influence by many other guitar players. He was voted as one of the greatest guitarists of all time on respective lists by Total Guitar and Louder. Irish singer-songwriter Bob Geldof said that “without question, [Moore] was one of the great Irish bluesmen”.

For most of his career, Moore was heavily associated with Peter Green’s famed 1959 Gibson Les Paul guitar. Later, Gary Moore was honored by Gibson and Fender with several signature model guitars.

Gary Moore was known for having an eclectic career having performed blues, hard rock, heavy metal and jazz fusion. At times he was accused of chasing trends which Moore denied; he said that he had always just done what he liked at the time.

After Still Got the Blues, Moore distanced himself from his 1980s hard rock image. Although he still enjoyed rock music in general, he no longer identified himself as a rock guitarist, stating: “I’m not that guy anymore, to be honest with you. If I go back and listen to some of that stuff, I go, ‘Shit. Did I really play that?’ It just sounds quite alien to me in some ways–It’s just not the way I want to play.”

While he was closely associated with and cited as a heavy influence on the guitar “shred” movement of the 1980s, Gary Moore himself was highly critical of many of its proponents. He described many of the artists associated with the Guitar Institute of Technology and Shrapnel Records as being part of a “conveyor belt production line of guitarists who haven’t a lot to say for themselves.”

Many of his songs were autobiographical, or they dealt with topics important to him.

One of Moore’s biggest influences was guitarist Peter Green. The first time Moore heard Green play was at a performance with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. Describing the show Moore said, “It was an amazing experience just to hear a guitarist walk on stage and plug into this amplifier, which I thought was a pile of shit, and get this incredible sound. He was absolutely fantastic, everything about him was so graceful.”

Gary Moore eventually met Green in January 1970 when Skid Row toured with Green’s band Fleetwood Mac. The two became friends and Green later sold his 1959 Gibson Les Paul to Moore.

Another major influence of Gary Moore’s was Eric Clapton, whom he first heard on the John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton. To Moore it was a life-changing experience, “Within two seconds of the opening track, I was blown away. The guitar sound itself was so different. You could hear the blues in it, but prior to that all the guitar you heard in rock, well pop, music had been very staid, very polite. Just listen to the early Beatles and The Shadows to see what I mean. They were great, but Eric Clapton transcended it completely.”

Some of Moore’s other early influences were Jeff Beck, George Harrison, Jimi Hendrix, Hank Marvin, John Mayall and Mick Taylor. He also cited Albert King and B.B. King as being influential to his performances.

Moore has been described as a virtuoso by numerous publications. Don Airey described him as a genius, while guitarist Bernie Marsden said that “Gary could play literally any style”.

Gary Moore was known for his melodic sensibilities as well as his aggressive vibrato. During the 1980s, he often used major or natural minor scales and in the second half of his career, his playing was characterized by his use of pentatonic and blues scales.

For more melodic leads, he frequently used the guitar’s neck pickup, while the bridge pickup was used to achieve a more aggressive sound. Regarding his style of playing, Moore said the best piece of advice he ever received came from Albert King, who taught him the value of leaving space. Gary Moore said, “When you get into the habit of leaving a space, you become a much better player for it. If you’ve got an expressive style and can express your emotions through your guitar, and you’ve got a great tone, it creates a lot of tension for the audience. It’s all down to the feel thing. If you’ve got a feel for the blues, that’s a big part of it. But you’ve got to leave that space.”

He was also known for having pained expressions while performing, something he said was not a conscious action. When asked about it he said, “When I’m playing I get completely lost in it, and I’m not even aware of what I’m doing with my face—I’m just playing.”

Moore was often described as “grumpy” and he had a reputation of being hard to work with. Brian Downey described him as “cranky” at times, while Eric Bell recalled a particular incident after a concert in Dublin: “I went to see him in the dressing room afterward. — I sat down beside him and said, ‘Fucking great gig, Gary.’ He looked at me. ‘What? Fucking load of shite! I’ve never played so bad in my fucking life!’ I saw that side of him quite a lot.”

It was echoed by Downey, who said that if a show was not perfect, it would torment Moore. While Moore acknowledged his reputation of being difficult to work with at times, he attributed that to his own perfectionism, holding others up to the same standards he set for himself.

Don Airey later said that Moore’s perfectionism was typically to his own detriment.

During the early hours of 6 February 2011, Moore died of a heart attack in his sleep at the age of 58. At the time, he was on holiday with his girlfriend at the Kempinski Hotel in Estepona, a town in Andalusia, Spain. His death was confirmed by Thin Lizzy’s manager Adam Parsons.

The Daily Telegraph reported that his heart attack was brought on by a blood alcohol level of 0.38%, whereas a level of 0.40% is generally considered lethal and 0.08% is considered legally drunk. According to Mick Wall, a music journalist, Moore had developed a serious drinking problem during the last years of his life.

Moore was buried in a private ceremony at St Margaret’s Churchyard in Rottingdean which is in Brighton on the southern coast of England with only family and close friends in attendance. His eldest son Jack and his uncle Cliff performed the Irish ballad ‘Danny Boy’ at his funeral. It was reported in The Belfast Telegraph as “a flawless tribute at which some mourners in the church wept openly”.

Discography

Solo albums
Main article on Wikipedia: Gary Moore discography

Back on the Streets (1978)
Corridors of Power (1982)
Dirty Fingers (1983)
Victims of the Future (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)
How Blue Can You Get (2021)

Browse in the Library:

Still Got The Blues – Gary Moore

Still Got The Blues · Gary Moore.

Gary Moore – Parisienne Walkways 2010 Live

Parisienne Walkways 1978 : Writers by Gary Moore and Phil Lynott Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland 2010 Gary Moore – Lead vocals, Lead and Rhythm Guitar Neil Carter – Keyboards, Backing Vocals, Rhythm Guitar Jonathan Noyce – Bass Guitar Darrin Mooney – Drums.