Papapete's tribute to Gary Moore...

It's been a while since I wrote anything new in this my "musical" blog. I had been thinking the last few days of restarting the time machine and was looking for a suitable theme or idea... Unfortunately the sad death of one of the guitar greats, beat me to it...

Gary Moore, once a member of Thin Lizzy, accomplished solo blues artist, and member of many other supergroups, (BBM spring to mind...) has sadly passed away last night.

What can I say about Gary Moore? I got into Rock music a bit late, so i didn't catch the Thin lizzy phase. the first time I ever heard Gary Moore play was on a tape given to me by a friend and the song was Empty Rooms. So this song for me is a prime example of his style and flair in playing...



Then , one of the first CDs I bought was Ballads and Blues. "Still in love with you" was a big hit in Greece. then there was my favourite "Empty rooms" and the amazing "Parissiene Walkways"... I have to confess it was spoiled for me a little as there was a local ad playing constantly on the radio at the time, for a sexy lingerie shop, that used "Parissienne Walkways" as it's theme... It is in this song that you can hear Gary's trademark sustain! I hear he was very proud of it and rightly so!



Then in 1995, I joined a local blues band. At least two of the songs on the setlist were Gary Moore numbers... Oh Pretty Woman and Walking by Myself. Both a bit on the "high" side for my voice but I still gave them a shot... Lovely blues songs...
Let's have a listen to the second one...



A couple of years later our guitarist came back from the UK with the wonderful news that he had actually met Gary Moore and they became friends. (Gary's guitar technician, Peter Bruce was a friend and introduced them I think) So we started getting various Gary news straight from the horse's mouth...!!

One winter I joined another band and we covered "Waiting in the wings" from the BBM album of the same name. (BBM stood for Bruce, Baker and Moore) The first two are of course Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker of Cream Fame. I have to clarify this for my younger readers hehe!!

Here they are playing the blues staple "Spoonful" with Jack on vocals.



In my next band, (I know it seems like I was changing bands like t-shirts but this was over a few years...) we covered no fewer than 3 songs off the "Back to the Blues" album and 1 song from the "Blues for Greeny" album. "Enough of the blues", "How many lies", "Cold Black Night" and "Need your love so bad". The last two songs were both covers of Gary's too. He had the greatest admiration for Fleetwood Mac and Peter Green, hence of course Blues for Greeny...
When I sang "Need your love so bad" I almost fainted. This song carries an enormous emotional charge... such is the blues...!



This was the music of Gary Moore...

And a little funny story to makes us smile in his memory. Some years ago he was supposed to play a gig in Athens. He personally invited my friend Roy to the gig and of course there was to be an after-gig party to which I would hopefully go, too! It was going to be my chance to meet one of my heroes! I got tickets over the internet and made all the travel arrangements. One day before the gig, Roy got a call from Gary saying that it was all off! He had an ear infection, and the doctor said he couldn't fly... So he let me know and I called the ticket people to ask if I could have my money back. They had no idea! They insisted the gig was on. So I said never mind, if he doesn't come, can I have my money back? To which of course they agreed... The next day when I called they said I could have my money back..., but how the heck had I known?...hahaha!!

Here is a version of "Empty rooms" played by a greek guy called Panos Papapetros. Obviously a fan because he has a website dedicated to Gary too...

www.moorepanos.com



RIP Gary Moore. Your music touched so many people and will live on and on!

Papapete.