Rory Gallagher – The Definitive Montreux Collection Live
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: C Concerts: B+
Rory Gallagher is one of the great, respected Rock
guitarists, but since his death in 1995, he has not been remembered as much as
he should be. His skill, joy, energy
and enthusiasm epitomized everything great about playing the music and being a
star. Now, in the most elaborate set in
the Live In Montreux set to date, the new Rory Gallagher – The
Definitive Montreux Collection Live set collects footage from five concerts
he played at the legendry festival.
All the way to the time of his death, he never let up and
gave his all to his fans and his art in every single performance. In 1967, he formed the band called Taste,
then left in 1970 for solo glory.
Though he did not have any big Pop chart success, his Rock success and
diehard fans never abandoned him. The
concert footage here is from 1975, 1977, 1979, 1985 and 1994. Altogether, you get over 4.5 hours of great
Rock and the crowds are there all the way.
Fans will know his hits best, though he does do some fine covers of
songs like Amazing Grace and Blue Moon Of Kentucky. This set nearly made a fan out of this
critic and it is one of the best in the great Montreux series as well.
The picture quality varies throughout, but the image is
the 1.33 X 1 ratio throughout, with all the years but 1975 shot on tape. The footage is usually decent, capturing all
of Gallagher’s energy. Though the audio
is older stereo at best, someone at Eagle went through great trouble to upgrade
the sound to 5.1 mixes in standard Dolby Digital and DTS. In both cases, you can hear age
imperfections, limits in the sound and even unavoidable humming, but this sure
beats mono in any case or the 2.0 Dolby Stereo also included with limited
surrounds. The extras are even more
performances by Gallagher, rounding out a fine set.
- Nicholas Sheffo
