Rory Gallagher Collection: The Day the Famous Strat is Auctioned

In a vast underground room at Bonhams auction house in London’s West End, a display of guitars is currently mounted on the walls. With over sixty instruments, mainly vintage electric and acoustic guitars in immaculate condition, this is the treasure trove of Rory Gallagher, a sight to make any rock fan’s heart sing.

These instruments and artefacts, including amps and accessories, are a physical embodiment of the passion of Ireland’s original rock star, one of the greatest blues rock guitar slingers of all time. And it is all about to go under the hammer.

On Thursday 17 October, Bonhams will host a sale of the Rory Gallagher Collection, amassed by the Cork axeman himself over a 30+ year professional playing career, before his untimely death in 1995, aged 46. He was, as his younger brother and lifelong manager Dónal Gallagher notes, an “enthusiastic collector.” Wandering amongst the hallowed trophies, Donal recalls that “You'd get maybe an afternoon off on tour, in some god forsaken motel in the middle of nowhere, and next thing Rory’d be in your room saying ‘what are you up to?’ ‘I’m resting, Rory.’ ‘Well, I’ve been looking at the Yellow Pages and there’s a place in a nearby town, and it's supposed to be very good for guitars…’”

And off the brothers would go again, on an endless quest. On the particular occasion that Donal was recollecting, deep in the heart of Texas, the Gallagher’s wound up in a very dubious part of town, at a store with a banner proclaiming ‘Shotguns, Guitars and Luggage.’ “That’s my next album title,” joked Rory.

Rory’s nephew Daniel Gallagher has helped maintain the collection and is a talented guitar player himself.

“When you look around the room,” he observes, "Rory wasn't a collector of serial numbers or shades of sunbursts or whatever else. He was a collector of, like, ‘I think I saw that on an album cover by a blues artist, I want to try it.’ He was always talking about his heroes. His greatest honour was playing with Muddy Waters in 1971. And the blues is so vibrant in his choices of guitars – they would be picked cause he’d seen some blues master playing one.”

In truth, the collection is very eccentric – and that is one of the things that is so endearing about it. There’s some beautiful instruments in there, Telecasters and Stratocaster, Washburns and Takemines, a Chet Atkins Gretsch, a Gibson 1960 Melodymaker, a 1959 Les Paul Junior and a vintage 1930 National Triolian Resonator that he played on 'Empire State Express'. But many of the guitars seem to have been cherished by Rory for their quirkiness, with odd body shapes, double necked guitars, electric mandolins and sitars.

I was struck by a weird red Airline JB Hutto electric that Rory loved to use for slide work. The reserve price is £15,000, a little out of my spending league. But not everything is so expensive. Some of the lesser guitars have reserve prices of just over £1,000, and there are pedals, effects and amps going for less than that, Rory fans.

FAMOUS GUITARISTS

In the midst of all this, under its own special light, with two security guards standing alongside, is the absolute pick of the collection, one of the most famous guitars in the history of rock and roll, certainly the most famous guitar in Ireland: a 1961 Fender Stratocaster that Rory played for all of his career. He bought it in 1963, aged 15 years old, in Crowley’s Music Store in Cork, for £100 on credit.

It was the same model that Buddy Holly played, that Hank Marvin of the Shadows adopted, that every guitar-loving kid worshipped. It is said to have been the first Strat to arrive in Ireland, originally owned by Jim Conlon of the Royal Showband, before fortuitously landing in the hands of the man who would become Ireland’s greatest virtuoso.

Gallagher played that guitar with Muddy Waters, Jerry Lee Lewis, Peter Frampton, Albert Lee, Gary Moore and Slash of Guns N’ Roses, one of Rory’s keenest admirers. It was the guitar he was playing at Punchestown Racecourse in Co Kildare in 1982 at a special concert for Hot Press, with U2 (named Bono, Edge and friends for the day), Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy and Paul Brady supporting. Rory was always a great friend and supporter of the magazine. I have intense memories of standing with U2 guitarist the Edge at the side of the stage that day, so close to Rory we felt we could have reached out and touched him.

What a player he was – I don’t know if I have ever witnessed a more impressive guitarist live. His fingers moved so fast, with such fluid and rhythmic ease, firing off riffs and solos that slipped seamlessly between heavy aggression and melodious sensitivity.

With its Sunburst finish faded to reveal the wood beneath, Rory’s Stratocaster looks well-used, which is part of its charm. Donal is adamant that, in fact, it has been very lovingly cared for.

“There's a lot of theories that Rory took a hammer and chisel to the thing, and it was wrecked from touring,” says Donal, who recalls his brother in tears backstage at the Marquee when he first realised the paintwork was peeling off. “Actually, it was to do with the paint chemicals and a mixture of his own alkaline sweat that seemed to act like a paint stripper. You could say his DNA is in the instrument.”

Donal describes it, rather colourfully, as “the mistress of the harem” and says “Rory loved that guitar. It was cherished.”

At £100, it was so expensive in Ireland in 1963 that Rory hid it under his younger brother’s bed, and tried to avoid his mother finding out what he was paying for it (from money young Rory was already earning as a professional musician on the showband circuit). At auction, there is an expectation that it could go for more than a million pounds. A Bonham’s insider told me that several world famous guitarists were amongst those expected to bid. She did not name them, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they included Brian May of Queen, Johnny Marr of the Smiths, Slash of Guns N' Roses and – though he has said the guitar should stay in Ireland – maybe even contemporary blues rocker Joe Bonamassa, all devoted Rory fans.

HANDS ON

There has been debate in Ireland about the breaking up of the collection, and that fact that some – or all – of these wonderful instruments and artefacts might end up far from Rory’s native shores. It is almost a religious feeling to be in a room where they are all together on display, and Donal admits that, in an ideal world, he would have liked to have kept them together, but he has been frustrated at every turn.

“It's a bittersweet moment,” according to Donal. “It's a very difficult call. It's not for the want of trying to find a home or making proposals down the years. I don't want to get into the political blame-game. The Cork City Library, the music section is called after Rory, and for 25 years we’ve been talking about building a brand new library (and housing Rory’s collection). People retire, the people who were responsible have gone. You get situations like that. That building is still on the drawing board.

"I mean, there were so many attempts. We donated a silver Stratocaster, very collectible, years ago, via the Irish embassy in Paris to the European and Mediterranean Civilizations Museum in Marseille. It took seven years, and when it opened, I didn't even get an invitation, and I don't know if it's on display, because all the people I dealt with are gone.”

Meanwhile the guitars have been in storage for decades, with huge insurance costs. Donal was shocked recently by CCTV footage of thieves breaking into the warehouse where they were stored, which convinced him it was time to act (fortunately, it turned out the thieves were after another haul, and had no idea of the value of the guitars).

“I was ill for a while, and you're in a hospital bed and you don't think you're going to make it and you're worrying about all these instruments that are actually just locked away. This is the first time we've seen some of these instruments in 40 years. It's no good to anybody. They deserve to be seen. They deserve to be played by musicians.”

Donal’s son Daniel takes up the same point.

“One of the funnest things about this whole experience with Bonhams was that we got to have some of them played by other guitarists. And they sound incredible, and they haven't been played in 30 years. These things are supposed to be played. Rory bought them second hand. They deserve to go on to another hand to be played. You know, they need hands on them.”

The Rory Gallagher collection will be auctioned at Bonham’s London on Thursday Oct 17, starting at 15:00. You can register to bid and follow proceedings via video through this link.