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'Gary Moore' (born 'Robert William Gary Moore', 4 April 1952, in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a Northern Irish guitarist. In a career dating back to the 1960s he has played with bands/artists including Thin Lizzy, Colosseum II, Greg Lake and blues-rock band Skid Row as well as having a successful solo career. Among many cameo appearances over the years, he performed the lead guitar solo on "She's My Baby" from the album Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.
Moore started performing at a young age, having picked up a battered acoustic guitar at the age of eight, and got his first quality guitar at the age of fourteen, learning to play the right-handed instrument in the standard way despite being left handed. His career has lasted over thirty years.
Gary Moore has appeared as a radio host every Sunday and Monday on 'Planet Rock' radio. His show is entitled 'Blues Power' and plays many classic blues tracks, as well as some of Moore's own tracks.

Contents

Connection with Peter Green

Guitars used

Skid Row

Albums

Solo career

Albums

Selected singles (UK Singles Chart Top 40 hits)

Thin Lizzy

Colosseum II

Greg Lake

BBM

Album

(Gary Moore's) Scars

Album

DVDs

References

External links

Connection with Peter Green

According to numerous interviews he has given to guitar magazines, he was the protege of British blues pioneer Peter Green, whom he had always admired ever since the Bluesbreakers days. When Green quit Fleetwood Mac and the entire music scene, he sold his famous nasal-sounding 1959 Gibson Les Paul to Moore, for the same price that Moore had managed to sell his then guitar (a Gibson SG).
The nasal sound of the neck pick-up on Green's guitar was not, as used to be believed, the result of the pickup having been turned backwards, but instead its two coils had been — perhaps accidentally — reconnected in parallel and out of phase, as per the "in between" positions of a Fender Stratocaster. [Others, such as the late British guitar maker Sid Poole & guitar expert Jol Dantzig (Hamer Guitars), believe the pick-up's permanent magnet was reversed
★ ]. Moore has used this guitar in the recordings of some songs of his albums ''Still Got the Blues'', ''After Hours'' and ''Blues For Greeny''.
Peter Green and Moore also reportedly had a disagreement regarding what guitar the former was playing in the song "Albatross". Moore insists it was the Les Paul, because the guitar tone was particularly warm and rich in the bass, while Peter Green maintains he was using a Strat, as the vibrato in that song was not finger vibrato, but subtle tremolo arm vibrato.
Guitar designer and builder Jol Dantzig recounted a story in Vintage Guitar magazine about investigating the pickup mystery with Moore in the 1980s. What Dantzig actually found was that the neck pickup magnet had been reversed. It was out-of-phase by the magnet being turned around, not by the leads at the pot reversed-wired. "I can't say whether it was done by a repairman or done at the factory originally, said Dantzig, "who knows?"
★ — actually Peter Green is on record as having done it accidentally himself, however it is unclear if he meant reversing the magnet or the whole pickup.

★ http://www.hamerfanclub.com/jolspeaks.html

★ http://www.users.qwest.net/~fhudson/Gibsons.htm

★ http://www.musicplayer.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=19;t=014259;p=1

★ http://www.acmeguitarworks.com/Lollar-Imperial-Humbucker-Set-Nickel-Peter-Green-P1340C116.aspx

Guitars used

Over the years Gary has used numerous guitars.
These include:
Peter Green's 1959 Gibson Les Paul, Peter Green's 1961 Fender Stratocaster, and the 1950s Gibson Les Paul Junior. He has also used guitars from Charvel, Ibanez, Hamer, Jackson, Heritage and Paul Reed Smith. Amplification has generally come from Marshall, although Soldanos and Fender have also been used, as well as transistor-driven Dean Markley units (especially in the studio). He also has used numerous effects over the years. These include; Delay units such as the Roland Space Echo, 555, Overdrive/Booster units such as the BOSS DS-1, Ibanez Tubescreamer variants, Marshall ''.
After a series of powerful 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 and a huge success.
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'', unsurprisingly, saw Gary return to his tried and tested blues format.

Albums

★ ''Grinding Stone'', (1973)

★ ''Back on the Streets'', (1978)

★ ''G-Force'', (1979)

★ ''Corridors of Power'', (1982)

★ ''Live at the Marquee'', (1983)

★ ''Victims of the Future'', (1983)

★ ''Dirty Fingers'', (1984)

★ ''We Want Moore!'', (1984)

★ ''Run for Cover'', (1985)

★ ''Rockin' Every Night - Live in Japan'', (1986)

★ ''Wild Frontier'', (1987)

★ ''After the War'', (1989)

★ ''Still Got the Blues'', (1990)

★ ''After Hours'', (1992)

★ ''Spanish Guitar - Best'', (1992)

★ ''Blues Alive'', (1993)

★ ''Ballads & Blues 1982-1994'', (1994)

★ ''Blues for Greeny'', (1995)

★ ''Around The Next Dream'', (1996)

★ ''Dark Days in Paradise'', (1997)

★ ''Out in the Fields - The Very Best of Part 1'', (1998)

★ ''Blood of Emeralds - The Very Best of Part 2'', (1999)

★ ''A Different Beat'', (1999)

★ ''Back to the Blues'', (2001)

★ ''Have Some Moore - The Best Of'', (2002)

★ ''Live At Monsters Of Rock'', (2003)

★ ''Power of the Blues'', (2004)

★ ''Old New Ballads Blues'', (2006)

★ ''The Platinum Collection - Rock, Blues and Live 3 disc set, (2006)

★ ''Close As You Get'' - 21. May 2007

Selected singles (UK Singles Chart Top 40 hits)

★ "Parisienne Walkways" - 1979 - No. 8

★ "Out in the Fields" - 1985 - No. 5 ''α''

★ "Empty Rooms" - 1985 re-issue - No. 23

★ "Over the Hills and Far Away" - 1986 - No. 20

★ "Wild Frontier" - 1987 - No. 35

★ "Friday on My Mind" - 1987 - No. 26 ''β''

★ "After the War" - 1989 - No. 37

★ "Still Got the Blues (For You)" - 1990 - No. 31

★ "Cold Day in Hell" - 1992 - No. 24

★ "Story of the Blues" - 1992 - No. 40

★ "Parisienne Walkways" - 1993 re-recording - No. 32
''α'' Credited to Gary Moore and Phil Lynott.
''β'' Cover version of The Easybeats 1966, No. 6 UK hit.

Thin Lizzy

Gary 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'' (1976)

★ '' (1979)

★ ''Continuing Saga of Ageing Orphans'' (1979)

★ ''The Adventures of Thin Lizzy'' (1981)

★ ''Life'' (1983)

★ '' (1991)

Colosseum II

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

★ ''Strange New Flesh'' (1976)

★ ''Electric Savage'' (1977)

★ ''War Dance'' (1977)

Greg Lake

He 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 1984 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 Gary Moore. The band made one album that received initial praise and then soon vanished into obscurity, but is now regarded as a 'forgotten classic.'

Album

★ ''Around The Next Dream'' (1994)

(Gary Moore's) Scars

Formed in 2002 the band issued an eponymous album ''Scars'' which was released on September 10, 2002.
The band featured Gary Moore (Vocals/Guitar), Cass Lewis (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 - 1982.

Album

★ ''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)

★ '', (2006)

References

★ Guinness Book of British Hit Singles - 16th Edition - ISBN 0-85112-190-X

★ Guinness Book of British Hit Albums - 7th Edition - ISBN 0-85112-619-7

★ Guinness Rockopedia - ISBN 0-85112-072-5

★ The Great Rock Discography - 5th Edition - ISBN 1-84195-017-3

External links

★ Official Gary Moore Website

★ Gary Moore Interview 2007 - by Brian D. Holland, alloutguitar.com