Gary Moore Biography

Gary Moore, b. April 4, 1952 Robert William Gary Moore in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is acknowledged as one of the finest guitarists to have originated in Ireland. In a career dating back to the 1960s he has played with bands including Thin Lizzy, Colosseum II, Greg Lake and Skid Row as well as having a successful solo career.

Gary started performing from a young age and got his first good guitar at the age of 14.
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In a career lasting over 30 years he has demonstrated that he is a fine musician, and his unique style of playing has adapted to very different music genres. For blues fans, Gary's best recorded, live performance on video is "LIVE BLUES" recorded in a small night club in London and was released in 1992 on VHS. It is now available on DVD as well. "LIVE BLUES" also features two songs with B. B. King appearing on stage with Gary. "The Thrill Is Gone" on this recording is probably the best version of this, complete with Gary's Midnight Horns, female backup singers and dueling guitars. Many of Gary's standard songs are on this 90 minute show and was mixed better than most of the studio versions of the same tunes for a very rich and full sound. Even Moore's voice sounds better than it usually does in the studio. Moore is one of the most under-rated guitarist of our time, but does not seem interested in touring the States. What a shame. In the meantime, enjoy the riffs.

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) for. The nasal sound of the neck pickup 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. Moore has used this guitar in the recordings of some songs of his albums Still Got The Blues, After Hours and Blues For Greeny. 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. Up to this day, Green and Moore remain good friends.

GARY MOORE PICTURES

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GARY MOORE BIOGRAPHY