Irish Tour 74 Cradle Rock
Irish Tour 74 Rare

Its program contained 10 songs, several lengthy electric workouts by Gallagher. Long considered one of the finest live rock recordings, Irish Tour '74 saw several CD releases that resulted in better sound, but no additional material. Was any recorded concert set wanting for unreleased material it is Irish Tour '74. Sony Legacy has brought the goods with this 6-CD, 1-DVD (the DVD being of Tony Palmer's. Here you can buy and download music mp3 Rory Gallagher. You can buy Album Irish Tour '74: 40Th Anniversary Expanded Edition CD1 2014 - Rory Gallagher. Listen online top songs Rory Gallagher.

Discography of Rory Gallagher

Album title		Year	Tracks	Bitrate	Price
The Best Of CD2	2020	15	320	€1.97
The Best Of CD1	2020	15	320	€1.97	Buy now Add to cart
Cleveland Calling	2020	8	320	€1.05
Check Shirt Wizard (Live In '77) CD2	2020	11	320	€1.44	Buy now Add to cart
Check Shirt Wizard (Live In '77) CD1	2020	9	320	€1.18
Blues (Deluxe Edition) CD3	2019	12	320	€1.57	Buy now Add to cart
Blues (Deluxe Edition) CD2	2019	12	320	€1.57
Blues (Deluxe Edition) CD1	2019	12	320	€1.57	Buy now Add to cart
Irishman In New York CD2	2015	6	320	€0.79
Irishman In New York CD1	2015	9	320	€1.18	Buy now Add to cart

Irish Tour '74

Live album by

Released

21 July 1974

Recorded

2–4 January 1974

Genre

Blues rock

Length

69:27

Label

Polydor 2659 031 (UK)
Polydor 9501 (USA)
Buddha 99650 (CD reissue)

Producer

Rory Gallagher

Rory Gallagher chronology

Tattoo
(1973)

Irish Tour '74
(1974)

Against the Grain
(1975)

Alternative cover

cover of the CD version

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	^[1]
AllAboutJazz	^[2]

Irish Tour '74 is the sixth album by Rory Gallagher. It is a live album compiled from performances during Gallagher's Irish Tour in January 1974. The source concerts were recorded at BelfastUlster Hall, DublinCarlton Cinema and Cork City Hall using Ronnie Lane's Mobile Studio. 'Back on My Stompin' Ground (After Hours)' was recorded from a jam session during the tour. Irish Tour '74 has sold in excess of two million copies worldwide. An article in a Belfast daily newspaper stated: 'Rory Gallagher never forgot Northern Ireland, he returned throughout the '70s when few other artists of his calibre dared come near the place.'^[3]

Background[edit]

Gallagher never enjoyed going into the studio to make records. Playing to a live audience was essential, he thought, to get the real energy needed for the kind of music he wanted to play. The members of his band felt the same way. Speaking about the Irish tour album keyboardist Lou Martin said 'Albums were always done in a rush because we were on the road so much, and then we’d come back to London and it could be two weeks – like Blueprint was done in two weeks – and that is ridiculous,.. but Irish Tour was an absolute highlight,.. the band came to fruition in the Calling Card days, by that time we were well seasoned … everybody knew everybody else’s style of playing.. The studio was not the best environment for recording. He wasn’t at his most comfortable or happiest, I mean a lot of people really adapted to it really well like The Allman Brothers or Little Feat. With Rory, if he didn’t have somebody to look at then he couldn’t feed off the energy. That’s why Irish Tour is such a good bloody album because it was recorded live, he got the crowd there with him singing along and sort of like urging him along… without the presence of an audience the recording process for Rory was a bit of a strain'^[4]

Gallagher's 1974 tour of Ireland coincided with one of the most tumultuous times in Belfast. Violence from IRA terrorists was erupting throughout the city even at rock concerts. As a result, most rock acts refused to play in the city.^[5] The day before Gallagher's scheduled concert in Belfast ten bombs went off at various locations around the city. Everyone expected Gallagher to cancel as all the other big names had but he went on with the concert and was rewarded with one of his best shows. A local Belfast journalist writing to describe the concert and the feeling said:

I've never seen anything quite so wonderful, so stirring, so uplifting, so joyous as when Gallagher and the band walked on stage. The whole place erupted, they all stood and they cheered and they yelled, and screamed, and they put their arms up, and they embraced. Then as one unit they put their arms into the air and gave peace signs. Without being silly, or overemotional, it was one of the most memorable moments of my life. It all meant something, it meant more than just rock n' roll, it was something bigger, something more valid than just that.^[6]

Additionally, rock film director Tony Palmer filmed many of the concerts on the tour. He originally planned to use it for a television special, but he later found the footage so good that he released it as a theatrical motion picture. The accompanying album would be considered the 'soundtrack' of the film.

Track listing[edit]

All tracks composed by Rory Gallagher unless stated.

Side One

'Cradle Rock' [from Tattoo] – 7:38
'I Wonder Who' (McKinley Morganfield) – 7:52
'Tattoo'd Lady' [from Tattoo] – 5:04

Side Two

'Too Much Alcohol' (J. B. Hutto) – 8:30
'As the Crow Flies' (Tony Joe White) – 6:02
'A Million Miles Away' [from Tattoo] – 9:29

Side Three

Irish Tour 74 Cradle Rock

'Walk on Hot Coals' [from Blueprint] – 11:13
'Who's That Coming?' [from Tattoo] – 10:05

Side Four

Irish Tour 74 Rare

'Back on My Stompin' Ground (After Hours)' – 5:18
'Just a Little Bit' - 8:17(a)

(a) On first Spanish double vinyl 1974 edition, the track 10 is 'Just a little Bit' and 'Maritime' was subsequently substituted as track 10 because 78 minutes was considered too close to that capacity of the CD format.

(a) On the re-released (in a digital remastered) CD-version in 1998 there was the song 'Just a Little Bit' as number 10 before 'Maritime'. This track is available as a bonus track on the remastered CD-version of Gallagher's 1973 album Tattoo. It is written by Rosco Gordon.

40th anniversary box set[edit]

On 20 October 2014 Sony Music and Legacy Recordings released a deluxe, 7-CD/1-DVD box set to commemorate the album's 40th anniversary.^[7]

Discs 1 & 2
Cork (5 January 1974)

'Messin' with the Kid'*
'Cradle Rock'
'I Wonder Who'
'Tattoo'd Lady'
'Walk on Hot Coals'
'Laundromat'*
'A Million Miles Away'
'Hands Off'*
'Too Much Alcohol'
'As the Crow Flies'
'Pistol Slapper Blues'*
'Unmilitary Two-Step'*
'Bankers Blues'*
'Going to My Hometown'*
'Who's That Com

2021.08