Blues guitarist Gary Moore was born on April 4th of 1952 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. Moore grew up in east Belfast and began performing early on. He began to play at just eight years old on a beat up acoustic. Gary got his first decent guitar when he was fourteen years old. He learned as a right-handed guitarist even though he was actually left-handed.
Gary’s first musical influences were Elvis Presley and The Beatles. Following that, after seeing Jimi Hendrix as well as John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers when they played in Belfast, his playing began to move into the blues-rock direction that came to define his sound. Moore’s biggest influence in his early days was guitarist Peter Green, of Fleetwood Mac, who served as a mentor to Gary whenever he was performing in Dublin.
Moore began playing professionally in the 1960s. He has played with Thin Lizzy, B.B. King, Colosseum II, Greg Lake, and the blues/rock band Skid Row (a different Skid Row than the 80s and 90s metal band with the same name). In addition to this Gary has had success with his solo career. In this solo career Gary first put out rock albums and later returned to his blues roots with Still Got the Blues. Moore has since released many other blues records.
Gary’s playing is characterized by a great feel, incredible chops, and a total command of the fingerboard. No blues guitarist’s collection is complete without at least one Gary Moore blues album.
Top five Gary Moore songs:
1) Still Got the Blues
2) The Loner
3) Walking by Myself
4) Umbrella Man Blues
5) I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know
Top three Gary Moore albums:
1) Still Got the Blues
2) Bad for You Baby
3) Blues Alive
Discography
Studio albums
- Grinding Stone (1973)
- Back on the Streets (1979)
- G-Force (1980)
- Gary Moore (1982)
- Corridors of Power (1982)
- Victims of the Future (1983)
- Dirty Fingers (1984)
- Run for Cover (1985)
- Wild Frontier (1987)
- After the War (1989)
- Still Got the Blues (1990)
- After Hours (1992)
- Blues for Greeny (1995)
- Dark Days in Paradise (1997)
- A Different Beat (1999)
- Back to the Blues (2001)
- Power of the Blues (2004)
- Old New Ballads Blues (2006)
- Close As You Get (2007)
- Bad for You Baby (2008)
Live albums
- Live at the Marquee (1981)
- We Want Moore! (1984)
- Rockin’ Every Night – Live in Japan (1986)
- Blues Alive (1993)
- Live At Monsters Of Rock (2003)
- Live At Montreux DVD [The Definitive Montreux Collection] (2007)
Compilation albums
- Ballads & Blues 1982-1994 (1994)
- Ballads & Blues 2 (1996)
- Out in the Fields: the Very Best of (1998)
- Blood of Emeralds: the Very Best of (1999)
- The Best of the Blues (2002)
- Have Some Moore – The Best of (2002)
- Parisienne Walkways: The Blues Collection (2003)
- Back on the Streets: The Rock Collection (2003)
- The Essential Gary Moore (2003)
- Blue Collection/Rock Collection (2004)
- The Platinum Collection (2006)
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
