(Gary Moore does not run this site himself, it is a only a fan site, created by a fan, this is not an official site. Please do not send private messages or business offers to Gary Moore here because he will not receive or read them.)Gary Moore (born Robert William Gary Moore, April 4th, 1952 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is perhaps Ireland's finest blues/rock guitarist. In a career dating back to the 1960s, he has played with artists including Thin Lizzy, Colosseum II, Greg Lake and the 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 Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.
Moore grew up in Castlereagh Road, off the Upper Newtownards Road in east Belfast and 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. Like so many others, Moore's early influences were artists such as Elvis Presley and The Beatles. Later, having seen Jimi Hendrix and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers in his home town of Belfast, his own style was developing into a blues-rock sound that would come to dominate his career. The largest impact in the early days came from Peter Green, of Fleetwood Mac fame, who acted as a mentor when Moore was playing in Dublin. Green continued to influence Moore, and Moore later paid tribute to Green in his 1995 album Blues for Greeny, an album consisting entirely of Peter Green compositions. On the album Moore played Peter Green's celebrated 1959 Les Paul standard guitar which Green had loaned to Moore after leaving Fleetwood Mac. Moore ultimately purchased the guitar, at Green's request, so that "it would have a good home".According to numerous interviews he has given to guitar magazines, he was the protégé 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 pick-up 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 pick-up mystery with Moore in the 1980s. What Dantzig actually found was that the neck pick-up magnet had been reversed. It was out-of-phase by the magnet being turned around, not by the leads at the pot reverse-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 pick-up.Over the years Gary has used numerous guitars. These include - Peter Green's 1959 Gibson Les Paul Sunburst, and the 1950s Gibson Les Paul Junior. He has also used guitars from Charvel, Ibanez, Hamer, Jackson, Heritage, Paul Reed Smith and, as seen in the music video for Out In The Fields, a SynthAxe. 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, Bluesbreaker and Guv'nor pedals as well as wah-wah pedals such as the Vox Wah, Dunlop JH1. He appears nowadays to favour Gibson and Fender guitars, through Marshall amplifiers. His choices in effects have remained constant, using an Ibanez TS10 Classic Tubescreamer on many recordings/live shows.Moore's contribution to music and blues in particular have been recognised in recent years by prestigious commercial endorsements. In 2004-2006 Gary featured in full page advertisements for Marshall's range of reissued classic handwired amplifiers, including classic amplifiers from the 1960s and 1970s, such as the popularly named, "Bluesbreaker combo" — originally made famous by Eric Clapton. Gary was also one of the first artists recognised by Gibson Guitars with a signature model. The Gary Moore Les Paul is not a reproduction of an existing model but a new model, with distinctive lemon sunburst maple cap, the neck is unbound - unusual for a Les Paul but easier to re-fret and play - as is the body, a "Gary Moore" name plate on the truss rod cover and some early model Gibson Burstbucker pick-ups, one with zebra-coils (one black & one white bobbin).Gary Moore has remained relatively unknown in the US, although his work has "brought substantial acclaim and commercial success in most other parts of the world - especially on Europe".[Moore has throughout his career been recognised as an influence to many guitarists such as Randy Rhoads, John Sykes and Kirk Hammett.Over his long career, Gary Moore has been anything but predictable in his style and genre, at times to the dismay and confusion of his fans and critics alike, ranging from an amalgam of rock, jazz, blues and country, to traditional electric blues, to hard rock, heavy metal and more. Although primarily recognized as a blues-rock artist, his variations and versatility are no more evidenced than by a glimpse at some of his collaborations including such diverse acts/artists as Trilok Gurtu, Dr. Strangely Strange, Colosseum II, Albert Collins, Jimmy Nail, Mo Foster, Ginger Baker, Jim Capaldi, Vicki Brown, Cozy Powell, The Beach Boys, Ozzy Osbourne and Andrew Lloyd Webber, to name a few. (Bio from Wikipedia)
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