Customer Reviews

Live at the Isle of Wight

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For me this disc along with "Live Taste" is the high point of the late Rory Gallagher's recorded work and also sets the view that Rory Gallagher was taste on it's ear.Throughout this set the rhythm section of McCracken and Wilson support ,cajole and at times threaten to upstage one of the best blues guitarists ever to set foot on a stage. This is a no holds barred blues rage from start to finish, these guys play with a passion and commitment that no longer seems to exist in rock music.I have no idea who followed them onstage at the Isle of Wight, but I bet they took a long time to set up,this was no easy act to follow.Another reviewer has described this set as incendiary and I couldn't agree more.
The sound quality on this disc is fairly ordinary(mine came with a sticker claiming it had been re-mastered)but I still have to give it 5 stars.If it's the blues you want...look no further.

You all know the score by now - fewer and fewer people are challenging the opinion that Rory Gallagher was perhaps the finest, most fiery and most consistent guitarist of the last 50 years and, thank God, he left lots and lots of proof.

Just before going on stage for the Isle of Wight set, Taste had their gear stolen and so had to play on borrowed kit - and just look what they achieved. Rory manages to produce bursts of speed and fire on the old Strat without ever entering the dreaded realms of widdly woo inhabited by such as Van Halen, Satriani and the whole ghastly lot of them, however good they may be technically.

What's Going on?, the opener for On the Boards (buy NOW), just steams and roars with the whole band's interlocked ability. Sinner Boy has the most staggering slide solo and Feel So Good has the most wonderful intro and outro - and Rory is at double speed on this. Catfish, by then their show stopper, is a true show stopper: but the whole set is really really good and full of class. McCraken on bass and John Wilson on kit are very good and often underestimated. They push Rory on and challenge him to new heights.

I know a lot of folk who went to this festival and they all talked with awe in their voices about Taste and Procol Harum, with Robbie Trower at that stage. They all agreed, too, that Hendrix was, sadly as often, out of tune, out of time, horribly stoned and uninspiring. Legend and fond memory has changed this view, but I saw Rory make Hendrix look very small at the Woburn Abbey festival in 68,with a pretty grim bass and drummer, so I believe it. Hendrix' live recordings are mostly quite unlistenable, Rory's are almost all fantastic. I think that posterity may have made the biggest error of all time in putting Hendrix on a pedestal and forgetting Rory G. He wouldn't have thought so, of course - far too modest and self effacing.

This is a very good and very exciting performance. Just remind yourself, or learn for the first time, who was the real blues guitarist and singer of the 60s and 70s. Yes indeed - and great vocals too. Remember also that these were young kids, all younger than the memnbers of, say, Fall Out Boy. There's a lesson there somewhere about "progress" .....

Indispensible - to redress the balance a little about who "got" the blues from the outset.

It is impossible to convey to anyone who never heard "Taste" on stage how such totally opposed,combative,feuding,contentious, brawling,individually brilliant young musicians could blend into such a perfect gestalt of mind and music whose power,rage,and compassion was both anguish sheer unadulterated delight.the closest we may ever come to understanding and tracing the development of this unique three headed hydra-who became for me and many others one of the greatest live rock/blues in the late 60's-early 70's is here in this unprecedented live classic and previously unreleased work.however,for the six tracks recorded here,demonstrate a band at the peak of its abilities.gallagher's guitar is razor sharp,the bass and drums are interlocked in a perpetual rolling struggle,whilst gallagher's guitar particularly on "sinner boy" is simply stunning.get it on your cd' player and get wild with "Taste".

Taste were better than even Rory Gallagher's die hard fans credit them. Maybe the rhythm section wasn't always able to stay with Gallagher's blues fancies, but when they had it locked in they were capable of some subtly incendiary music. It earned them the opening spot for Cream's farewell gig at the Royal Albert Hall, London, and by the sound of what they were caught doing here, for the most part they deserved it.

Excellant live recording of Taste. There's an excelant extended version of Catfish.What's Goin On just smokes

Briefly.This was the day Rory Gallagher upstaged Jimi Hendrix.Rorys first band Taste blew Hendrix away this day on the isle of man.Great album,sound quality is poor.

The sound quality is not the best, which can be forgiven, it was 40 year ago! The guitar work though is blistering as usual. It is sad that Rory stole the show at the Isle of Wright listen to the gutair work here to understand why. What's going on is a great opener, Sinner Boy has some sick slide and the intro to I Feel So Good is pure joy!

This is an excellent CD of the late Rory Gallagher at his best at the Aisle of Wight festival. Both the classics, "Catfish" and "Sugar Mama" are included as well as "What's Going On."

Though released in 1972, Taste had already split up long before this album was released. Gallagher's first solo album 'Rory Gallagher' (truly excellent) was released in 1971 and I believe Taste had disbanded in late 70 or early 71. This album perhaps shows one of the reasons why Gallagher broke up the band - Wilson (drums) and McCracken (bass) were just not good enough. They really struggle to make any presence felt behind Gallaghers furious playing.

One for serious collectors of Gallaghers music only. You'll only play it once!

Great live album, shipped timely and as advertised. I really can't wait for the DVD. Rory is incredibly underrated. Another guitar god who passed on too soon. Damn you, MRSA.