When it comes to guitarists, be they purveyors rock, metal or blues, the live environment is where men are separated from the boys and wheat is sorted from the chaff. Beneath hot lights and in front of thousands of eyes (and ears), the stage is an unforgiving place where reputations are won and lost. Thankfully, it proved a natural habitat for Gary Moore and after years of treading the boards with Skid Row, Colosseum II, Thin Lizzy, and solo as a hotshot metalhead, he was well versed in stagecraft and it was an education that served him well when he entered his blues phase. Testament to his live prowess, Live At Bush Hall 2007 was originally released in 2014 and set a standard for live recordings that others could only hope to obtain. It now gets a loving reissue as a timely reminder of why the blues was Gary’s spiritual home.
Gary was barely in his fifties when he recorded Live At Bush Hall 2007, and when it comes to blues artists, he was still very much a whipper-snapper, yet this album found him coming into his own, rocking his signature style and offering a tantalising glimpse of what he could have achieved had his career not been cut short a few years later. Gary’s arrival on stage is typically understated, but the riff that introduces opening track ‘If The Devil Made Whisky’ certainly isn’t; it’s churning and chugging and threatens to put the crowd through a meat grinder. Playing songs from his recent 2006 album Close As You Get, a rocket-up-the-ass version of Chuck Berry’s ‘Thirty Days’ follows and makes the perfect one-two punch with ‘If The Devil Made Whisky’. Those familiar with Gary’s chequered career won’t be surprised at the sonic shifts on this album, but what is amazing is how he makes those shifts seamless. After the high octane openers, we drop down to the late night blues of ‘Trouble At Home’ without missing a beat, and it is here where Gary really comes into his own. Gary’s tone is spellbinding; with a warm Marshall amplifier and strings marinated in honey he makes his guitar sing, drawing every ounce of emotion from each note, and with a voice that’s equally lustrous, he proved himself a capable custodian of the blues.
When Live At Bush Hall 2007 was recorded, Gary was firmly ensconced in his blues period (a journey begun in 1990 with Still Got The Blues), yet he hadn’t completely torn up his roots and ‘Gary’s Blues 1’ features some gnarly metal fretwork that wouldn’t be out of place on his ‘Wild Frontier’ album. Indicative of the two sides that made up his musical coin, a cover of Thin Lizzy’s ‘Don’t Believe A Word’ starts out as a slow blues tune before bursting into life halfway though and becoming an all out rocker. The greatest delight about this album is that the songs are not mere carbon copies (we have the original albums for that), and are sprinkled with some of that magic which make live shows so special and Gary has some fun with the crowd on the last few numbers, notably ‘Walking By Myself’ and fitting finale, ‘Sundown’.
If the live environment is the ultimate test, a trail by fire, then Live At Bush Hall 2007 finds Gary Moore passing with flying colours.
- Live At Bush Hall 2007 is released via BMG on 24th April 2026.
Track List:
- If The Devil Made Whisky
- Thirty Days
- Trouble At Home
- Hard Times
- Eyesight To The Blind
- I Had A Dream
- Too Tired
- Gary’s Blues 1
- Don’t Believe A Word
- Still Got The Blues
- Walking By Myself
- The Blues Is Alright
- Sundown
Vinyl Edition:
Side A:
As above, tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Side B:
As above, tracks 6, 7, 8
Side C:
As above, tracks 9, 10, 11
Side D:
As above, 12, 13
