Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
It is usually only with hindsight that we regretfully see just how one person’s artistic talent was never truly realised during their lifetime and whilst Blues-man Gary Moore was often and rightly, lauded for his prowess, it is only with the benefit of reinvestigation and reappraisal that we truly understand what we have lost. The subtly of performance, the devastating mood that he could affect and the range in which the genre owes him arguably a debt for being one of the few of its sources who managed to bridge the divide between its golden Rock period and the inspiration afforded the new generation which has come to pass in the years since he unfortunately died.
When a performer and artist leaves their fans behind, there is always that moment when they realise they will never see them on stage again, not so much a fear of missing out, but the deep sorrow, the remorse of not being able to savour a memory and like all good memories, they begin to fade.
It is then a piece of live fortune that one of the virtuoso’s final recordings has now been made available via the Provogue/Mascot Label Group and in Gary Moore: Live In London, the sense of style and unnerving quality is captured with a haunting smile of what might have been, and what was certainly cool, during a series of songs that upon reflection were nothing short of illustrious.
Just over a year later, Gary Moore walked off the stage for good, leaving many of his fans in shock, after all he was still a relatively young man, not even sixty, and arguably with so much more music still stirring in his Blues-tinged fingers. However, in songs and Blues ballads such as Have You Heard, I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know, Still Got The Blues, The Blues Alright, Parisienne Walkways and Bad For You Baby, the memory is reignited, the songs burn passionately and the musician, once more given the credence that inevitably begins to erode when someone is no longer in the public eye.
Whilst a deeper retrospective of such a musician’s work and times would always be appreciated, it is to this live album, rarely heard outside of the select ones at the Islington venue on the night, that Gary Moore punches home his Blues truth; a wonderful reminder of a legend who thrilled a generation.
Gary Moore: Live From London is released on January 31st via theProvogue/Mascot Label Group.
Ian D. Hall