1979- just 5 years after the incendiary Irish Tour.Rory G has decided to join, or has been nudged toward, the mainstream.This and its follow up and companion piece "Top Priority",along with In Concert TV appearances was the G-Man's foray into slightly more commercial territory.Heaven help us he even released an EP from this (on TEN INCH VINYL!!!)and later would release singles.So a sell-out then? Leaving his roots behind?
NAAAAHHHH!
This is great stuff, played with love and that rarely successful technique of making complicated intricate guitar work sound simple.
Shin Kicker plays like he's truly taking bends at speed on a high powered motorcycle,accelerating away and leaving the pretenders-literally and figuratively-in his wake.
Brute Force and Ignorance-about a rock n roll band that come to town, blow most of the townsfolk away and then leave 'em pining for more-is a romp, good humoured and very recognitive.
Shadow Play- ohhh a real classic this one.The guitar intro has now passed into legend as instantly recognisable, the soloing a masterclass of fretwork.
Overnight Bag is where this new found maturity reaches its absolute peak.It is beautiful,economic and very soulful,the guitar work soars and dives and there is not a note out of place, or too long, or that doesn't deserve to be there.
Gone was the youthful fire and "sparks coming from the fingers" of the old Rory, replaced by a wiser, more adult man who, but for the tragedy that was to befall him, could have been around for years just getting better with age.His Live act was still a wonder of the modern age-indeed he was untouchable at his best-but this was the beginning of a new Rory, one which sadly never stayed around long enough to show us how great he might have been.