Is over 9 hours of Rory Gallagher on DVD playing live enough? No - of course not! This is a fan's dream, because few artists have the talent to be (arguably) captured on record better live than on a studio album; but in front of a crowd Rory Gallagher was repeatedly really quite phenomenal.
His appearances on the Rockpalast show have been collected before. In fact, the only difference I can see between this DVD and the 1995 "The Complete Rockpalast Collection" is the inclusion of a 20 minute interview, filmed shortly after Rory's gig in 1976. He looks visibly shattered, but answers each question with the courtesy he was famous for. It's a gentle interview, but there are some interesting close ups of his playing as he demonstrates his different styles and the guitar he uses, which I'm sure guitar players will no doubt enjoy.
But what of the music? If you know Rory's albums you can guess the answer already - it's just fabulous. Five full concerts and two very entertaining 'jam' sessions, you can't help but feel slightly spoilt. Given Rory's prolific output, only a small collection of songs feature more than once, and each gig captures Rory and the band playing with all their usual impressive levels of passion, energy and musicianship.
If I'm allowed one gripe then please indulge me. I have seen the 1977 concert in Essen on DVD before, and was disappointed back then that original audio commentary from the German TV studio was heard over the opening song "Messin' With The Kid", and then later in the set during "Garbage Man". Sadly, this is found on this box-set too. You have to assume it hasn't been possible to remove it from the audio track. Added to which, in other scenes mid-set the gig cuts to presenters chatting in a German studio, and these haven't been edited out either! So overall the 1977 gig does feel rather disjointed.
But still, it's a fraction of this whole brilliant experience - and if you feel any disappoint then just choose another song from another gig and you'll quickly forget what you were annoyed about.
Fans of Rory Gallagher do really need to own this DVD. He was a great musician, and this would be money well spent.