Gary Moore: Live at the Marquee (1983)
Irish guitarist Gary Moore was a professional musician by the late â60s, and he first recorded with Skid Row (the other one) in 1970, but a decade later, he was still bouncing from one short-lived band or solo project to another, as 1980âs Live at the Marquee confusingly illustrates. Â
Recorded at the famous London club over a two-night stand on November 5 and 6, 1980, the set was a mixed bag of songs culled from Mooreâs 1978 solo LP, Back on the Streets, its still unreleased follow-up, Dirty Fingers, and another short-lived band project, called G-Force.
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While youâre at it, you may also want to note that Gary was joined on these dates by former Lone Star frontman Kenny Driscoll, journeyman keyboardist Don Airey (Rainbow, Colosseum II, etc.), Kinks bassist Andy Pyle, and former Black Oak Arkansas and Pat Travers drummer Tommy Aldridge.
In other words, this was very much what one would call a âpickup group,â but a formidable one, at that.
And in keeping, Live at Marquee, is arguably a more compelling showcase of their combined virtuosity -- Mooreâs, most of all -- than the songs themselves, since these hardly deviate from their studio counterparts, with âDallas Warheadâ the sole exception, as it was built around Aldridgeâs invariably jaw-dropping drum solo.
Otherwise, both âBack on the Streetsâ and âRun to Your Mamaâ head-bang with powerful efficiency, while the stunning, if foreboding âNuclear Attackâ launched the first of several apocalyptic ballistic missiles-turned-songs (see âEnd of the World,â âVictims of the Future,â etc.).
Meanwhile pop-leaning G-Force tracks like âDancinââ and âYouâ sound as forced here as they did on that ill-fated bandâs lone studio LP, but the moody, cathartic âSheâs Got Youâ almost makes that entire, unfortunate detour in Mooreâs career worthwhile.
And not even the harshest critic will likely complain about this groupâs rendition of Mooreâs first U.K. hit, the perfect instrumental ballad âParisienne Walkways,â whose melody was so lovely, Gary would end up plagiarizing himself twelve years later for âStill Got the Blues.â
Unlike that signature song, however, Live at the Marquee would sit gathering dust in Jet Recordsâ archives for three years, before being dusted off, along with Dirty Fingers, to capitalize on Gary Mooreâs, by then, better-established solo career.
More Gary Moore: Grinding Stone, Back On the Streets, âParisienne Walkways," Dirty Fingers, Corridors of Power, Rockinâ Every Night, Victims of the Future, âShapes of Things,â We Want Moore!, Run for Cover, Wild Frontier, Parisienne Walkways, After the War; plus Skid Rowâs Skid & 34 Hours, Colosseum IIâs Wardance, G-Forceâs G-Force, Thin Lizzyâs Black Rose.
