Well basically he surprised everyone and our ex Thin Lizzy drummer, Brian Downey, by turning up un-announced one Friday night just before our gig! It was in Dublin's infamous boozer, Slatterys of Capel Street, and the band was called "Talk to Strangers", a Blues-Rock setup. Big Hi to all the "Strangers" Pat, Peter, Brian n' Joe and all the Slatts gang too.
Can you imagine? I was alone in the upstairs bar, about 2 hours b4 kick-off, after setting up my gear for the gig that night, and stuck into me tuner.
I heard the door open, I looked up ... and the man himself was standing there with guitar-case in hand, and said ... "Hi, is Brian 'ere yet?". Talk about the unexpected happening!
As you might guess, we had a great gig that particular evening, and Gary got up near the end to play a few tunes with a lovely old gold Les Paul (once Peter Green's so the story goes).
As a point of interest to us geetar players, guess what guitar effects/pedals he had with him? A Boss Overdrive and Delay! Ha-ha, if that's not a strong enough endorsement, what is sez u
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I vaguely remember there was plenty of before and after-hours beers (the best time), and jammin' in Slatts that night. He even demonstrated some of "The Loner" to me (it had just been released), when I cunningly asked him to try out my then new Squire Strat. I still have the strings somewhere, but unfortunately the Strat's gone.
A friend of mine (another Dave) who's a bit of a joker, even done a little party piece on him later when we were all downstairs doing the after-hours thing, when he came up to him with a red book (it was a red folder actually but close enough) and said (in a great Eamonn Andrews impression he did), 'Heh-heh Gary Moore, ya came over here tonight to see Brian and do a few numbers at the gig but little did ya know ... 'cos tonight Gary Moore *'This is Your Life'.
With that everyone burst out laughin as we all knew this little trick of Dave's. Gary looked a bit bemused by it all and didn't know where to look and said 'I'm only here for the beer'
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When I woke up the next morning with a banging head I had to ask myself 'was that a dream last night?". But nope it wasn't and I had the hangover to prove it lol.
*'This is Your Life' is/was a big TV show in UK + Ireland where famous people get surprised by Eamonn Andrews and then the program tells the chosen 'victims' lifestory and all the people involved in the persons life are there. So it's a big surprise show that everyone knows about beforehand except the subject.
