Rory Gallagher

Gallagher was a live musician above everything else. He turned down offers to join the Rolling Stones and to chase American stardom, and instead played relentless club and theatre tours for twenty-five years with a battered 1961 Stratocaster whose finish had been worn off by his own sweat.

The playing is aggressive, rhythmically loose and rooted in country blues as much as electric Chicago blues — he played mandolin, slide, and National resonator with equal conviction, and his acoustic sets were as fierce as his electric ones.

Ask Brian May, Slash or Johnny Marr about him and they all say the same thing: nobody at the time played with more commitment.