1262. Gary Moore / We Want Moore! 1984. 4/5

Even though he had been a mainstay in several bands through the previous decade and longer, Gary Moore’s expansion into a solo career had arguably been his best move over that time. Having said that, there was a very haphazard way that he went about recording and releasing albums. Some albums were recorded and then shelved for several years, others were only released in Japan, and didn’t find a wider release until some years later. He would record an album, and then not release it and instead join another group and record and tour with them. He would juggle roles in bands such as G-Force and Thin Lizzy with his own work, and sometimes that could get confusing.
In 1984, Moore was touring on the back of his most recent album, “Victims of the Future”, and during this tour the decision was made to record some shows with an eye to releasing a live album. It was an interesting decision, because when this album was finally released, it was the third Gary Moore live album that had been released in an 18 month period, but again with that strange quirk of organisation. The first had been “Rockin’ Every Night – Live in Japan” in May 1983, but it was only released in Japan. It didn’t get that wider release in Europe until 1986, which was when I came across it. So although it was his first live release, the audience was very narrow until three years later. This was followed by “Live at the Marquee” which was released in September 1983, but this concert had been recorded in November 1980, and so was already three years old when it came to be released. And now we had a third live album being recorded and released, but in many ways it was his first live album, released on the back of the album he was touring on at the time, and with the best of the songs that he had recorded to that point of his career. And as a means of showing the world just how good he and his supporting band was at this time, “We Want Moore!” is a pretty good way of doing it.

“We Want Moore!” contains ten tracks, recorded at four different concerts from around the world in 1984. The venues included Detroit, Tokyo, Glasgow and Hammersmith, and the songs are spread over four different Gary Moore albums, including their most recent one at the time, “Victims of the Future”, along with “Corridors of Power” and “Back on the Streets” and “G-Force”. All of the songs live versions here are superb, and are completely faithful to the studio versions. And not only is Gary’s guitar as brilliant to listen to as always, but his vocals are also sublime. And that’s one of the things that is sometimes looked over when it comes to Gary Moore’s career, the fact that his vocals are so terrific. It seems strange that on certain albums, in particular the “Run for Cover” album, that he utilised different vocalists on some tracks.
He is also joined on this live album by the talented and versality Neil Carter, who would be a mainstay in his band through his hard rock career in particular. As a musician who would switch from keyboards to rhythm guitar and back when necessary during live shows, as well as lending his excellent vocals to back up Moore’s own singing, Carter was a major contributor to Gary Moore’s live show and albums, and he is excellent here in every role. Craig Gruber, who was best known for being in Elf and playing on the first Rainbow album, contributes bass guitar here and is also excellent, while the incomparable Ian Paice is on drums.
The song selection overall is very good. Opening up with the terrific “Murder in the Skies”, the album is off to a great start. Written about the plane shot down by the USSR over South Korea in the early 1980’s the song still packs a punch lyrically and musically. This is followed by “Shapes of Things” which is a cover of The Yardbirds song that Gary covered on the “Victims of the Future” album. Gary has covered the odd song through his career, and generally performs his version better than the original, and that is certainly the case here. To complete the album trilogy, they then play the title track to that album, another classic from Moore’s career that sounds much bigger here in the live setting than the studio version. Then comes the duo of songs from “Corridors of Power”, “Cold Hearted” and “End of the World”, which then jumps into the excellent and faster pace of “Back on the Streets”, one of his breakthrough early hits that is still as good today as when it was first released. The middle of the album then brings out Gary’s power ballad tracks, firstly with the instrumental “So Far Away” which segues into “Empty Rooms”, performed as well as always. After this mellow break, the album concludes in a rollicking style, firstly with “Don’t Take Me for a Loser” and then finishing off with “Rocking and Rolling” in blistering style.

From the first time I saw and heard Gary Moore playing the song “Wishing Well” in a live clip on late night Rage on ABCTV back in 1986, I was a fan. Loved his guitar, loved his vocals, loved the song. From there it was get as much Gary Moore in my life as I could. Perhaps surprisingly then, this album was not one I got until many years later. I had the “Live in Japan” album very early on, and this was my go to live album for years, and this one didn’t seem to be widely available in any of the music shops that I frequented in the 1980’s, and once the 1990’s came and Moore headed off to the blues sunset, most of his rock albums became even more scarce. So it wasn’t until after his death that I actually discovered a copy of this album and began to listen to it. My heavy metal music dealer back in the late 1980’s had the VHS of a Gary Moore live concert that had several versions of these songs on it so I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with it, but it was nice to finally have my own copy. I do have a quirk with live albums, in that I do prefer to have a whole concert from one night at one venue, but if they are complied well then it doesn’t make any difference, and that is certainly the case here. All the songs merge together nicely and it sounds terrific all the way through. And so it should! A live album, as I have said many times before, should be almost always a 5/5 album, as it contains the best songs in their best environment. And for the most part this lives up to the bargain. Gary’s guitaring on this album is just superb. He shows off all his wares and holds the centre as always. The song choices are excellent... well, I’d have swapped “Empty Rooms” for something else, but you can’t have everything, can you.
This sadly was also the final live album Moore recorded, at least with his rock song era. There were several more to come that concentrated on his blues era from 1990 onwards, which showcased his skills and talent, but of music that I was generally not fond of. But this album does give us some great live versions of some great live songs, and that is worth the journey itself.