1313. Gary Moore / Run for Cover. 1985. 3.5/5

The years leading up to this particular album being released had seen Gary Moore take more of an interest in producing his own material rather than being a hired hand in other projects. He had spent time in and out of Thin Lizzy and other projects in the 1970’s with his good friends and fellow rock traveller Phil Lynott, but in recent years had settled down into a solo career that seemed to be taking shape. The hard-hitting “Corridos of Power” album had been followed by the delayed release of the album “Dirty Fingers”, one that truly showcased his wonderful guitar skills along with his writing capabilities. Then had come “Victims of the Future” which both lyrically and musically followed that album closely in style and substance. It had utilised almost two different bands worth of musicians however, including new collaborator Neil Carter, bass players Neil Murray and Bob Daisley, and drummers Ian Paice and Bobby Chouinard. More importantly, Moore had taken on the lead vocal role himself for the first time for a full album, which did give it a much better sound, as though it was an actual band despite the use of so many different players. Moore wrote the majority of the album himself with help from Carter, and it appeared as though he had found his feet for perhaps the first time.
And then, coming into that album’s follow up, he delved once again into the “many players” aspect of the writing and playing scenario, something that arguably gave the album a different feel than perhaps a direct follow up to the hard to heavy oriented sound of “Victims of the Future” deserved. Moore’s good friend and frequent collaborator Phil Lynott was back. With the disbandment of Thin Lizzy two years earlier, Lynott had formed another band called Grand Slam in 1984, but which had also broken up due to being unable to break into the current music scene, and being seen as a poor man’s Thin Lizzy. Moore had invited him back to participate on this album, which he does in several capacities. Also on board was Glenn Hughes, formerly of Deep Purple and Trapeze, who had just found himself fired from Black Sabbath for his substance abuse, something he shared with Lynott. Hughes was also a bass playing lead vocalist like Lynott, so the participation of both on this album is a little unusual and rather unique. Three different keyboardists are used, Bob Daisley appears again on bass guitar on one track, and four drummers play pieces along the way. From the outside it seems like a very disjointed way of progressing on an album. If it was to be just a session album then it could be understandable. But by this stage of his career, surely Moore would have been searching for stability in his lineup, both on stage and in the studio. It was something that had the ability to create problems, and eventually the proof could be found in the pudding of the album that it brought together, called “Run for Cover”.

The album consists of ten tracks, with Moore himself credited as sole writer of seven of them. Two have Neil Carter as co-writer, while the other is composed by Phil Lynott and his former band mates from Grand Slam, Laurence Archer and Mark Stanway. That song, “Military Man”, was written by these three for that band, which then fell apart before any album deal came through. Lynott brought it with him when he came into this album, and so it appears here, along with Lynott on lead vocal for the song. For as long as this album has been out, and given I have known this album for almost all of that time, this song has been praised as an important anti-war song, with Lynott’s embracing vocals an important part of riding the emotion through the song. It’s just that, this doesn’t SOUND like a Gary Moore song. He didn’t write it, he doesn’t sing it, he plays guitar on it, and that’s all. The style of the track doesn’t suit what he is best known for in his career as a solo artist. It sounds like a Phil Lynott track, and that just doesn’t line up here at all.
Lynott contributes to one other track on the album, both on bass and as co-lead vocals, and as it turns out it is another anti-war song, but this time written by Moore and with Moore carrying the majority of the lead vocals. And it has become one of his best known and most famous songs, released as an almost stand alone single almost four months before the release of this album. The song is “Out in the Fields”, and features Moore and Lynott on duelling vocals through the song, switching lines and backing each other through the chorus. Unlike “Military Man”, which is a slow build to the energetic and powerful conclusion, this song is immediately punchy with Moore’s guitar riff and Lynott’s rumbling bass line, the tempo is faster and the energy and vibe of the track is upbeat despite the contents of the lyrics. It’s remarkable that these two friends for over 20 years came from either side of the border of Ireland and Northern Ireland, and the things they had grown up with and must have seen during their lives growing up gave them a perspective together that makes this an incredibly powerful song. This is the signature song of the album.
Glenn Hughes contributes bass guitar on most of the remainder of the album, apart from one song by Bob Daisley. Hughes also sings lead vocals on four of those tracks. He doesn’t go by the “Voice of Rock” for nothing, as his vocals on those great Deep Purple albums in particular showcase. However, he doesn’t utilise that kind of range on these songs here, and yet he sounds terrific. Still, gives Moore’s ever improving vocals with each album, did he NEED Hughes on this album? Sure, its great that he wanted him involved, but it is still possible to wonder if his contributions could not have been performed by Moore. Certainly, when you hear the songs sung by Hughes here performed live with Moore on lead vocal, these is barely a discernible difference. Anyway, move on Bill, you are wasting valuable time. Let’s look at those four songs. “Reach for the Sky” has a true blues guitar bent about it, something that is perhaps exacerbated by Hughes’s vocals, as he has the ability to bring a real blues tone to anything he performs. But it is scarily reminiscent of the style of song that Moore eventually became entwined with during the 1990’s. The small portions of keyboard and synth do drag it back to the 1980’s, but as a rock blues tune it does act as a look into the future, along with Moore’s guitar solo which really only tops it off. Ah, if only we’d known then what we know now. “Out of My System” returns to a more typical hard rock tone with that 80’s keyboard again entwining its way into the song. There is an obvious desire to send this in a slightly more commercial direction. It was not released as a single but the way the song is written and performed you can hear it dripping of it in places. “Nothing to Lose” settles into its mid-tempo and chugs along for the entirement of the song, not climbing out of its groove, and only feeling lively when both vocalists combine into the bridge and chorus of the song. And the lyrics are barely inspiring, “Keep on rocking and rolling, keep on singing the blues”. And Hughes’s final lead vocal comes from the Moore and Carter penned “All Messed Up”, which could pretty much have been written about Hughes at this point of his career. Heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol, Glenn Hughes was an artist who appeared to be spiralling, and the lyrics here almost tell his story in real time. This is another song that sound much better in the live environment with a bit more grunt in the music and with Gary singing the vocals.
Moore sings the other four songs on the album, which as a result sound like the four most Gary Moore songs on the album. The title track opening song “Run for Cover” is a beauty, with Gary's squealing guitar emphasising where his vocals demand it does, the tempo and energy is at its best and the whole song is a great way to open the album. “Empty Rooms” is a power ballad, plain and simple. And yes it seems that almost every band in existence has to dabble with them. Neil Carter is particularly infatuated with them, and as a co-writer here he and Gary pull out all the stops to create a hitmaker. It was released as the second single before the album was released, where it failed to light any fires. “Once in a Lifetime” mirrors “Out of My System” in that it is an inoffensive 80’s styled rock song with more keys and synth as a basis of the song than you would prefer in a Gary Moore song when he could be contributing more guitar to the mix. Still, then we come to “Listen to Your Heartbeat” which tends to ruin almost everything that has come before it on the album. This is a soft rock almost pop tune, dominated by the synth and keys of the era with almost no appearance of Gary’s guitaring at all, and when it does appear it emulates the style that the track encapsulates. “Empty Rooms” is a legitimate power ballad song, and whether you like them or not Gary performs it well and it showcases a number of great elements of his and his band’s music. But this does not. It is obscenely dreadful. How it could be considered that this song was the way to finish an album is impossible to understand.

When it comes to “Run for Cover”, things don’t make a lot of sense until you consider the following. Because I often have a problem with this album due to the mix and match of musicians throughout. The mood changes that occur from song to song not only come from the change of musicians but the change of lead vocalist. This is something that obviously works in other bands, where different people in the band sing different songs. But here, it is almost like whole new lineups, and with the unique perspective of two different bass players and lead vocalists, their styles are so different in both bass playing and singing that it does sound like either two different albums or at times two different bands. This also was recorded in five different studios, and utilised five different producers, including Moore himself. I mean, it is difficult to make a coherent album with the number of personnel involved, even if one guy is the main songwriter and the ringleader of the circus.
“Run for Cover” was the last of the Gary Moore albums I got a copy of during that decade. Having discovered him late one Friday or Saturday night while watching Rage on ABCTV – it was the live version of “Wishing Well” that dragged me in – and having others of my friend group who were of a similar mind, I managed to get copies of all of his albums to that point in time. Except this one. Then came “Wild Frontier” and “After the War”, both of which I loved and love. And as far as I remember, I even got “Still Got the Blues” before I eventually got my copy of “Run for Cover”. So I had been exposed to a LOT of Gary Moore that, for me at least, existed at the top end of the spectrum.
So when I did listen to this album, I knew “Out in the Fields” and “Empty Rooms” and the title track. But as you may have already suspected while listening to this episode, this album I found very difficult to get into. It wasn’t like his other albums. It sounded disjointed. The songs didn’t flow together. The change in lead vocals on every single track was distracting. The style of each song differed from the other. And, in the main – I just didn’t really like many of the songs. I TRIED to like them, because pretty much everything else I had of his I loved. But this album just didn’t do it for me. And although I have listed here already several reasons why I “Run for Cover” just didn’t and hasn’t worked for me, I think that in the long run, this album is so different from what makes Gary Moore’s music so entertaining. It misses the key ingredients, and that means this batch of songs tastes like sewerage.
And, let me tell you, it hasn’t been for lack of trying again over the past week or so. 13 times I’ve listened to this album from start to finish, hoping something this time around would inspire me to find something that I had not in the previous 40 years. It failed to materialise. I still had the same impressions that I think I always have from this album. It’s okay, I haven’t minded having it on. But it would be very low on the choice meter if I was looking to listen to some Gary Moore to get me through the day.

1286. Gary Moore / Still Got the Blues. 1990. 3.5/5

Gary Moore’s had a long and illustrious career leading up to the start of the 1990’s. His style of guitar oriented hard rock had built its audience on hard work, great live shows and solid performing albums. He occasionally made it into the mainstream as well, most noticeably with his cover of The Easybeats’ “Friday on My Mind” from his “Wild Frontier” album. However, despite his popularity in the UK, Japan and even Australia, he was unable to break into the US charts. His 1989 release “After the War” had even utilised Ozzy Osbourne as a guest vocalist on the song “Led Clones”, but even this failed to raise his profile in North America.
While on tour promoting the “After the War” album, bass guitarist Bob Daisley implanted an idea with Moore that would eventually see him rearrange and reinterpret the direction of his music career. As Daisley write in his excellent autobiography “For Facts Sake”, “Before shows, Gary and I would jam together in the tune-up room, playing various bits ‘n’ pieces which included some old Blues standards. One night after we’d messed around with some songs from the “John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton” album, I said, “Ya know, we should do a Blues album, even if it’s a one off”. My idea appealed to Gary, and he began to give it some serious thought”.
With the tour over, Moore had allowed the initial thought to mull over in his mind and had come to the conclusion that he was going to give the blues album a run. It was to be a combination of blues covers and original tracks written by Moore himself. Suggestions came from band members. Daisley offered the selection of his favourite blues song “Oh Pretty Woman” by A.C. Williams, which was taken on board. There were nine songs that made the original release of the album and three more that made the CD version of the album. Of those 12 songs, Moore composed five of the nine that made the vinyl version of the album.
Recording a blues album required more personnel than a rock band. It required players who could add the brass of trumpet and saxophones, and Moore obviously decided that he needed musicians away from his band who were more specialised in the blues, which left some of his bandmates in a quandary. Daisley write in his autobiography, “Bassist Andy Pye had been a good friend of Gary’s for quite some time and was probably considered more of a Blues player than I was. I wasn’t surprised when Andy not only got to play on more of the new album than I did, he was asked to do the promotional tours as well. Neil Carter and I stood on the sidelines for a good while, wondering how long Gary’s blues phase would last”.
The album that resulted from this was titled “Still Got the Blues”. The answer to the question posed by Daisley and Carter as to how long Gary’s blues phase would last was... to the end of his days.

Whether you are a fan of the blues or not, the opening of the album is still energetic enough to grab your attention and to enjoy. Moore’s own “Moving On” has enough similarities to his own rock music that makes it a good opening track for his new venture. With only the bass, piano, drums and guitar alongside his vocal it is the closest you can get to his earlier rock formation, with that real lean into the bass rhythm and style certainly audible. The second track on the album ramps things up blues style with the aforementioned favourite blues song of Bob Daisley, “Oh Pretty Woman”, which Moore somewhat coldly asked Andy Pyle to play bass on rather than Daisley himself. From the outside it seems like a strange decision. Despite this, it is a terrific version of this song, complete with a guest appearance from blues legend Albert King on guitar, and it sounds like the band is excited to have him there while they are playing it, the joy comes across out of the speakers. “Walking By Myself” is a cover of the original written by Jimmy Rogers and has the prominent use of harmonica throughout the song, played here by Frank Mead. The strut of the guitar and rhythm is the highlight of the song alongside Gary’s great guitar work again. The second of Moore’s compositions follows this, with the title track “Still Got the Blues (For You)”, where Gary has made deliberate change in energy and pace, giving it an opportunity to make its mark on the charts when it was released as a single, which it duly was as the second from the album following “Oh Pretty Woman”. The single release had two minutes cut out of it from the album version, which was basically the long solo that takes us from the middle of the track through to the end. The single is fine at a little over four minutes, while the album version clocks in a just over 6 minutes in length. Moore does a great job on his emotional work on this song, something he has always been terrific at. “Texas Strut” is also a Moore composed track, with the tempo dialled back up again and a more rock-oriented feel, probably coming from the fact that Daisley appears on bass as does Moore’s former bandmate in Thin Lizzy Brian Downey on drums. There’s a bit of John Lee Hooker about the song, including the ‘how how how how’ spoken in the back half of the song. It ends the first side of the LP with five songs that have lost little in comparison to Moore’s earlier rock albums.
The second half of the album opens up with “Too Tired”, a true blues standard along with trumpet and saxophones all combining with Moore soling his guitar over the top, and also another blues legend Albert Collins joining in for fun. “King of the Blues” is a Gary Moore composed song that mirrors the blues feel of the previous track. The second side of the album has moved to a different style of the blues, one that is set in a mid-tempo and pushes harder on the vocal and horns in the middle before Gary and his guitar take over for their long patch. “As the Years Go Passing By” is a cover of a song written by Deadric Malone, and this a is a true molasses stretching slow tempo blues song, Time almost stands still on occasions through the song, in a true byplay on the title of the song. 7 minutes and 46 seconds is a long time at the best of times, but it really plays out longer while sitting through this track. And if you thought that track was a song stuck in quicksand, much the same can be said about the final one on the album “Midnight Blues”, this one composed by Moore himself. He follows a cover tune of a song that slinks along in slow motion with a song he wrote.... that follows the same template and benchmark. This is only 5 minutes long rather than almost 8, and while it is heartfelt lyrically and vocally it is a quiet and slow and sleep-inducing track to finish what was released on the vinyl album.
The CD does contain three extra tracks, all cover songs. The first is “That Kind of Woman” written by George Harrison, who also guests on the song on guitars and backing vocals. This partnership worked so well that Harrison asked Moore to play a guitar solo on the first single from the Travelling Wilbury’s second album that was released not long after this album. Withe mix of guitars and piano and brass it holds its own on the album without having made the original cut. “All Your Love” is an Otis Rush cover, a song that harks back to Moore’s rock roots with the main base just guitar, bass, drums and organ, and takes this song and really gives it a modern kick. You can hear a lot of what made the blues popular at the time it was written in the song, and it is given a proper tribute here. The CD then concludes with “Stop Messin’ Around”, a Fleetwood Mac cover from their earliest formation, and with songwriter Peter Green being one of Moore’s major influences as he moved further into the blues machine, the song is an indicator of that going forward.

I have been a fan of Gary Moore’s almost from the moment I first heard him on Rage back in the mid-1980's. The first album I owned was passed on by my heavy metal music dealer, it being the “Rocking Every Night – Live in Japan” album. And on the back of that it wasn’t long until I had every one of his solo albums, and I loved every single one of them.
The release of Gary’s blues album had been widely publicised up until its release date. It was an interesting time. Hot Metal magazine had been pumping it up prior to it reaching the shelves, and I couldn’t work out why. I mean, what was wrong with his hard rock albums?! The albums where he sang and played awesome riffs on guitar? I couldn’t understand why he had decided to do this album, and much like Bob Daisley and Neil Carter, I was already trying to work out whether this was going to be a one off project or whether it was going to bloom into something permanent.
I bought the album in the first week of release, sound unheard as was the way in those days, and brought the vinyl home to place on my turntable. And what I heard on that first side of the album was a surprise to me. I remember enjoying those first three tracks immediately, the guitar the rhythm the energy. All of that was excellent. Even the title track, which delved into a different atmosphere, was still enjoyable. Then I turned that album over, and it lost me completely. That second side of the album went deeper into a style of the blues that didn’t grab me at all. “King of the Blues”, “As the Years Go Passing By” and “Midnight Blues” are slow and rambling, something I’m sure blues fans enjoy but I did not. After a couple of listens, it made my job easy while this still found its way to my turntable. Play the first side of the album, and then either play it again or change it for the next album in rotation. It went into the crates when I finally moved out of home, and then it was destroyed in the flood of 2001. And to be fair, I was probably less upset about that vinyl than I was of all the others.
Some years later I did finally replace it with a CD version of the album, in the name of having my Gary Moore collection complete (though it isn’t because I don’t own any albums after the one released after this one “After Hours”). And I have very occasionally had it out to listen to since then. But rarely if ever the whole album. Until... this week. Yes, it was time to dust it off, pull it off the shelves and see how it would sound to the ears some 35 years after its release. And that in itself was a shock – 35 years! It brought back that it was recently the 14th anniversary of Gary’s passing, and just how long 35 years is when you think back about certain albums. And on revisiting this album over the past few days, it again has not been unpleasant. The same feelings I had about the album are still there. The first half is still fun and uplifting, it sounds like everyone is having a great time playing these songs, and that makes it enjoyable to listen to. The second half to me is still dull and frankly boring. Sure, I can appreciate the music as played and the musicians for their talents, but it doesn’t do anything for me. And that is simply a genre taste for me.
In ranking all of Gary Moore’s 17 studio albums – a ridiculous ten of which are blues albums from 1990 through to his passing – I rank this as #8. And if you are keeping tally, it shouldn’t be too difficult to work out which albums rank above this and which rank below.
As you will have surmised, Bob and Neil – and me – all waited for Gary’s blues exploration to come to its natural conclusion so he could return to his hard rock roots, all in vain. That’s a shame, but it does keep those hard rock albums as very special because of his abandonment of the genre. As for his blues albums? Well, let’s just say that the continuing story and reviews of THOSE albums going forward should make for entertaining listening, more so than the albums themselves...

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.

1153. Gary Moore / Wild Frontier. 1987. 4/5

In many ways it is somewhat surprising that an excellent Irish guitarist/vocalist that was not known for sticking around in the same situation for very long could forge a successful and lauded career, especially in the 1980’s where pop music reigned supreme for much of the decade and rarely allowed other artists to get much of a look in. But Gary Moore, guitar virtuoso and mostly leader of his own solo project for much of that decade, was one who found a way to slip through those gaps. And without doubt, regarding commercial success and the height of his performing profile, it was his sixth studio album that brought him to his peak, at least when it came to his hard rock music before the onset of his refurbished career in the blues.

Gary Moore’s career as an artist had been well over a decade old by the time we reached the mid-1980’s. Having played in the Irish blues band Skid Row where he first met Phil Lynott, he then had a couple of stints in Lynott’s next band Thin Lizzy. In and around all of this he forged a solo career, with several albums through the early 1980’s that all kept building upon each other, improving as they went. Each album saw a refinement in the songs, and perhaps just as much in Gary’s vocals.
Prior to the writing and recording of “Wild Frontier”, Gary had travelled back to his native Belfast in Northern Ireland, the first time in many years he had returned to his place of birth. There seems little doubt that this trip inspired the writing for this album. The lyrical content of many of the songs are about his home country, and the music itself has its roots in his celtic background.
For the album, Gary once again handles all of the lead vocals, and of course all of the guitars, lead, rhythm and acoustic. He is again joined by his right hand man Neil Carter, who contributes the keyboards along with backing vocals. Neil was very much an important part of Gary’s liv performances during this time, and especially on the tour that followed this album. Coming in on bass guitar for the album was the legendary Bob Daisley, who at this time was on one of several hiatuses from Ozzy Osbourne’s band. Daisley’s bass lines always seem to dominate the songs he plays, though he did not contribute to any of the writing of the album.
Perhaps the one part of this album that nags me is the fact that the drums are all programmed, one of those quirks of the 1980’s that has never sat well with me. Obviously once on tour a ‘real drummer’ was hired to play, who ended up being the excellent Eric Singer, but why would you use a drum machine for the album? Yes, it probably saved time and it probably saved money, but a couple of the songs, mostly notably for me the opening track, are the lesser for not having someone at the back giving the real skins a thorough thumping.

When it comes to opening tracks on albums, the necessity and desire is that you have a track that immediately grabs the attention of the listener and drags them in. And I love the opening of “Over the Hills and Far Away” for just that reason. A great drumrolling beginning before Gary recites the opening stanza, and then into the guitar riff. Not only a great start, but a terrific song, one of my absolute favourite Gary Moore songs. Daisley’s bass line throughout is great, and the moment towards the end when the music stops and the vocalists harmonise without it, is just perfect. A brilliant start.
This is followed up by the excellent title track “Wild Frontier” and typical Moore rock track “Take a Little Time”. “Wild Frontier” was the second single from the album, sitting in the middle ground tempo wise, and focusing lyrically on his homeland, the inspiration received from his trip back home. Another great track. “Take a Little Time” rushes a long at a much faster tempo, filled with a great mix of guitar riff and keyboard infusion, with Moore’s vocals in his higher register spitting out their venom. This is an overlooked song in Moore’s catalogue, one that I thing is a lot better than it is often given credit for.
“The Loner” is a song that was originally recorded by Cozy Powell on is solo album “Over the Top”, ironically an album where Gary played on a song – but not this one. Moore heavy improvised and changed the structure of this instrumental for this album, something that becomes very clear if you listen to the two versions. Here Gary plays like only Gary can, and he has absolutely made this his song.
The cover of the Easybeats’ “Friday on My Mind” was a real surprise when I first got the album, just so unexpected. And I thought it was great, and of course it became the anthem for our final year of high school. But I’ve always thought it just overused Carter’s synth and keyboard in this version. The song lends itself to a really heavy guitar and drum combo, but here Moore and his band have gone for a synth heavy version, perhaps in the main to get that elusive radio airplay in an era when synth heavy tracks were gaining that. “Strangers in the Darkness” dials back everything from what has come before it, moving closer towards the soft rock ballad that is particularly comfortable. This is then solved by the rollicking “Thunder Rising”, another song that lyrically is based on a take from his homeland, and better utilises Moore’s best guitar attributes. Closing out the album is “Johnny Boy”, which I’ve always felt is just Gary’s version of the old classic “Danny Boy”… but you know… I could be wrong…

In retrospect, this album has a lot of things going for it in regards to me loving it. It is another of those magical albums released in year of 1987, my final year of high school, where I have so many great memories of that time that are always brought to the forefront by the albums of that era.
This was the first new album the Moore released after I had discovered him and his music the previous year, so it struck a chord at the time because of that as well. And for me at the time it wasn’t only his marvellous guitaring that sucked me in, it was his vocals as well that I felt were so wonderful.
When this was released, the album stuck quite firmly and for a long time on my cassette player because of the strategic release of the singles. The video for “Over the Hills and Far Away” was on all the late night music video programs at the start of the year – Rage on ABC, MTV on 9 and NightShift on 10 – followed by “Wild Frontier” In April and May, and then “Friday on My Mind” midway through the year, which meant I was always going back to listen to the album because I heard these songs. I still vividly remember being at parties at friend’s houses late on Saturday nights, or at other friend’s houses watching movies until those music video shows came on, and watching these songs videos come on and singing them loud and proud.
So for me, even on reflection now, I think this is a top shelf album. The songs are still strong, both lyrically and musically. Not every song here is a favourite, but the strength of the album overall more than holds its own. I love those three singles I mentioned, and “Take a Little Time” and “Thunder Rising” are also very good songs.

It’s a different album from Moore’s other releases. They all have the style of the time they were written and recorded, and “Wild Frontier” definitely allows Neil Carter to push his synths a little louder into the mix as was the way of rock music at the time. And as a result, in some ways it may sound a little dated, especially to those who did not grow up in the era it was released. I certainly don’t try to hide from the accusation of bias in this regard, because it is an album of that time that is firmly embedded in my psyche. Despite that, and trying to put that aside, there is still plenty here for the casual fan of Gary Moore, some of his best work, and a couple of songs that survive beyond his own legend.

678. Gary Moore / Victims of the Future. 1983. 4/5

With solo success slowly finding an audience following albums such as Corridors of Power and Dirty Fingers, it is probably here with Victims of the Future that Gary Moore really lays down a platform for his work as both a guitarist and a vocalist, and though the style of that music is still quite varied on this release, some of his finest work can be found on this album. This is where he began to find the voice that he wanted to share, both lyrically and vocally.

Opening salvo "Victims of the Future" starts with a beautiful melodic guitar and vocal, lulling the listener in, before breaking into the heavy rock heart of the song, driving through with a great guitar riff, and driven by Ian Paice's drums and Gary's vocals. A terrific song that holds up as well today as it did thirty years ago.
"Teenage Idol" is really a bit of fluff rock, almost a pop song with ludicrous lyrics that feel like they belong in an 80's Rodney Dangerfield movie, punctuated by Gary's terrific guitar work. Honestly, if you just threw this song at me and got me to listen to it I would probably throw it back in your face. But, because I have been listening to this album since shortly after its release, and it is tied to those days, I find it to be one of those guilty please songs that you can't help but like, even though you know it really is just a little lame. Following this is an excellent cover of The Yardbirds song "Shapes of Things, where Gary really excels both vocally and on guitar.
The power ballad "Empty Rooms" is the kind of song that I really don't and shouldn't like, but Gary Moore has this way of making them unavoidably likeable, both through his excellent vocals but also the guitaring, perfectly soft and dominating in the same instance. His solo in this song is really one of his best, because it makes a soft rock ballad into a song that is more powerful than is usual for a song on this type. Just fantastic.
Side Two is kicked off by the magnificent "Murder in the Skies". The start of the song is introduced by a minute and a half of brilliant guitar shredding from Gary, showcasing his amazing talent with the instrument. It is the perfect intro before the song kicks into high gear, with a great smashing drum beat and high intensity vocals. Written about the Korean Airlines Flight 007 that was shot down by a U.S.S.R. fighter plane in September 1983, the tragedy is wonderfully highlighted by great lyrics, a terrific chorus and sensational guitaring by the man himself. This is without doubt one of his finest songs, and again shows that it is his 'protest' songs that really work the best, where he takes on a cause and memorialises it in song. One of my favourite all-time Gary Moore tracks.
It is a shame that the remainder of the album is unable to live up to this high quality song. "All I Want" reverts back to an average rock song without the sensational guitar riffs or song structure of other songs previous to this. "Hold Onto Love" feels like an attempt at a radio-friendly rock song, but lacks anything memorable in which to make it so. "Law of the Jungle" becomes a rather plodding finish to the album, a song that has both merit and potential, but seems to get bogged down with trying to be something it is not. It is not a complete loss, but it is one that more could have been done with.

Like a lot of Gary's albums, this again comes across as being a little uneven. There are the social issues songs that try to be hard hitting and as a result have the best lyrics and rhythmic heaviness, mixed with pop rock songs that seem to be looking for radio airplay. In attempting to rate this, I would say half of this is top shelf with the other half probably just average fare. Anyone listening to this for the first time in this day and age could be forgiven for dismissing it as another 80's rock album, but a more discerning listener will be able to hear what is so good about it, and why it should be classed as a much more important release than perhaps it appears on the surface. Gary's guitaring and vocals alone lift this above the average.

470. Gary Moore / Have Some Moore: The Best of Gary Moore. 2000. 3/5

It is never an easy job to put together a greatest hits compilation, especially for an artist who has been around as long, as had as many releases, and has been as versatile as Gary Moore. Indeed, for the different styles he has recorded over the years, how could a compilation of this type possibly please all of his fans? Even when you decide to release it as a double CD, you are really going to struggle to include everything to please everyone. Therein lies the problem.

In the long run, this really doesn’t quite please anyone to the degree they would have liked. The song selection was always the toughest hurdle, but in the end I don’t think they even got near to being ‘the best of Gary Moore’, and that’s with two discs!! Apart from a couple of notable selections, the first disc is a write off for me. Of course, that is because I’m not as big a fan of his latter day blues material, but even the selection of tracks there was a bit ordinary. The choice of some live tracks there was fine – but then when it came to putting on “Wishing Well” on the second disc, they chose the dreadfully dull and lethargic studio version over the brilliant live version! What the hell was with that?! Not only that, there are so many songs missing here that just had to be first choices – “Back on the Streets”, “Hiroshima”, Nuclear Attack”, “Led Clones”, “Run to Your Mama” – that this is almost a complete joke.

As it turns out, I could cut these selections down to one disc, call it “Partly The Best of Gary Moore”, and then add another disc of all the great songs they ignored, and sold it off with a better, truer title than this should surely carry.
Do yourself a favour – go out and purchase Dirty Fingers, Victims of the Future and Live in Japan and you will have a better collection than is found here.

Rating: Listenable enough, but for a fan, a tad disappointing. 3/5.

461. Gary Moore / Grinding Stone. 1973. 2/5

This is close enough to the point where Gary Moore started out, and it shows. Slow and wistful, written for a different audience and different era. It’s interesting to listen to, if only because you can see the differences between this era, into his rock era, and then into his blues era.
This collection of songs is not overly bad, but they just offer so little when you are listening to them. Your immediate urge is to skip to the next track. Within a minute, you’ve reached the end of the album. Not a great recommendation.

Rating: The music probably doesn’t deserve this low a rating, but when you’ve got nothing to offer, what do you expect? 2/5.

430. Gary Moore / The Collection. 1990. 3.5/5

This album is an interesting collection of songs from Gary’s early career, and before his jump in status during the mid-1980’s.
Most of the songs originate from his Dirty Fingers album, which suffered delays in being released, and was apparently at one time thought to never see the light of day.
So, in essence, half of the songs here are, in my opinion, some of his best. Others however do not rate that highly. There is little doubt this was a shoddily put-together collection with a muddled thinking behind it.

Rating: The good balances the average here, but ‘collections’ have been done better since this release. 3.5/5

421. Gary Moore / G-Force. 1979. 2.5/5

Gary Moore’s career as a musician through the back half of the 1970’s decade saw him going back and forth between gigs on a regular basis. Looking back on it from the present day, it seems as though he was unable to decide whether he wanted to be a part of a band or whether he wanted to be on his own and have the power to make the decisions off his own back. He had left Thin Lizzy, the band frequented by his great mate Phil Lynott, back in 1974. At the time he had said that it was mostly a need to get away from all of the drug and alcohol that was consumed in and around the band, and that he recognised that he couldn’t be around that and still perform to the standards that he had set for himself. In 1977 he returned to the band to cover for guitarist Brian Robertson who had apparently injured his hand in a bar fight. Once the tour was completed, he was asked to stay on in the band permanently, but he refused, as he had decided that he wanted to do his own album. This he did with his first fully rounded solo album, titled “Back on the Streets”. Phil Lynott and Brian Downey guested on the album, which produced two signature songs that remained with Moore for the remainder of his career, the title track “Back on the Streets” and “Parisienne Walkways” which Lynott sang lead vocals on and went to #8 on the UK singles chart. After this, with Robertson quitting Thin Lizzy for good, Moore took his place once again, this time for long enough to record the album “Black Rose: A Rock Legend”, which was released in 1979. Despite the success of the album, Moore abruptly left Thin Lizzy again that July in the middle of another tour, after becoming fed up with the band's increasing drug use and the effects it was having on their performance.
Moore now moved to Los Angeles and signed a recording contract with Jet Records. It was here that he wrote and recorded the album “Dirty Fingers”, a great guitar-based hard rock album with some of the best material he had ever put together at that time. And yet, this album did not see the light of day for another three years, initially only in Japan but a further two years later with a worldwide release. In its place, either through the insistence of Moore himself or more likely the record company he had signed with, Moore gathered together a group of musicians and put together an album under the band name of G Force, a very different sounding album than what he had already recorded. The album carried the name of the new band, and was released in the hope that it could find a way to break into the commercial viability that was currently around the hard rock scene. It had a few hurdles to clear if it was going to be able to do that.

The album mixed in different attributes from the genres that were popular in 1980, along with the abilities of the band members themselves. Tony Newton was a well renown bass player from the great R&B and soul bands of the 1960’s and 1970’s, while Mark Nauseef had filled in for Thin Lizzy and Ian Gillan’s band on occasions. Willie Dee came in to provide co-lead vocals and backing vocals with Moore himself as well as keyboards. They came from a wide range of influences, which all appeared to bubble to the surface in regards to writing, recording and production this album.
The writing partnerships on the album also bring a degree of variety to the songs as presented on the album. Gary Moore has his hand in wirting all but two songs on the album, with the two tracks that open side two of the album being composed by Tony Newton and Willie Dee. They also come across as the most commercial songs on the album as a result.
The album opens with “You”, written by Moore and the second single released. It has the standard Moore feel about it – a hard rock style of verse chorus verse, his signature guitar solo in the middle of the track, and settling into the kind of routine that everyone could like or nobody would notice. It is standard fare, the kind you would expect from a single release. Much better comes with the following track, the Moore instrumental guitar piece titled “White Knuckles” that then pounds straight into “Rockin’ and Rollin’”, co-written by drummer Nauseef. It is the fast paced, rollicking guitar based track that Moore became renown for, and it is pulled off perfectly here. And yes, this is exactly the style this album should have focused on, but as we now know, Moore had already produced an album like that called “Dirty Fingers” which had been shelved in favour of this project, and we will see why there are few similarities between the two albums. This is by far the best song on the album.
“She’s Got You” is another Moore / Nauseef composed track, this one dragged back in tempo with co-lead vocals It’s the dual lead vocals that help to make this track enjoyable, even with the almost reggae strum of the guitar for a moment or two in the middle. The forward mixing of the bass beat underneath Gary’s soloing guitar also blocks out to the end of the song with the guitar solo fading out the track to its conclusion. “I Look at You” is a Moore solo-composed track, the longest on the album at just over six minutes. It’s another slower paced song tempo-wise, a tempo that does hold back the song, which depends more on its use of string arrangements and keys to draw in the listener than anything amazing from the guitar virtuoso who is present during the song.
The second side of the albums opens up with the two non-Gary Moore songs, and they both holds their charms. Both are upbeat, they pick up the tempo from the last two tracks of side one, but yes both have a less guitar focus about them. Willie Dee sings both tracks, sending both of these songs in a far more commercial direction. “Because of Your Love” has a much funkier tone about the bass guitar, especially under Gary’s guitar solos through the middle of the song, while the vocals hold themselves in a much more radio-friendly canter. It is an interesting song. This is followed by the 70’s R&B styled and themed rock track “You Kissed Me Sweetly”, again focused around the more prominent bass guitar work along with the use of the string arrangement infused through the track and keys as well. The dominance of the writing partnership of both of these tracks is not in question when you listen to them. “Hot Gossip” settles into a fairly standard hard rock song of the era, exhibiting little of the great characteristics that Moore would fill his songs with for the next decade. It sounds like it has been written purposely for a charter, but the charter wasn’t completed because the song was recorded. “The Woman’s in Love” again stylises itself with the strings being incorporated into the track, this one in a more upbeat fashion, and then bringing in the saxophone as well to complete the “this sounds nothing like what I came into this album for” track. The album concludes with “Dancin’”, the closest you can come to in regards to a song you expect from Gary Moore the hard rock guitarist. The tempo ramps back up to something that comes closer to the optimum speed for this kind of music. All four members of the band are credited on this song, which then poses the question – if this is what all four of them think the album should sound like, then why didn’t they do it in the first place?

I came across Gary Moore reasonably early on during my years of discovering the dark arts of heavy metal music, mainly through the obsession of one of my closest high school friends who found him himself, and then more or less pushed that obsession onto the rest of us. My first main memories of Gary Moore are of seeing the video clip of the live version of “Wishing Well” on Rage, the late-night music video program on ABC TV in Australia. That song stuck with me from the outset, and then getting a copy of the album “Rockin’ Every Night – Live in Japan” from my heavy metal music dealer sealed the deal. I eventually began to collect his other albums, slowly and when they were able to be found.
When it came to “G Force”, it was at the very end of the line. I was trawling through the shelves at Redback Records in Wollongong in 1990 when I came across one of those fatboy CD cases that had two different albums for the ‘theoretical’ price of one, and this had two albums that I did not know at that stage existed. One was a Gary Moore live album “Live at the Marquee”. The other was one called “G Force”. It was at a time that I was buying CDs left right and centre, and as this added to my collection nicely I bought it on sight.
On playing it when I got home, I immediately recognised “Rockin’ and Rollin’” as it had been on that live album I had first gotten four years earlier. As for the rest... I had no idea. So I played it a few times, and while it was okay, there was little jumping off the album to grab my attention. Part of that was because 1990 had some pretty fair albums released that were consuming all of my listening pleasure at that time, and this, at least during that time, was no match for the power and energy they were emitting. So this went back on to the shelves, to wait for a time when I could listen to it and perhaps appreciate it more than I could at that time.
Over the years I had had several occasions where I have binged Gary Moore albums, certainly through the 1990’s when he was concentrating on his blues albums, and then again after 2012 when he passed away. And on all of those occasions this album has come back out and had its chance to shine. Which, unfortunately for it, it rarely has. It is an album beset by problems. The main one is that, compared to the album that was shelved so that this could be released, “Dirty Fingers”, it cannot hold a candle to it. It must have been obvious at the time as well, because the band had basically broken up by the time the album was finished and before its even release. So although the idea was obviously to promote Gary Moore in a commercialised setting, it was so little a success that it collapsed almost before it had even been completed.
I’ve had a good solid 7-10 listens to this album again over recent days, and to be honest perhaps for the first time I’ve listened carefully, and tried to actually critique it rather than just not enjoying it as much as I do all of Gary’s solo album output. And while I had found some things that interest me, such as Newton’s funky bass looking to dominate on the songs that he helped compose, and the strings and sax brought into some tracks that obviously do not help improve tracks where the star should be the guitarist whose being brought in to provide the star guitar tracks. In the end, despite a couple of the songs here actually being quite good, the album itself is not. My advice to everyone out there who enjoys Gary Moore’s work, or is looking to check out his work, then steer clear of this album. The couple of high points do not compensate for the several boring flat spots.

356. Gary Moore / Dirty Fingers. 1983. 4.5/5

This is one of those albums that you just love, because you have had it for so many years, and that it had just ingrained itself into your psyche.

I always loved this album, and the songs are catchy from the start and keep your interest. OK, maybe they are a bit corny, and certainly a lot '1980's', and perhaps if you picked up the album for the first time in this day and age, it would be very dated, and maybe - just maybe - you wouldn't get as much out of it as I do. But, in my case, it brings back so many memories of the time when I had it, and how I wore the grooves down in the vinyl on the record player, and how I would jump around screaming "HIROSHIMA!! THE PLACE WHERE INNOCENCE WAS BURNED!!", and "RUN TO YOUR MAMA, BUT DON'T COME CRYIN' TO ME!!", and thrashing that air guitar at the same time.

Gary Moore's rock is still great, and this album is one of my favourites, because it's simple with great riffs and a message in his lyrics.

Best for me include "Hiroshime", "Run To Your Mama", "Nuclear Attack" and "Rest In Peace".

Rating: In my view, a very underrated album. 4.5/5

209. Gary Moore / Dark Days In Paradise. 1997. 1/5.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!! ANOTHER GARY MOORE BLUES ALBUM!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!! MAKE IT STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating : 1/5. For musicianship.

187. Gary Moore / Corridors of Power. 1982. 4/5

For over a decade before this album was released, Gary Moore had been going through different stages of his music career, and it feels as though he was always searching for his sweet spot, for the career path that would make him the most comfortable with his art. There had been the “Gary Moore Band” that released the album “Grinding Stone” all the way back in 1973, which was as short lived as the band Skid Row. There he had met Phil Lynott who went on to form Thin Lizzy, where Gary then had three stints in over a six year period, filling in for Brian Robertson when he left the band. But even this, playing with his great mate, didn’t sit well for him.
He released his first solo album in 1978, titled “Back on the Streets” with Lynott guesting, which produced the title track and his first chart selling single, “Parisienne Walkways” with Lynott on lead vocals and bass. He relocated to LA, and recorded “Dirty Fingers”, but this was shelved and not released in favour of a more radio friendly album under the band name G-Force. Now, call me stupid, but given that “Dirty Fingers” is now considered an absolute classic of hard rock, you just know that Gary and his record company missed a trick there. The G-Force album was initially supposed to have Glenn Hughes on lead vocals and bass, which would have improved it, but overall it is a less than spectacular release. “Dirty Fingers” did not get released until 1983 in Japan. Amazing.
After all of this, Moore eventually decides to come back to his solo direction, and writes a bunch of songs on his own to take forward. He also brings in Ian Paice of Deep Purple on drums and Neil Murray from Whitesnake in to record, and to produce an album that in regards to musicianship was second to none as a result.

From the outset, Gary has always mixed in some ballad tracks to his albums in the somewhat forlorn hope of commercial success. At least, that was what I always thought. The success of “Parisienne Walkways” a few years earlier I always felt blinded him to believing that he needed a ballad fix to gain some popularity, when in fact it was his guitar and unique vocals that kept bringing us back.
And so it is on “Corridors of Power” that we have several differing styles of the rock ballad track that mix with the other truly awesome tracks on the album. And I say they are differing literally. Because you have a track such as “Cold Hearted” that is based around the ballad style of things, but is also extremely blues based. Indeed it would have fit well in his 1990’s blues period. It’s a slower song with typical Moore vocals, and though ballad based has that breakout guitar solo at the end of the song that really lifts it beyond the ordinary. On the other hand, you have a song such as “Falling in Love With You” which is a full blown power ballad with no apologies. Well, in this instance I would like an apology from Gary, because this kind of song just doesn’t sit well with me at all, and it grates at the album as well. Even the song that precedes this on the album, “Gonna Break My Heart Again” is sometimes classed in that hard rock ballad class. But it is far more guitar oriented, and is a much better pace than “Falling in Love with You”, and Gary’s far more energetic vocal here is much more enjoyable. Then there is the second track on the album, “Always Gonna Love You” that is a combination of the two of these songs, the slower and more balladish song, with crooning vocals from Gary rather than powerful, but with enough of his fantastic guitar licks to raise the song above the standard rock ballad. The fact that these three songs all fall on the first side of the album can sometimes be restrictive to those that would rather hear more hard rock.
Backing all of this up is the album closer, “I Can’t Wait Until Tomorrow” which is an epic track to complete this excellent set. It’s a grower, starting out quiet and thoughtful and serene, before it breaks out in the second stanza, both in guitar and vocally, both of which Gary lifts to intense levels that produce the best moments of the song. It’s a great track, one that mixes everything that makes Gary Moore the legend that he is.
Then you have what I consider the prestige tracks on the album. The opening track “Don’t Take Me for a Loser” is just perfect, the opening riff immediately dragging you into the album, played along with gusto and Gary’s soaring vocals leading the way. The cover of “Wishing Well”, originally performed by the band Free, is for me the definitive version. Well, the live version that appears on the “Rocking Every Night – Live in Japan” album is the definitive version, but this is the close second in that regard. It has more passion than the original, and of course has Gary’s two piece guitar solo within that kicks it to the next level. On the second side of the album, it begins with the lengthy “End of the World”, which starts with a guitar solo piece that sounds closely similar to the same start that happens on a track later down the track, “Murder in the Skies”, and a vocal melody line that also is familiar to those that know that song. No matter, this is still great. And we finish off with the quintessential hard rocking Gary Moore track, the kind that he built his reputation on, “Rockin’ Every Night”. It is the perfect example of what made Gary Moore so brilliant.

Having discovered Gary Moore in my latter high school years, I had numerous cassettes with his 1980’s albums on them, and they all got a flogging over that time. “Wild Frontier”, “Run for Cover”, “Victims of the Future”, and that aforementioned live album, all joined “Corridors of Power” in thousands of hours of listening and air guitaring and singing along. The years between 1986 and 1990 had all of these albums in alongside the other artists I was listening to, and it never paled in comparison. Indeed, “Corridors of Power” was a tangent away from those other bands, a less frantic and thrash oriented style of hard rock that never lost itself because no matter what style of song came on the album, it always had that amazing guitar work that compared favourably with all of those other bands. And for me that is what allows this album to stand the test of time and continue to be so relevant. The mix of ballad tracks to hard rock tracks could have easily been an impediment to finding true joy of this album, in any era of music. But firstly the musicianship is superb, utilising as it does Neil Murray on bass and Ian Paice on drums, both great musicians in their own right. And secondly Gary Moore’s distinctive vocals combined with his signature guitar sound, his amazing riffs and solo breaks. The mix and combination of all of this makes for a terrific and still thoroughly enjoyable experience.
I just loved this album when I first got it. It went around and around in the cassette player of the two door 1970 Valiant that I drove in those days, blaring out the speakers, no doubt with people thinking exactly the opposite as I sang out “Don’t Take Me For a Loser” through the window. My CD copy has been worn thin over the years from consistent playing, alongside those other albums I mentioned earlier. Those great tracks here – “Don’t Take Me For a Loser”, “End of the World”, “I Can’t Wait Until Tomorrow”, “Rockin Every Night” and “Wishing Well” – have served me well over the years, and still act as a comfort whenever this album gets a run.

144. Gary Moore / Blues From A Gun. 1998. 1.5/5.

This is a double live album (soundboard by the sounds, so it's OK).
More of the same, and not as well done as Blues Alive.

Rating : Enough already, Gary! 1.5/5

143. Gary Moore / Blues For Greeny. 1996. 1/5.

Look, I'm sorry, OK? I just can't get into this.
Blues. So why have I got it? Because Gary Moore plays on it, and sometimes you just hope he's going to do something again that is brilliant to my ears.

Rating : This isn't it... 1/5.

142. Gary Moore / Blues Alive. 1993. 3/5.

A live album from Gary Moore, showcasing his talents on stage with the best of his blues revolution.

I guess I've written enough already about my taste for his blues music (recent reviews are your best bet if you haven't) but this is somewhat of an exception:
a) this is a live album, and Gary has always been great live. His guitaring on this is superb, and his vocals great as always.
b) most of the songs are his up-tempo ones, which are good. His slower, more introspective songs do slow things down waaaaay too much.
c) Parisienne Walkways, though not technically a blues song, makes an appearance (surprise, surprise...)

All right then. It's a 50/50 album if you aren't a blues fan. I still have to pick up the remote and flick to the next song on a few occasions. But it is Gary Moore live, and that is a treat at the best of times.

Rating : Just rises into the good category. 3/5.

98. Gary Moore / Ballads & Blues, 1982-1994. 1995. 1/5.

OK, look...this is getting ridiculous. How many Blues bloody albums did this guy do? I don't know, and I've probably got all of them!!

This hits release seems to me like an excuse to re-introduce Parisienne Walkways to another generation.

No need to go any further with this. It's average. Some may like it. I am OVER it!!!

Rating : I may be poorly biased in this respect. 1/5.

93. Gary Moore / Back To The Blues. 2001. 2/5.

The reason I chose to listen to all of my ALBUMS in alphabetical order, and not in ARTIST alphabetical order, was to avoid listening to one artist for several albums in succession. As you can see, that hasn't stopped it happening here...

Another blues album from Gary. Generally it is the same as his other ones. And I like his blues music. It is well written and well played. But I don't like blues that much. Especially when comparing it to the previous two albums reviewed.

Rating : Blues is blues. 2/5.

92. Gary Moore / Back On The Streets : The Rock Collection. 2003. 4.5/5.

Unlike the album just reviewed, this is a best-of collection released a couple of years ago. It seems that it was to cash in on Gary's rock years, which he had left behind long, long ago. Or to remind his blues fans that he had a rock base.

I don't know what the whole reasoning behind it was, but it is an excellent album. The collection contains most of his best hits, and even gives you the better, live versions of Wishing Well and Back On The Streets, whihch was extremely well thought out.

So why, you may ask, does it only get four and a half? Well, they forgot Victims Of The Future and Hiroshima, to name two glaring omissions. There were probably a couple of others also, but those two especially.

Apart from that, as good a best-of collection as you could make to honour Gary Moore's best years.

Rating : Great music. 4.5/5.

91. Gary Moore / Back On The Streets. 1978. 3/5.

This was released a long, long time ago, back when Gary was still (basically) thinking like a rock star, and not a blues star.

There's a lot to like about this release. For a start, it has Phil Lynott playing bass and helping out with vocals. Secondly, most of the songs are good. The title track is a typical Gary Moore rock song, and is helped along with other such songs on the album. Thirdly, he shows he is not afraid of playing instrumentals, of which there are a number on the album. And fourthly, there is his most famous ballad, Parisienne Walkways, which probably launched his career to a new level, and gave him the kick along he needed.

I like the raw production of the album (somewhat to be expected in the era and the cost), and looking back (listening back, I guess...), you can see all of the elements that made Gary the star he soon became.

Rating : Not bad at all. 3/5.

43. Gary Moore / After The War. 1989. 4/5.

It is well known that Gary Moore’s career as a musician is in two fairly distinct halves - the first as a hard rock musician and the second as a blues musician. There is some fan crossover between the two halves of his career and the enjoyment of both genres that he writes and plays, but in general you are either a fan of Moore’s up until 1989 or a fan from 1990 onwards. And it is this album, “After the War”, his 7th solo album that capped off a decade of some of the best guitar driven hard rock you could hope to listen to, that became the last of that genre from Moore.
This album follows on in style and substance from his previous album, “Wild Frontier” that had come almost two years previously, and is the subject of an episode on Season 2 of this podcast. It retains the excellent trio of Moore on guitar, his longtime collaborator Neil Carter on keys and rhythm guitar, and Bob Daisley on bass guitar. Added in here for good measure is Cozy Powell on drums. So from the outset the musicianship was never going to be in question. The style of music does again contain some of his celtic roots, but overall is the hard rock – and in places bordering on heavy metal – that he had made his own over the past decade. By this stage of his career, Gary had perfected his own lead vocal such that he didn’t feel it necessary to have any guest vocalists come on as he had done in places in the past, and he had surrounded himself with artists of the highest calibre. Some people consider “Wild Frontier” his high water mark when it comes to albums, but for me all of them had moments that would make me consider them the best. With such a wonderful catalogue behind him, with albums like “Corridors of Power”, “Dirty Fingers”, “Victims of the Future”, “Run for Cover” and of course “Wild Frontier”, just how do you go about producing an album to equal those, especially towards the end of the 1980’s decade where hard rock was being pulled and twisted in so many ways? I don’t know, but when you produce an album like this in the face of that, to me it shows true greatness.

“After the War” is one of the great Gary Moore songs. Back on the album “Run for Cover”, Gary wrote a song that he involved his great friend Phil Lynott on, called “Out in the Fields”, which had Phil both playing bass guitar but also singing lead vocals on selected sections of the song. It was, and is, a great song, and on the back of that Gary composed another song in exactly the same vibe, with the same sections of lyrics set aside for Lynott to sing. With Lynott’s unfortunate passing in 1986 the song was put on the backburner, but for this album, Moore revitalised the song, and its composition moves along the same framework put in place for “Out in the Fields”, with Moore singing the whole song, but with a noticeable alteration to how he is singing the pieces that would have been performed by Lynott. It’s a great follow up to “Out on the Fields” and acts as a terrific tribute to his fallen friend.
“Speak for Yourself” is top shelf Gary Moore, one of the fastest songs he had ever composed, based around his hard riffing guitar, Daisley’s rumbling bassline and Cozy’s perfect hard hitting drums. Neil Carter’s fingers are also all over this, switching from rhythm to keys, and the kind of song he always seemed to balance perfectly from a writing perspective as well. This blazes along for the entirety of the song, and is an absolute triumph from start to finish. One of Moore’s most underrated songs, and for me easily in the top ten of his best. “Livin’ on Dreams” dials that speed back and re-enters a more typical Moore kind of song, with the jaunty bass and drums and Gary singing about the world around him more closely. It brings the album back from the very heavy album it appeared to be heading in, to the more hard rock element he is (or was) more comfortable in at this stage of his career. It’s a lighter song that still showcases all the great things about this foursome.
Side One ends with the amazing “Led Clones”, written by Moore and Carter as a backlash against the style of bands that were appearing at the end of the 1980’s, bands whose music quite clearly was trying to become a carbon copy of the sound that Led Zeppelin had created, and make their own way in the music world on the back of it. Kingdom Come was the band most pointedly at the time who was doing this, almost shamelessly. This song is a cracker. It could honestly be a Led Zeppelin song, so cleverly do they utilise every little trick and musical ledge that Led Zeppelin created, and put it into one song, with lyrics that hammer those bands mercilessly. Better yet, Ozzy Osbourne sings the lead vocal on the track, which just improves it even more. Take a hard listen to the track, and pick up every Led Zeppelin musical nuance that they use. It is a masterclass, and better than anything that Kingdom Come and those other bands ever produced.
Side Two opens with “Running from the Storm”, another typically excellent Moore track pushed along by Daisley’s fast running bass again alongside Cozy’s drums, and the great interaction with Carter’s keys and rhythm guitar. Gary’s vocals soar over the top in the chorus, injecting his amazing guitar throughout. This is another of those songs that is severely underrated in his solo catalogue. It is another beauty. “This Thing Called Love” actually has a very Van Halen feel to it, both musically and vocally and lyrically. I don’t know if it was something he was trying to achieve, but you could easily take this song and drop it onto a Van Halen album in those first albums and not miss a beat. I think it’s fantastic. Others feel it is a deliberate copy of the band but I choose to believe that, if anything, it is a tribute to the sound Van Halen created, in a GOOD way. “Ready for Love” sounds like Gary’s attempt to make a foray into the pop rock scene again, with lyrics and musical composition to match. It’s fine, it’s a Gary Moore song, but it does miss a beat considering what has come before it. The female backing vocals throw a bit of a curve ball as well. If it was up to me, I’d have done something else.
The album then concludes with the epic “Blood of Emeralds”, a song written as Moore’s tribute to Phil Lynott. The celtic taste is strong here, in the same way as it was on the previous album’s hit song “Over the Hills and Far Away”, and it does act as a wonderful way to honour the memory of his great friend. It is an epic, and Gary has a way of writing great songs to finish off albums. This is no exception.

I bought this album as soon as I possibly could when it was released, no doubt with saved Xmas money as I was at that time a very poor university student. I still remember bringing home the vinyl from the local record store, “The Rock Factory” at Shellharbour Square, and taking it to my room and putting it on, and loving it from the very opening strains of “After the War”. And to be honest, I couldn’t believe just how good this album was. I loved most of it, played it a lot… and then it got lost on the racks. That was mainly from the fact that six months later I had left uni and gotten my first job, and with a real income coming in I finally had money with which to buy any and all albums that I could ever want, and this I began doing, meaning that many albums that I had got lost in the crush. More fool me.
Flash forward a few years from that time, and I am living in Sydney, and whatever the next Gary Moore blues album that was being released at that time comes out, which I hear, and not for the first time at that time I wonder aloud WHY Gary Moore had cast aside his hard rock brilliance in order to follow the blues path. That then leads me to my Gary Moore collection, and I start going back through those great albums of the 1980’s. And then I come back to “After the War”. And I am inspired all over again by how good it is. Then comes the flood of January 2001, where all of my vinyl albums were destroyed… and I had lost it forever. Well, not forever, but again I didn’t have a copy of it for 20 years, until covid strikes, and my wife encourages me to rebuild my vinyl collection. Which I duly do. And one of my first re-purchases? A ridiculously cheap brand new copy of Gary Moore’s “After the War” ($15 at JB Hi-Fi. Why?!?! I don’t care). And I put it on… and I am in love all over again.
This is an immensely underrated album in Gary Moore’s catalogue. Criminally so in fact. How is it that people have missed this along the way? My guess is that because the previous album “Wild Frontier” had had hit singles such as “Over the Hills and Far Away”, and the title track and the cover of the Easybeats “Friday on My Mind”, that when this came out and didn’t have that kind of song being released, people just missed it. And yet for all intents and purposes, this is a better album, a heavier album, a more relatable album. At least, to my ears, it always has been. I love all of those albums from the 1980’s, each for their own parts and styles. And if I listen to Moore’s albums together, my preference will probably always change. But this is truly one of his best. Everything about it is remarkable. Which, to me, has always been a mystery as to why he then made the significant change to become an exclusively blues rock musician following this album. There were reasons – which no doubt we’ll discuss on the review of those initial blues albums down the track – but every time I listen to this album, I struggle to conceive why he left behind writing songs as brilliant as these in order to move to the blues. And yes, the onset of grunge may well have knocked him around if he had remained with his hard rock music, but we will never actually know.