The career of Irish blues guitar hero Gallagher was heavily documented by the BBC. This two-disc set is split between "in concert" and "studio" discs, featuring Rory's long-standing trio of Lou Martin (keyboards), Gerry McAvoy (bass) and Rod deAth (drums). It's the full cream, scooped up from a potential 10-hour tape-pile. The live disc displays the hurtling juggernaut that was the Gallagher gig norm, blues purity retained at rock distortion levels, fingers blurred and screaming as they fly over the frets. Lou Martin excels throughout, flaying boogie piano on "Country Mile" and squeezing the organ hard on "Roberta". Gradually, the subversive rumbling of deAth's bass drum impacts on the frontal lobes, the first disc programmed for steady acceleration, his foot-pedal beating faster and faster, until the whole band attains the continuous crescendo that is "Used To Be". All the while, Gallagher keeps up the tonal variety, constantly arriving at unexpected solo structures, mixing aggression with imagination. The studio disc seems slightly less frenzied after this, but reveals other facets, a gentler timbre to the axe. "They Don't Make Them Like You" adopts a jazzy lounge trundle, while "Daughter Of The Everglades" is a strangely psychedelic pop song, complete with hookline chorus, cranky fairground clavinet and heavily reverb-ed guitar solo. Play very loud! --Martin Longley