Rory Gallagher – the other one from Donegal – was lead singer with indie-punk band The Revs, who had a manic, though short-lived, career during the first decade of this century.
Named after the famous blues guitarist, this Kilcar, Co. Donegal-born singer, musician and songwriter now trades as Rory & The Island.
Rory has just released the video for his brand new single Miss This – out now. Watch it here:
Rory’s journey began as lead singer of indie-rock band The Revs, who alongside being hotly tipped by the likes of U2, found themselves topping the Irish charts with two top 5 albums and a string of successful tours that made waves throughout Ireland, Europe and even reached Australia with a top 30 single – as well as beating Damien Rice, Relish and Six to take both the Meteor IRMA award and the Hot Press Award for Best Newcomer.
After the band’s split in 2007, Rory moved to a remote island in the Canaries where he opened a live music venue ‘The Island Bar’.
Miss This explores the basic little joys we all miss during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, and has become a firm favourite during Rory & The Island’s successful weekly Facebook Live broadcasts.
Rory & The Island scored 12 Top 20 iTunes singles in Ireland in the past decade.
His most recent single, When The Lights Go Down (Valhalla), reached Number 1 in early November 2020 and raised a few eyebrows when it kept Miley Cyrus, Lizzo and Dermot Kennedy off the top spot for the weekend. The single also climbed to Number 8 in the UK iTunes Songwriters chart.
Speaking about the video for Miss This Rory & The Island said:
“It was a simple concept of creating a contrast between old images of normal lively scenes of life such as music festivals, gigs, football games and busy cafes etc against the backdrop of being stuck indoors with my family during lockdown just waiting around and trying to pass the time without going insane.
“I filmed it on my phone and just edited it all together with old footage I had on memory sticks. My two sons Aidan (5) and Shay (2) , played their parts perfectly and deserve an MTV award. Strangely when I watched it back a week later it looked and sounded less like a lockdown video and more like a mid-life crisis! I hope this flaw makes it timeless, haha.”
It was on the Canaries island that the songwriter performed weekly residency shows building up a following of people from all over the world that would travel to the island to come and see him perform.
It was also here that Rory & The Island was born – with Rory Gallagher beginning his solo project under the name to avoid any confusion with the Ballyshannon/Cork Blues Legend.
Two albums later, Rory & The Island independently earned himself eight top 30s, two top 10s and a Number 1 single in the Irish Charts alongside performing all over the UK and Ireland supporting the likes of Ocean Colour Scene, Feeder and Alabama 3.
2019 saw Rory leave the island, return back to Ireland and extensively tour, filling out rooms around the UK and Ireland with his London show at The Dublin Castle selling out within 48 hours of going on sale.
In March 2020, Rory and his wife Cara announced the opening of a new music venue ‘The Wildcat’ in Edinburgh, though, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, it never reached its official opening night on the 21st March. Ever productive, Rory & The Island has spent the past year or so writing and releasing new music and performing gigs through Zoom and Facebook.
