The Gary Moore Collection Auction
As a new auction brings a host of Gary Moore’s gear within reach of collectors on a more modest budget, we join Graham Lilley – Gary’s long-time friend and tech – for a trip down memory lane and a closer look at some of the kit going under the hammer
As Gary Moore’s guitar tech, personal assistant, tour manager and friend for well over two decades, Graham Lilley knew the Belfast-born blues-rock legend better than most. Here he shares his rare insight into the guitarist’s technical and creative approach on our pick of just some of the gear set to go under the hammer in Gardiner Houlgate’s forthcoming auction, The Gary Moore Collection. The 88 lots feature a diverse selection of gear that covers a broad period of Gary’s career stretching from the 80s up to his last tour in 2010, and includes Gary’s choice of guitars, amps, cabs, pedals and effects units. Keen to find it all a good home, Graham has been working tirelessly behind the scenes in order to piece it all together.
Gathering the details for this auction must have triggered a lot of memories… “Yeah, certain pieces of gear evoke certain times and memories. It’s been an interesting journey going back and looking at some of this stuff and putting the provenance together. It’s been nice compiling it all. I found copies of invoices, showing where we originally got things from, and you can see some of the gear in various film clips and photographs. I was there at the time and I’ve lugged it all around for quite a while now [laughs]! So I’m well acquainted with it.”
What sort of things can people expect to see in The Gary Moore Collection at Gardiner Houlgate? “We did the Bonhams auctions, which were very good, but I thought it would be nice to have something for people who can’t afford big-priced guitars, amps and pedals. Hopefully it'll help bands and musicians [by putting the gear within reach, financially] if they see something interesting.”
Do you think Gary would’ve been happy to know his gear was finding a good home? “Totally. He sometimes got stuff from other guys, like the 335 from Johnny Fean of Horslips. At the end of the day, regardless of whether it’s a guitar, amp or pedal, they were made for a specific purpose, so why not use them?”
How did Gary tend to discover new gear? “He’d pore over the pages of magazines, including Guitarist. He’d say, ‘Look at that. That sounds interesting. That’s got a good review. I’ve got to check those out.’ And living down in Brighton next to a large music store [GAK] was dangerous. It seemed like he spent quite a bit of time in there at one point buying up most of the stock!”
Did you guys pick up much on tour? “When Gary was out in Japan, he’d get stuff delivered to the hotel, or he’d be out shopping and go, ‘Right, we’ll have one of those, one of those and one of those.’ He went out to Japan four or five times in the 80s and if he spotted something interesting, he’d have it. I remember going with him in ’89, and when we walked into the hotel room there were four guitars on the bed! People were like, ‘Have you tried this?’ It’s the way things were in those days. He’d come across stuff all the time. If he didn’t find what he was looking for in GAK, he’d be crawling around music stores on tour on days off picking up stuff. He really liked the Mad Professor pedals, which at one point you could normally only find in Helsinki.”
Was Gary familiar with the online boutique pedal market back then? “I remember Mike Piera [Analog Man] sent him a modified Tube Screamer, which was
“Like most guitarists, Gary had ‘that’ sound in his head and was forever chasing it… I think it’s a constant search for guitarists”
interesting. But then Gary was using TS10s and Ibanez were reissuing Screamers. That seemed to be the pedal to have because Stevie Ray Vaughan had one, and Gary used TS9s back in the day.”
He had the GAS bug by the sounds of it… “Yeah! Well, like most guitarists, he had ‘that’ sound in his head and was forever chasing it. Even though somebody might say, ‘Wow! What you did on that song was the best thing I’ve ever heard,’ he’d go, ‘Really? I wasn’t that keen. I’m still looking for something better than that.’ I think it’s a constant search for guitarists. It’s like all musicians say, ‘I could’ve played that better.’ I think that’s common for a lot of people.”
Would you say Gary was open-minded about guitars? “Yeah, there’s a wide variation in the long list of manufacturers he tried out over the years. It wasn’t just Gibson and Fender stuff. There was a lot of experimentation. Again, it was a constant search.”
How did Gary justify buying so much gear? “Gary’s way of thinking was, ‘Well, I’ve got this new guitar and I’ve already got a riff out of it, so it’s kind of paid for itself.’ And that could be said for a guitar, an amp or a pedal. If it makes you do something in a certain way and you think, ‘Hang on, that could turn into something interesting,’ then it’s worth its weight in gold.”
So he tended to approach things from a creative angle, primarily? “Totally. It was never a question of, ‘I’ve got to have one of those because so and so’s got one.’ It was more like, ‘That’s interesting,’ or ‘That’ll be useful for something.’ He might put something away for a while, but even if it was years down the line he’d say, ‘Remember that amp?’ Some people take it to the extreme where they need to have all the gear – like 10 of the same thing and one for every year – but you’ve only got one pair of hands! You can only play one guitar at a time. I suppose you could play several amps at the same time, but it might not sound brilliant. But, really, one guitar, one amp and the odd pedal tends to work for a lot of people on most levels.”
Why do you think the used and vintage market is so popular? “People hear a certain sound they like and think, ‘That’s great, I’d love to sound like that or a variation of that.’ Guitarists have this quest in their heads. Also, people are often after older gear because it’s quite common for manufacturers to discontinue stuff or say, ‘We’ve made a new one, but we’ve changed it so it’s not the same.’ You know: ‘Here’s the new version – but it’s not like the old version you all love!’ Or the classic one is, ‘Yeah, that was quite popular. We stopped making that…’ [laughs]. You often find with amps that everybody wants one because somebody used one on something, and then the manufacturer says, ‘No, we can’t make those any more.’ But then, four or five years later, they say, ‘We’re going to reintroduce this now,’ by which time, everybody’s moved on!”
What sounds and gear do you think inspired Gary early on? “I suppose when he started off, Clapton’s Blues Breakers was the benchmark for a lot of guitarists of that era. That was a sound
“Gary would pore over the pages of magazines… and say, ‘That sounds interesting… I’ve got to check those out’”
they were looking for. But there’s a lot of myth that’s grown up around that. Did he slash the speakers? That old chestnut. Did he have a pedal or some sort of booster, or was it straight into the amp? You’d think if he used a Dallas Rangemaster it’d be sitting on top of the amp in the photographs. I’m sure they weren’t thinking, ‘Quick! Let’s hide it. This’ll fool them!’
“It seems daft now. But in time you develop in your own way and move off into different things. Different playing styles and the material you’re playing can change your tone. Also, people’s thinking changes over time and they react to the musicians around them. People play differently with other musicians – they can spur each other on to greater highs… Or greater lows!”
There are several Marshall amps in this collection. Tell us about Gary’s relationship with Marshall… “Gary was Jim Marshall’s favourite guitarist, which was very humbling. We’d occasionally go up and have lunch at the factory and see what was going on. I remember Jim came to a show in Hammersmith and he was mad for it [laughs]! He was definitely keen to come and see Gary. If there was a new album or something, Gary would always make sure Jim was one of the first people to get a copy. Or if I was popping into the factory, I’d always make sure I had something for him. There was a very healthy working relationship there.”
Did Gary give Jim feedback on products? “Maybe not to Jim directly, but certainly to Mike Hill or Ken Bran, or whoever was the rep at the time. They would sometimes pop down to the studio wherever we were recording. Gary was very frank about [giving feedback], like, ‘Well, it does this, but what I really want is…’ But it was all constructive. Gary would plug in and use the amp straight away. It wasn’t like, ‘Where’s the manual?’ It was a case of switch it on, let’s get going and see what it sounds like. Gary would try them out, but if it didn’t work for him, he’d say, ‘That doesn’t work for me, but I’m sure it probably works for other people.’ A classic example was when the JVM stuff came in. We tried it for a gig, but it just wasn’t sounding as we thought it should, so we immediately replaced it with a regular 100-watt [Marshall] Super Lead and it was like, ‘Bang! There it is!’”
A classic Marshall stack is hard to beat… “The Marshall stack defines an era. It’s got a sound. You can’t escape it. It’s always a well-rounded sound. It’s never particularly harsh – there’s always that thump to it. You move quite a bit of air with the 4x12 cabinet as well. It’s that trouser-flappy moment when you’ve cranked it up that people reminisce about. Although, these days, that’s a little frowned upon. Well, ‘health and safety’…”
Guitarist would like to thank Luke Hobbs of Gardiner Houlgate. The Gary Moore Collection auction is scheduled for 11 and 12 December www.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk
“Gary was Jim Marshall’s favourite guitarist… Gary was very frank about [giving feedback], but it was all constructive”