“The band had come on, but no Rory: most unusual. He was in a state of shock and couldn’t bring himself to step on stage”: The night Rory Gallagher was spooked by his childhood hero – as the Royal Albert Hall waited in anticipation

We recently photographed Rory’s guitars, for perhaps the final time, in the Royal Albert Hall – the scene of some of Rory’s most glorious moments. So perhaps it’s only fitting we share a story about the one occasion where Rory, the consummate live performer, was lost for words and paralysed by stage fright at the Royal Albert Hall in the presence of his childhood musical hero.

“To Rory, Lonnie Donegan was the first guy [to inspire him to play roots American music] – even though he wasn’t an electric guitarist,” explains Rory’s brother, Donal Gallagher. “But it was that introduction to blues music and Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly, you know – Lonnie really was bringing it through… he was the guy who was passing the torch down the line.

“In December ’75, we’d been on tour as usual with Rory non-stop and I hadn’t managed to find him a present for Christmas. And this was the first concert at the Royal Albert Hall since The Nice set fire to the American flag on stage in July 1968 – which curtailed all rock at the Albert Hall. So it was a very important concert, not just for Rory but for rock, generally. Everyone behaved. Prior to that, Rory had played there with Taste for the Cream farewell gig and a few other shows.

“So we had set up in the afternoon and Rod de’Ath, the drummer, had got himself a new drum kit made by an offshoot of Arbiter who dealt with Fender here in the UK. The guy who brought the kit was a drummer himself and I got chatting with him. I said, ‘Who do you play with?’ And he said, ‘Oh, Lonnie Donegan, when he’s in town,’ and I went, ‘Oh my God, where is Lonnie now?’ Because he’d kind of gone off the radar quite a bit.

“And he said, ‘Well, he’s in town as it happens.’ So I said, ‘Would you ask him along tonight?’ And so he took me down to a pay phone at the back and he dialled the number, put the sixpence or shilling in, and just literally handed me the phone. So it was a cold call to Lonnie Donegan.

“Lonnie came on the line and I explained how much Rory and I admired him and told him that Rory was playing the Albert Hall that evening and, despite the short notice, would he consider coming to the gig. And he kind of went, ‘Oh, well…’ and hemmed and hawed. Then he said, ‘Well, look, if you meet me at the stage door I’ll come – but I don’t want any messing around getting in and all that,’ and I said, ‘I’ll be there.’

“So I was waiting there when he arrived and he came in a dress suit and we were all in our casual Western shirts and jeans and what have you. And he was flabbergasted because in his day playing the Royal Albert Hall was like going on the BBC to read the news – you had to wear a dress suit. It was quite formal.

“So I engaged with him anyway and just said, ‘Look, I didn’t want to disappoint Rory by telling him, but then you weren’t able to make it or something like that.’ And I said, ‘But would you do us the honour of announcing Rory on stage?’

“He said he would, provided I announced him on stage because he didn’t want to go on cold – he said, ‘No-one in this audience will know me.’ But I said, ‘Don’t worry, they will,’ you know? And I said that this was to be a surprise for Rory, his Christmas present.

“Anyway, I went on and introduced Lonnie Donegan and explained how Rory was one of his biggest fans and he was such an inspiration to Rory, and the crowd took to their feet and gave him a very warm reception, and Lonnie came on and said a couple of words and introduced Rory.

“I was looking around to see where Rory was, but there was no Rory. Normally, he came on like a bullet, straight across the stage, in his usual form. The band had come on, but no Rory: most unusual. But, in fact, Rory was in a state of shock and couldn’t bring himself to step on stage!

“Afterwards he said, ‘It was lovely, but never do this to me again.’ He’d actually got stage fright because he was performing in front of one of his heroes.”

• The Rory Gallagher Collection will be auctioned at Bonhams in New Bond Street, London, on 17 October 2024.