Rockobit: Gary Moore

BBC News is reporting the death of Gary Moore, formerly of Thin Lizzy.

Born in Belfast in 1952, Moore was inspired by a mix of Elvis, The Beatles and John Mayall as he was starting to develop his guitar style. Peter Green took Moore under his tutelage, and gave him the space and confidence to develop his style.

Moore's first proper band was Skid Row, with whom he made three albums for CBS. More importantly for him, joining the group brought him to Dublin and gave him his first taste of working with Phil Lynott.

He'd reunite with Phil shortly after his spell in Skid Row ended, taking over from Eric Bell in Thin Lizzy. Although arguably the band that he's most famous for beyond his fanbase, Moore never achieved tenure in the Lizzy. Instead, he did three short stints.

Really, Moore was a solo artist - he'd tried a short run at doing it himself before joining Thin Lizzy the first time; arguably, his first solo hit, 1979's Parisienne Walkways, featured Phil Lynott doing vocals so wasn't entirely that distant from being in Thin Lizzy. He got back together with Phil in 1985, too, for this:



But really, the key sound of solo Moore was Blues with a dash of celtic rock. A series of albums and tours over thirty years explored blues sounds from pretty much every angle; he also presented programmes retelling the blues for Planet Rock.

There were other collaborations, too - with Skunk Anansie's Cass Lewis and Primal Scream's Darrin Mooney there was Scars, an early 2000s power-pop experiment; the slightly more high end partnership with Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce, BBM, released one album in 1994.

Gary Moore was 58. His death early on Sunday morning was announced by his manager, Adam Parsons.