Glad I Saw 'Em #2 - Gary Moore

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Glad I Saw 'Em. It's a musical series about musicians that I was lucky enough to see in concert, because they are now deceased. And in this case, I was very lucky. We are at #2: Gary Moore (1952-2011.) Born in Belfast, Ireland, Gary Moore is hands down my favorite guitarist, and was a top-notch protest singer to boot. Known for doing a couple stints in Thin Lizzy with his buddy, Phil Lynott, Moore carved out a successful (outside of the United States) solo career as a hard rocking guitarist, eventually giving that up to pursue his love of the blues (near the end of his life, he bounced back and forth between the two.) I was lucky to see Gary Moore because, as I said, he really never caught on here in the States, so when he did tour over here, he usually stuck to the really big cities. However, when I was in the Army, I did spend some time stationed in Germany. One day, I happened to be walking past the USO office in Stuttgart, and they had a poster in the window, advertising an upcoming Gary Moore show, at an indoor velodrome in Stuttgart. I talked a guitarist friend of mine from the barracks into going (he had never heard of Gary Moore,) and damn, we had a great time. Just getting to watch that man play guitar was worth the effort, never mind that I also got to see him play favorites such as "End of the World," "Murder in the Skies," "Military Man," "Out In the Fields," "Shapes of Things," and "After the War." It was awesome! As for my guitarist friend, he was so impressed, he bought everything he could find, sending "you gotta hear this guy" tapes back to his musician buddies back in the States. Thanks, USO! (Info verified by Wikipedia)