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?
This story is from the December 2019 edition of Guitarist.
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This story is from the December 2019 edition of Guitarist.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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