Watch Rory Gallagher and The Kinks set The Midnight Special ablaze in 1974

14 Oct 2024, 23:14 · louder

By Fraser Lewry
( Classic Rock )
published 14 October 2024

Includes the fastest version of The Kinks' You Really Got Me you're ever likely to witness

(Image credit: The Midnight Special)

The Midnight Special's ever-bountiful online archive keeps digging up the shiniest of classic rock gold, and the latest nuggets are absolutely livewire performances from The Kinks and Rory Gallagher.

The footage comes from an episode broadcast on June 7, 1974, a show hosted by Ray Davies, when Gallagher joined a lineup of musicians that also included Electric Light Orchestra, bluesman Buddy Guy, former Animals star Alan Price and Suzi Quatro.

The Kinks performed a 120mph version of their 10-year-old hit You Really Got Me on the show (as well as Money Talks, Here Comes Yet Another Day, Celluloid Heroes and Skin And Bone), while Gallagher played a typically fiery version of Hands Off, from the previous year's Blueprint album.

You Really Got Me - The Kinks | The Midnight Special - YouTube

Watch On
Hands Off - Rory Gallagher | The Midnight Special - YouTube

Watch On

Gallagher can be seen playing his iconic 1961 Fender Stratocaster in the footage, an instrument that is being auctioned this week.

Gallagher famously purchased the Strat – thought to be the first to be sold in Ireland – for £100 from Crowley’s Music Store in Cork in 1963. And in July the daughter of the man who sold the guitar launched a crowdfunding campaign to bring it back home to Cork, a move supported by the Irish government, who hope to preserve the instrument as a national treasure.

Earlier this month Joe Bonamassa announced plans to play Gallagher's legendary Irish Tour '74 set at two shows in Ireland next year. A third show, on July 3, and now been added, and tickets will go on sale at 10am GMT on October 17 via Ticketmaster.

Classic Rock Newsletter

Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors

Fraser Lewry

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 38 years in music industry, online for 25. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.

More about classic rock

“This is where you start to think about mortality.” Elton John reflects honestly upon future plans, admits “I don’t know how much time I have left.”

Beatles documentary charting The Fab Four's first visit to the US is headed to Disney+ next month
Latest

Former Mr. Bungle member found guilty of first-degree murder, faces life in prison
See more latest ►

"I like a lot of the stuff he’s in." Slayer legend Kerry King would like Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson to play him in a movie

"It felt like I’d known her forever." Symphonic metal icons Sharon den Adel and Tarja Turunen on hearing each other's bands Within Temptation and Nightwish for the first time

The Offspring announce 2025 UK headline tour

“Are they meant to be comedians?” Oasis' Liam Gallagher speaks for everyone in Britain when shown Saturday Night Live's painfully unfunny sketch based on the Gallagher brothers' rarely-mentioned sibling rivalry

Axl Rose surprises 18,000 Billy Joel fans in Los Angeles with performance of Live And Let Die

Watch Stevie Nicks make triumphant return to Saturday Night Live after 41-year absence

“The world is falling apart. It’s insane. It’s greed, inequality, monetisation.” Robert Smith on the gloomy, reflective themes at the dark heart of The Cure's new album Songs of a Lost World

James Hetfield vows Metallica will never be "a legacy band"