Riding shotgun : 35 years on the road with Rory Gallagher and Nine Below Zero. This item is unavailable.Riding shotgun : 35 years on the road with Rory Gallagher and Nine Below Zero

Gerry McAvoy was Rory's bass player from 1971 through to 1991, the only constant factor on all 14 of Rory's solo albums which sold over 30 million copies worldwide. No-one knew Rory better or was closer to him throughout this most creative period of his life, before serious illness blighted his career. Gerry is highly regarded as a musician's musician and, as Rory's right-hand man for over 20 years, his career has given him the opportunity to meet and play with a veritable who's who of rock and blues performers - from Muddy Waters, John Mayall and Van Morrison through to Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, the Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Deep Purple, Rod Stewart, ZZ Top, Queen, Rush, Eric Clapton, Sting and U2. In 1991, with Rory's health having deteriorated to the point where he had all but given up touring and recording, Gerry reluctantly left the band to help reform R&B legends Nine Below Zero, with whom he has recorded eight successful albums. Nine Below Zero continue to tour Europe almost incessantly and remain one of the UK's hardest working bands. Gerry was also responsible for creating the Band of Friends - an informal reunion of ex-Rory Gallagher band members who get together several times a year to play tribute concerts and festivals all over Europe, following Rory's tragic death in 1995 at the age of 47. Riding Shotgun is the story of Gerry McAvoy's life before, with and since Rory Gallagher. But it's also a story about a group of young musicians growing up amid the madness that was Belfast during the Troubles. And how, out of that cauldron of violence and hatred, emerged a group of performers who were to take the world by storm and launch an Irish assault on popular music that continues to this day. The story of how, amid the hype and insincerity of the music business, a softly spoken and intensely shy Corkman could become a legend: a folk hero to whom all modern Irish musicians - from Bono to Boyzone - acknowledge a debt of gratitude. Based on over 100 hours of personal recollections and interviews with many of Rory's friends and colleagues in the UK and Ireland, and illustrated throughout with dozens of unique and previously unseen photographs from Gerry's personal collection, Riding Shotgun is a sometimes shocking and often hilarious account of what it was really like to be a musician in one of the 1970s' biggest rock bands. It's also quite possibly the nearest we will ever get to unravelling the complex character that was and remains Rory Gallagher.

Pete Chrisp is a freelance writer and journalist. He also plays bass guitar in a pub rock band.