Gary Moore - The Platinum Collection - 3CD BOX [2006]

Robert William Gary Moore (4 April 1952 - 6 February 2011), better known simply as Gary Moore, was a Northern Irish musician from Belfast, best recognised as a blues rock guitarist and singer.

In a career dating back to the 1960s, Moore played with artists including Phil Lynott and Brian Downey during his teens, leading him to membership with the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy on three separate occasions. Moore shared the stage with such blues and rock luminaries as B.B. King, Albert King, Colosseum II, Greg Lake and Skid Row (not to be confused with the heavy metal band of the same name), as well as having a successful solo career. He guested on a number of albums recorded by high profile musicians, including a cameo appearance playing the lead guitar solo on She's My Baby from Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.

Moore died of a heart attack in his hotel room while on holiday in Estepona, Spain, in February 2011.

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Moore started performing at a young age, having picked up a battered acoustic guitar (a Framus guitar) at the age of eight. He got his first quality guitar at the age of 14, learning to play the right-handed instrument in the standard way despite being left-handed. He moved to Dublin in 1968 at the age of 16. His early musical influences were artists such as Albert King, Elvis Presley, The Shadows and The Beatles. Later, having seen Jimi Hendrix and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers in his home town of Belfast, his own style was developing into a blues-rock sound that would be the dominant form of his career in music.

Moore's greatest influence in the early days was guitarist Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac who was a mentor to Moore when performing in Dublin. Green's continued influence on Moore was later repaid as a tribute to Green on his 1995 album Blues for Greeny, an album consisting entirely of Green compositions. On this tribute album, Moore played Green's 1959 Les Paul Standard guitar which Green had lent to Moore after leaving Fleetwood Mac. Moore ultimately purchased the guitar, at Green's request, so that it would have a good home.

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While less popular in the US, Moore's work brought substantial acclaim and commercial success in most other parts of the world - especially in Europe. Throughout his career, Moore was recognised as an influence by many notable guitarists including Vivian Campbell, Patrick Rondat, John Norum,Gus G, Joe Bonamassa, Adrian Smith, Zakk Wylde, Randy Rhoads, John Sykes and Kirk Hammett

He collaborated with a broad range of artists including George Harrison, Trilok Gurtu, Dr. Strangely Strange, Colosseum II, Travelling Wilburys, Albert Collins, Jimmy Nail, Mo Foster, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce, Jim Capaldi, B.B. King, Bob Dylan, Vicki Brown, Cozy Powell, Rod Argent, the Beach Boys, Ozzy Osbourne, Paul Rodgers, Keith Emerson, Roger Daltrey, Albert King and together with Colosseum II with Andrew Lloyd Webber on the composer's Variations album in 1978. He experimented with many musical genres, including rock, jazz, blues, country, electric blues, hard rock and heavy metal.

In 1968, aged 16, Moore moved to Dublin to join the group Skid Row with Noel Bridgeman and Brendan Brush Shiels. It was with this group that he earned a reputation in the music industry, and his association with Phil Lynott began.

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Moore released his first solo album in 1973, Grinding Stone (billed as the Gary Moore Band). 'Grinding Stone' was issued in North America on Neil Kempfer-Stocker's fledgling record label imprint Cosmos. It received 'Album of the Year' accolades on KTAC-FM/Seattle-Tacoma, Washington in 1974. In 1978 his solo career continued with help from Phil Lynott. The combination of Moore's blues-based guitar and Lynott's voice produced Parisienne Walkways, which reached the Top Ten in the UK Singles Chart in April 1979 and the Thin Lizzy album Black Rose, A Rock Legend which reached number two in the UK album chart. Moore appears in the videos for Waiting for an Alibi and Do Anything You Want To.

In 1987, he collaborated on the UK charity record Let It Be, a cover of the Beatles track. He performed a guitar solo for inclusion on the recording, which was released under the group-name of 'Ferry Aid'. The record raised substantial funds for the survivors of the MS Herald of Free Enterprise disaster.

In 1993, he was included on a cassette called Rock Classics Vol. 1 with Run to Your Mama, and Dark Side of the Moog.

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After a series of rock records, Moore returned to blues music with Still Got the Blues, with contributions from Albert King, Albert Collins and George Harrison. The album was well received by fans. He stayed with the blues format until 1997, when he decided to experiment with modern dance beats on Dark Days in Paradise; this left many fans, as well as the music press, confused. He also contributed guitar sections to Richard Blackwood's 2000 album, You'll Love to Hate This.

With Back to the Blues, Moore return to his tried and tested blues format in 2001: he continued with this style on Power of the Blues (2004), Old New Ballads Blues (2006), Close As You Get (2007) and Bad For You Baby (2008).

In January 2005, Moore joined the One World Project, which recorded a song for the 2004 Asian Tsunami relief effort. The group featured Russell Watson, Boy George, Steve Winwood, Barry Gibb, Brian Wilson, Cliff Richard, Dewey Bunnell, Gerry Beckley and Robin Gibb on vocals (in their order of appearance), and featured a guitar solo by Moore. The song, entitled Grief Never Grows Old, was released in February 2005, reaching no 4 on the UK Singles Chart.

In what has been described as a brave and principled stand, Gary declared his support for the cultural boycott of Israel. At a press conference in Russia he announced that he would not visit the ΓΓé¼╦£criminal stateΓΓé¼Γäó of Israel ΓΓé¼╦£because of its racist policies against the Palestinian peopleΓΓé¼Γäó.

He also took part in a comedy skit entitled The Easy Guitar Book Sketch with comedian Rowland Rivron and fellow musicians Mark Knopfler, Lemmy from Motorhead, Mark King from Level 42, and David Gilmour.

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Moore grew up on Castleview Road opposite Stormont's Parliament Buildings, off the Upper Newtownards Road in east Belfast, as one of five children of a promoter named Bobby and housewife, Winnie, but he left the city as a teenager, because all was not well in their household. His parents parted a year later. He left just as The Troubles were starting in Northern Ireland.

Aiming to become a musician he moved to Dublin at the age of 16 and joined Skid Row, a band that then included Phil Lynott. Moore would later join Lynott again in 1973 when he first joined Thin Lizzy, after the departure of founding member Eric Bell and again in 1977. He moved to England in 1970 and remained there, apart from two short periods in America. In 2002 he bought a five-bedroom detached Edwardian house in Hove, just west of Brighton, Sussex, to be near his locally-residing sons, Jack and Gus, from his former marriage which had lasted from 1985 to 1993. Since 1997 he was living with his partner, an artist named Jo, and their daughter Lily (b. 1999) and Saoirse. His residence was reported to be on Vallance Gardens in Hove, East Sussex.

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Gary Moore died of a suspected heart attack, at the age of 58 during the early hours of 6 February 2011. At the time, he was on holiday at the Kempinski Hotel in Estepona, Spain, with his girlfriend, who raised the alarm at 4.00 am. His death was confirmed by Thin Lizzy's manager Adam Parsons.

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Since his death, many fellow musicians have commented on Gary Moore's talents including Ozzy Osbourne, Eric Singer, Doug Aldrich, Tony Iommi, Bob Geldof, Roger Taylor, Brian Downey, Andy DiGelsomina, Ricky Warwick, Glenn Hughes, Bryan Adams, Henry Rollins, Scott Gorham, Ignacio Garay, Mikael Akerfeldt. In March 2011 Guitarist produced their tribute special with unreleased footage from 2009. Musicians including Former Thin Lizzy Guitarist Eric Bell, Silverbird and Mick and Dave Pyro from the Republic of Loose on the 18 April, gathered for a tribute concert in Whelans bar in Dublin, Ireland entitled 'The Gig For Gary'.

Fans have called for popular magazines such as Classic Rock, Guitarist and Total Guitar to do tributes. Twitter was flooded with tributes from fans for several days after the news was revealed. (wikipedia)

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The Platinum Collection is a 2006 compilation album by Gary Moore. There are three CDs each covering a different category, Rock, Blues and Live.

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Gary Moore - The Platinum Collection 2006
(3CD London Capitol Music)

1. Parisienne walkways
2. Out in the fields (feat. Phil Lynott)
3. Over the hills and far away
4. Empty rooms
5. Friday on my mind
6. After the war
7. Wild frontier
8. The loner
9. Shapes of things
10. Wishing well
11. Don't take me for a loser
12. Hold on to love
13. Blood of emeralds
14. Take a little time
15. Like angels
16. One good reason
17. Johnny boy
18. Still got the blues
19. Cold day in hell
20. Oh pretty woman (feat. Albert King)
21. Story of the blues
22. Separate ways
23. Since I met you baby (feat. BB king)
24. I loved another woman
25. Woke up this morning
26. Further on up the road
27. The sky is crying
28. Left me with the blues
29. Mean cruel woman
30. The blues is alright
31. If you be my baby
32. Need you love so bad
33. Murder in the skies
34. Military man
35. White knuckles
36. Empty rooms
37. Out in the fields (feat. Phil Lynott)
38. Back on the streets
39. Stop mesing around (feat. Phil Lynott)
40. Cold day in hell
41. Midnight blues
42. King of the blues
43. Caldonia (feat. Albert King)
44. Cold cold feeling (feat. Albert Collins)
45. Parisienne walkways