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.
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.
