€1 million For Rory Gallagher's Guitar . . . Or For Donal Gallagher's Lifestyle ?

How is that different from anyone else who, by the lottery of life, are born into a fortunate situation?

Most of these give a bit back to the source well of their wealth.

I can't help but feel you are personally connected to this in some way and there's a bit of grudgery going on.

No more than anyone else who sees A living off relative B's artistic work and A making no significant concession to that art for the next generation.

I have no intention of even suggesting a "change to private property rights". What I meant by the legal reference is that title to the items for sale is presumed by the media and the rest of us to be held by Donal Gallagher. So far no one has yet seriously investigated the Rory Gallagher Estate and its associated companies - let alone challenged it legally.
 
So why don't you challenge it and see how far it takes you.? By your post you are implying that you don't believe that to be the case.
 
Wait until he sells the guitar. I bet he buys a fur coat and a crown.
 
@Salvadore

I don't think the Gallaghers will be flashing around after this auction somehow.

Besides, they may have renovations to do at home.
 
So why don't you challenge it and see how far it takes you.? By your post you are implying that you don't believe that to be the case.


I have no intention of so doing.

Anyway it's for the various RG groupings in Cork and Donegal, if anyone.

My concern is simply that matters have come to this state - selling the guitars, saxes, mandolins, old-style amps, etc. It's quite a fall-down to have things like this.

I am, as they say, merely letting off steam.
 
My concern is simply that matters have come to this state - selling the guitars, saxes, mandolins, old-style amps, etc. It's quite a fall-down to have things like this.
A fall-down? Seriously?
You’re concerned for DG? Seriously?

A fall down is when you have to sell your World Cup winner’s medal to pay the rent.

Selling your late brother’s guitar while you still have time to enjoy the proceeds instead of passing it to the next generation (who will promptly do the same anyway) sounds like a good move to me.

He held it for 30 years. It’s time.
 
Streaming is the main source of income but I can't imagine Rory's stuff being all that lucrative and probably amounts to a steady trickle rather than a cash cow.
His most-played song on Spotify is “Bad Penny” at 31 million.

There is a decent four-figure sum in streaming royalties for his estate but no one is getting rich.
 
There is a decent four-figure sum in streaming royalties for his estate but no one is getting rich.

But not much for Donal.

The back catalogue is likely the property of UMC now - at least as long as RGE has some measure of artistic presentation control, it appears.

Folks, I have just had a positive thinking brainwave. I offer it to the music business brains on this forum for inspection.


THE PLAN

1. Combined fans of Rory Gallagher in Ireland, Europe and elsewhere gather funds together quickly and, with sympathetic assistance from Cork & Donegal Councils, find and redesign suitable premises for a Rory Gallagher Museum in both Cork (main) and Ballyshannon (satellite).

2. Rory Gallagher Estate (RGE) commits to lease the instruments and other personal effects to a new entity in Rory Gallagher Museum (RGM) - largely in Cork but with another space in Ballyshannon, possibly sharing the effects between them.

3. In return for the lease of the above listed, RGE get 50c from every admission ticket sold for the next 2 years or else till RGE accumulate total royalties of an agreed figure of € x. Only when the agreed period or royalty sum has been attained will title of the aforesaid instruments and personal effects be transferred to the trustees of the RGM. RGM has the option of buying themselves out of this deal at the aforementioned cost.

3a. To avert the failings of other museums, RGM will not engage in any enterprise unrelated to the core purposes of RGE which might put it into conflict with neighbouring enterprises in Cork or Ballyshannon. For example, RGM will not have its own coffee shop as this would be damaging to nearby cafés and also require more extensive space within the premises for the patrons' toilet areas, space better used for the museum proper.
Neither will its music and memorabilia shop sell albums, photos, printed clothing, etc related to artists other than RG.

4. A combined "Rory Day" & Rock Festival - venue and date to be arranged each year according to patrons' convenience - is to be organised by an experienced impressario so as to maximise both local and tourist patronage to RGM. Maximisation of RGM income to be achieved via sales of official year-specific T-shirts, "Rory suits" (check shirt, denim/cord jacket, jeans + sneakers) at cheap prices.

5. When the above structures are in place and the business plan on track, RGM can consider developing other related facilities, e.g. modern music performance academy, RG médiathèque, exchange programs, modern music scholarships, etc.

6. To avoid any conflict between the interests of RGM and RGE in the coming years, RGE will have a representative on the trustees council of RGM. This will afford RGE due consultation and input to any proposed ventures for the furtherance of RGM consolidation and development, it being accepted that RGE has a bona fide interest in the tasteful presentation of the late artist's work and image rights. This interaction will be respectful and consultative at all times but it will not amount to an all-out veto by RGE's representative on any of RGM's intentions otherwise agreed by stakeholders, i.e. fans, local authorities, arts council, local and national public.
 
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I offer it to the music business brains on this forum for inspection.
Not sure I'd consider myself a business brain, but is there even sufficient interest in him to cover the rental costs of a single unit, let alone two?
 
To put this in context, U2 have 18m followers on Facebook, Taylor Swift has 80m. RG has 132k followers on Insta, u2 has 3.5m, Taylor Swift 135m. This is niche, very niche with an aging customer base. Or to put it another way, there is a mildly succesful band from the 90s called Garbage who have 4 to 5 times as many followers on Social Media as RG. Would you go to their museum?.

A once off RG festival might work, a permanent stand alone museum would fail and fail miserably within a couple of years because it is such a niche product. Not enough people are interested.

If you go to the New York main public library you'll see the original Winnie the Poo and his friends as owned by AA Milne. it's part of a broader exhibition around books and writers. RG's guitar might get a minor place in the Cork Public museum down the Mardyke or maybe even in the National Museum in Dublin, but its not worth paying 1m for.
 
The auction is in October I think? Will be very interesting to see if it goes ahead and if it meets reserve price.
 
Well, I can't dispute numbers presented for social media. And the €x figure simply couldn't be anywhere like €1 million - or even €100k.

You may have seen the Cork GoFundMe Group advocate a more general Music Museum with exhibits from a range of music genres. The problem there is that in trying to broaden their appeal, they are likely to appear to lose focus in the public's mind. It might be better to concentrate on modern music, i.e. rock, jazz, folk, etc.

But it is bonkers to compare major museums in New York with what's being planned here. The NY place is either a commercial undertaking in itself or a tourist draw on behalf of NYC hotels and retailers. A Rory Gallagher Museum of Modern Music would have to wash its face commercially into the future - when the 70s fans are no longer able to use their free travel from Europe. That I accept. Which means keeping its offerings freshened up and interesting - and moreover having more to it than a mere dead series of exhibits. I spoke with a friend lately who reckons he paid in total at least €30,000 on his kids extra-mural musical education. The most vexing thing to him - and the children as they entered their later teens - was that the Leaving Certificate music curriculum had very little to do with real musical performance and non-classical stuff that they didn't bother to take it as a subject for the Leaving, they just took their academy exams in music. Across the country over the last 3 decades you'll see the growth of excellent Schools of Music in many provincial towns. This is testament surely to both a strong interest in performance and a dissatisfaction with the teaching of music in schools.

This would all lead one to think that there could be a market for a modern music performance academy that is near self-sustaining.
 
Fans are not so few.


Premises in a retail depressed city should not be an issue.
The Music Hall of Fame thought the same thing and including a lot of memorabilia from all the big names including Rory, that business still folded on very significant losses.
 
The auction is in October I think? Will be very interesting to see if it goes ahead and if it meets reserve price.
I think the mistake was going public with this too early before the auction, by the time the auction rolls around all the hullabaloo will have died down, liveline etc al will have moved onto something else probably their favourite old bone , the church scandals, they usually knaw away at that stuff for months on end.

The one big counter argument to all the posts about Gallagher not having a huge Spotify royalty stream is that Gallagher probably has the most fiercely loyal fan base of all and an international festival every year, and it really is international attracting fans worldwide every single year and also festivals in UK and Europe. No other Irish artist, not U2 , not Sinead o Connor, not the cranberries, thin Lizzy etc has this. Remember Gallagher is 30 years dead and his profile is actually growing not receding.
 
The biggest problem is that most of his fans are from Cork and Cork people are too mean to pay into a museum.