‘We are happy with the price’: Music promoter Denis Desmond on buying Rory Gallagher’s guitar

Music promoter Denis Desmond spent a nervous afternoon beside the computer terminal and phone on Thursday.
He was watching remotely the auction of the Rory Gallagher collection taking place at Bonhams in London.
The highlight of the collection was Gallagher’s 1961 Fender Stratocaster which he bought for IR£100 in 1963 from Crowley’s Music Store in Cork and was selling at auction for between £700,000 and £1.2 million.
It was lot number 62. “It took forever. It started at 3pm and we were told we’d get to lot 62 by 4.15pm and then it comes to 5pm and we are only at item 32 and I’m like, ‘I got to go to a board meeting.’”
When the time came he watched MCD financial director Sean Browne make the bids remotely on his behalf. The bidding started at £450,000, then £480,000, £500,000, £550,000, £600,000, £650,000 and £700,000.
The bidding stalled as suave auctioneer Harvey Cammell tried to exhort another bid from those in the room and those bidding online. “I have all the time in the world,” said Cammell as Desmond watched nervously online.
He is used, as a promoter, for bidding for acts, but acts come and go. Music memorabilia such as Gallagher’s signature Stratocaster do not come on the market very often.
The hammer came down at £700,000, the lowest estimate and the total once a premium and fees are paid is €1,068,956. “I kept saying, ‘Is that us, is that us?’ He [Browne] said, ‘Definitely’, and he gave me the nod,” recalled Desmond.
Guitar aficionados believe he got a bargain. So does he. “We are happy with the price. We went in with the intention of buying it, keeping it in Ireland and we are happy we succeeded in doing that.”
The “we” in question is Desmond’s company Live Nation Gaiety Productions which he owns with Live Nation, the behemoth of the live music industry world.
The decision to bid on the guitar was made following consultations with Live Nation Ireland chief executive Mike Adamson, “who is also a big Rory fan”. They then spoke to Mike Rapino, the chief executive of Live Nation, about it. He agreed that they should bid for it.
“The people who own it now are Mike Rapino [the chief executive of Live Nation] and myself,” said Desmond.
One potential counterbidder was the Irish Government, given the clamour for the guitar to be returned to Ireland. Adamson approached the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media about it 10 days ago and told them that they would donate the guitar to the State if they were successful in the bidding process. There was no need for the State to make a bid.
“You have to have a plan. It was very good that we had Government support. The whole package came together quite well,” said Desmond.
“The objective was to bring it to Ireland, have it where it is on display and not have sitting it sitting in somebody’s front room.”
Desmond said he had a figure in his head that they would go to to secure the guitar but he wouldn’t reveal it. He believes, though, that many collectors stayed out of the auction, among them the guitarist and collector Joe Bonamassa, who said publicly the instrument should return to Ireland.
Since purchasing the guitar, Desmond has been inundated with texts and messages from people. It is a happy story, he believes, as he is a Rory Gallagher fan and, like Gallagher, a Cork man.
“I grew up listening to Rory and I still listen to Rory. I listen to that live album in 1974 and I’m still playing the first Taste album,” he says.
“There is a huge amount of love in Ireland for Rory…
I’ve been blown away by the response.”
He hopes some Irish guitarists will get to play it before it goes behind a case. “It would be great if the Edge came and played a tune or two on it.”
He hopes “sooner rather than later” the guitar will be displayed in the National Museum of Ireland and, at some future stage, would be put on display in Cork.
The trio also bought Gallagher’s Vox AC30 amplifier for £25,600 (€30,000) and the Dallas Rangemaster treble booster, which had a guide price of £1,200 and went for £12,800 (€15,371). They will go on display with the guitar.