“He was backstage in the Marquee cleaning off his guitar and said, ‘Look!’ The paint was starting to come away in chips – he was almost crying”: How Rory Gallagher's 1961 Strat got its now-iconic relic’d finish

Photo of Rory Gallagher and his 1961 Fender Stratocaster.

Rory Gallagher's 1961 Strat is as distinctive as its player, with its worn, battered, and bruised finish making it one of the most instantly recognizable Fender Strats in the world. Over the years, there was speculation over whether the relic’d finish was intentional. However, Dónal Gallagher, the full-time steward of his brother Rory’s guitar collection, has set the record straight.

In the late 1960s, Gallagher had achieved enough success in Ireland with his blues-rock band, Taste, to springboard from Cork to London. At one of their shows at the famous Marquee Club in London's West End, Gallagher noticed that the paint on his guitar was chipping away.