When Rory Gallagher hits the stage at this year's Macroom festival gig, it'll be his last appearance in Ireland, a year that has seen him forgo some of the spotlight he's enjoyed over the previous ten years in Britain and Ireland in particular.

Not that it was a period without its achievements. Heading off the Rockpalaast Eurovision gig was one highlight, which saw him going out on the box before twenty-eight million viewers across the continent - undoubtedly one of the contributing factors in his continuing escalation in status throughout Europe. It was a shrewd move opening that particular show too, as anyone who misconstructed it in thinking he was *bottom of the bill* will have failed to realise. By four o'clock in the morning, with Roger McGuire and Thunderbyrd on, the home-audience had dwindled to about one million. Understandably, some people prefer bed at that time of the morning.

More recently, there was his sell-out return tour of Britain, an achievement which underlined his continuing credibility there in spite of the changes in attitude precipitated by the whole New Wave buzz. Gallagher has always stood aloof from trends, charting out his own idiosyncratic course, through all the changes, building a reputation that's based on a fundamental unwillingness to compromise his pervasive musical integrity - and that's the kind of value that just doesn't cheapen or lose its significance.