Taste Profile:
Formed: 1966 in Cork, Ireland
Disbanded: 1970 in Belfast, Ireland
During the latter half of the 1960s, during the peak of the British blues-rock craze, Ireland's Taste, featuring Rory Gallagher, impressed crowds wherever they played. Featuring Gallagher's extraordinary fretwork and dynamic showmanship, the band toured with superstars like Yes and Blind Faith, and even performed at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. Yet Taste never caught a break, and although influential and popular in England and Ireland, they never broke through to a U.S. audience.
The Taste
Originally called The Taste, the band was formed in 1966 by Rory Gallagher with bassist Eric Kitteringham and drummer Norman Damery. The band scaled its name back to just "Taste," performed in Hamburg, Germany and toured Ireland before becoming the house band at the Maritime Hotel, a popular R&B club in Belfast.
After performing in the U.K. in 1968, Gallagher broke up the band. Relocating to London, the 20-year-old guitarist put together a new version of Taste with bassist Richard McCracken and drummer John Wilson. This would become the best-known of the band's two line-ups, signing with Polydor Records and touring the United States and Canada with Blind Faith.
On The Boards
Taste released two studio albums during the band's tenure: the self-titled Taste in 1969 and On The Boards in 1970. The critically-acclaimed On The Boards entered the Top 20 in England and featured a mix of guitar-driven blues, traditional boogie-rock, and even a pair of acoustic ballads, all showcasing Gallagher's flaming fretwork and bottleneck slide guitar skills.
Taste performed at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival with such legends as Jimi Hendrix and the Who, the audience calling the band back onstage for an incredible seven encores. Taste performed one more round of shows in Europe, returning to Belfast for a farewell show on New Year's Eve. Breaking up the band, Gallagher would go on to pursue a significant, moderately successful solo career.
A live album, showing the band at its peak, was released in 1971, as was First Taste, a collection of archival material from the band's early (pre-U.K.) years. Live at the Isle of Wight, featuring Taste's incendiary 1970 festival performance, was finally released in 1992.
Recommended Albums: The Best of Taste, featuring Rory Gallagher, offers sixteen songs culled from the band's two studio albums.
