U2, the renowned Irish rock band, may “step in” to place a bid on Rory Gallagher’s legendary 1961 Fender Stratocaster, which is set to be auctioned today.
Sheena Crowley, the daughter of the late Mick Crowley, revealed that it’s “very likely” a representative from U2 will attend the auction at Bonhams in London, where the guitar is anticipated to fetch over €1 million.
There are also speculations that Ireland’s National Museum might submit a bid for the iconic instrument.
Ms. Crowley, whose father sold the now-famous second-hand Strat to a young Rory Gallagher in Cork more than 60 years ago, has been leading efforts to keep the guitar in the local area following the announcement of the sale of Gallagher’s collection by his brother Donal earlier this year.
A GoFundMe campaign was initially launched to purchase the guitar but fell short of its goal. The funds raised will now be redirected to acquire as many instruments from Gallagher’s collection as possible.
Ms. Crowley expressed her hopes of utilizing the €72,000 raised to purchase up to five instruments from Gallagher’s collection during today’s auction, which begins at 3 PM and will be livestreamed globally.
“I still want to secure something just in case the Government doesn’t manage to,” Ms. Crowley shared with the Cork Independent. “I hope that the National Museum might go over and bid for it. But I also know that wealthy individuals are attending to bid, so I hope it’s the museum that secures it, or someone willing to donate it to a museum in Cork,” she added.
Her goal is to establish a display at the Cork Public Museum featuring as much of Gallagher’s collection as possible, allowing his numerous fans, both in Ireland and abroad, to appreciate it.
“There will be many fans eager to get in, and a lot will attempt to bid on the less expensive instruments, so I’ll have my work cut out for me,” Ms. Crowley remarked. “If it were my money, I’d be bold, but since it’s not, I expect I’ll feel tense,” she noted.
Ms. Crowley, who now operates Crowley’s Music Centre on Friar Street in Cork city, recently discovered an interview her father gave 20 years ago that she had never heard before. In the interview, Mr. Crowley recounted how a young Rory, during a school break, learned about an affordable second-hand guitar available at Crowley’s Music Store on MacCurtain Street. According to the story, Rory rushed to the shop, waited for the doors to open at 2 PM, and took his new guitar straight home, skipping the rest of his school day.
“So, when people ask, ‘Why is this so important?’, think about that. The young fellow waiting and not returning to school because he’s so captivated, he’s consumed by it, and the fact that he knew exactly what he wanted, the sound he desired—everything about it is so significant. His destiny was already mapped out,” Ms. Crowley concluded.
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