A rock singer who was forced to swap the stage for a delivery round during lockdown has said playing online has made him a better artist.

       Rory Gallagher, from Co Donegal, said his pandemic job delivering Amazon packages lasted for one day as he decided to have a go at making a living through online gigs.

       Gallagher, 43, the former frontman of the indie band The Revs, said the move paid off as he was able to make more during a two-hour performance on Facebook than he would have earned driving the van for a week.

       The father of two, who went viral in 2012 with his Jimmy’s Winning Matches tribute to Donegal’s victorious All Ireland football championship campaign, is now embarking on a live tour once again as he promotes a new album.

       I noticed a lot of musicians on Facebook doing live gigs, so I tried it and made more in two hours than I would driving the van for the whole week. The Amazon job lasted a day

       Rory Gallagher

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       His album Centre Falls Apart is first released on the Voices of the Sea label on March 11.

       The pandemic hit Gallagher particularly hard, as when Covid-19 struck he and his Scottish wife Cara had just taken over a music bar in Edinburgh, The Wildcat.

       The couple had to abandon that venture when pubs in Scotland closed for lockdown.

       Gallagher, no relation to the late Irish guitar legend Rory Gallagher, said at that point he tried his hand as an Amazon driver.

       “I noticed a lot of musicians on Facebook doing live gigs, so I tried it and made more in two hours than I would driving the van for the whole week. The Amazon job lasted a day,” he said.

       “So online gigs provided our income, we moved over to Scotland and that was paying the rent, it kept us going for the whole year and I began to enjoy it, it was so much more intimate and quiet and I think it made me a better artist.

       “On Facebook, we would have 700 watching live every week but sometimes there would be 40,000-50,000 views after a few days.”

       Former The Revs frontman, Rory Gallagher, is back on the road with Irish and UK tour dates and new album ‘Centre Falls Apart’, the first released on the Voices of the Sea label, on March 11. Much of the album, he says, was born from the struggles of lockdown and the resilience people needed to counteract it. Picture: Tom Honan.

       Gallagher, who performs under the stage name Rory and the Island, reached No 1 in the Irish iTunes charts with When The Lights Go Down in November 2020.

       Earlier that year he performed a marathon eight-hour gig on Facebook.

       His first post-lockdown gig was in The Dublin Castle in Camden, London, last August.

       “The first gig back was magic, I had forgotten the feeling – it feels like surfing when there’s a big crowd singing the lyrics back to you, it becomes a wave effect in the room, you’re actually getting carried by them,” he said.

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       Gallagher’s tour, which includes dates in Ireland, Northern Ireland, England and Scotland, kicks off in Opium, Dublin, on March 11.

       For more information visit: roryandtheisland.com/tour/