By the mid-70's Queen had become an established and world-famous band, and around this time some other artists began to realise that Brian May had a very distinctive guitar sound, and that it might enhance their recordings if they could get him to play on their records. The first person to nab the guitarist was Eddie Howell, who persuaded May to play on his 'Man From Manhatten' single, although that wasn't that hard as the song was already being produced by band-mate Freddie Mercury, who also played piano and sang backing vocals. The production is so Queen-like that it's almost like 'A Night At The Opera' out-take, and although it received considerable airplay in the UK, just as it was about to take off it was discovered that the bass-player had been working in the UK without a work permit, and the Musicians Union banned further airplay, which effectively killed any chance of chart success. A couple of years later he was asked to perform on Lonnie Donnegan's 'Puttin' On The Style' album, alongside Rory Gallagher, Albert Lee, Peter Banks, Ronnie Wood, and Mick Ralphs, where he added a distinctive solo to 'Digging My Potatoes'. Quartz were a heavy metal band, who had already released their first Tony Iommi-produced album in 1977, and they toured with Black Sabbath to support it. May offered to do his 'Queen' style editing of the song 'Circles', but after several attempts he admitted that he thought the original version with Ozzy Osbourne on backing vocals was still better, and so his contribution was cut from the final mix by Iommi. However, the recording was not dumped, and was resurrected to appear as the b-side to the 'Stoking The Fires Of Hell' single in 1980. When Jeffrey Osborne was recording his second album, May was asked to contribute solos to a couple of the tracks, and this became a fairly regular occurrence, with requests also coming from Billie Squier, Chris Thompson, and Meat Loaf over the next few years. In 1986 May was asked to write a couple of songs in English and Japanese for established Japanese singer Minako Honda, who he had met when she was already a star, even though she was still young enough to have to be chaperoned when she traveled to another country. He quickly wrote 'Golden Days' and 'Crazy Nights', and sent her the demos, and it was arranged for her to come to London to record them. As well as writing the songs, May played most of the instruments on the recordings, and although Minako didn't speak the language, she managed a pretty good English version of both songs. She sadly passed away in 2005, aged just 38. In 1988 May teamed up with band-mate Roger Taylor to add some un-credited guitar to 'Love Lies Bleeding' from The Cross's 'Shove It' album, and in 1989 he again contributed an un-credited solo to 'Self' by Fuzzbox, and when it was released as a single it charted both in the UK and the US. Lastly, for this album, he was invited to help out Holly Johnson with his debut solo album 'Blast', where he added a solo to 'Love Train', which was then released as a single, resulting in a top 5 UK chart placing. You can immediately recognise May's contribution to all of these songs, as his guitar sound is unique, making him one of the UK's best and most well-respected musicians. 
Track listing
01 Man From Manhattan (single by Eddie Howell 1976)02 Circles (b-side of 'Stoking The Fires Of Hell' single by Quartz 1980)03 Digging My Potatoes (from 'Puttin' On The Style' by Lonnie Donnegan 1978)04 Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right (from 'Stay With Me Tonight' by Jeffrey Osborne 1983)05 (Another) 1984 (from 'Signs Of Life' by Billie Squier 1984)06 A Shift In The Wind, Parts 1 & 2 (from 'Radio Voices' by Chris Thompson 1985)07 Golden Days (single by Minako Honda 1986)08 A Time For Heroes (single by Meat Loaf 1987)09 Love Lies Bleeding (She Was A Wicked, Wily Waitress) (from 'Shove It' by The Cross 1988)10 Self! (from 'Big Bang' by Fuzzbox 1989)11 Love Train (from 'Blast' by Holly Johnson 1989)
William Rory Gallagher was born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal in 1948, and bought his first guitar at age 12, performing in his adolescence with both his acoustic and an electric guitar. However, it was a 1961 Fender Stratocaster, which he purchased three years later for £100, that became his primary instrument and was most associated with him during his career. He was initially attracted to skiffle after hearing Lonnie Donegan on the radio, and while still in school he played songs by Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran, before discovering his greatest influence in Muddy Waters. In 1963, he joined a showband named Fontana, a sextet playing the popular hit songs of the day, and toured Ireland and the UK with them, earning money for the payments that were due on his Stratocaster. Gallagher began to influence the band's repertoire, and by 1965 he had eventually moulded them into an R&B group, with a new name of The Impact. After leaving The Impact in 1966 Gallagher formed a blues-rock trio called The Taste, later shortened to Taste, which lasted until they broke up in 1970. Gallagher then embarked on a long and extremely successful solo career, releasing many well-received albums, and touring extensively. During this period he was invited to play with many of his childhood heroes, contributing guitar to albums by Lonnie Donnegan, Muddy Waters and Jerry Lee Lewis. He also played on fellow Irishman Joe O'Donnell's 1977 concept jazz-fusion album 'Gaodhal's Vision', and Mike Batt's 'Tarot Suite', another concept album from 1978. His first guest appearance was on Mike Vernon's debut blues album from 1971, where Vernon managed to get both Gallagher and Paul Kossoff to provide guitar solos for his record. Also in 1971 he guested on a couple of recordings by Chris Barber, which were later compiled onto a retrospective of the renowned jazz/bluesman, but it was the recordings with Waters and Donnegan (on his last album) of which Gallagher was reportedly most proud. 
01 Come Back Baby (from 'Bring It Back Home' by Mike Vernon 1971)02 Drat The Frattle Rat (from 'The Outstanding Album' by Chris Barber 1971)03 Sleepy Lovie (from 'The Outstanding Album' by Chris Barber 1971)04 Music To The Man (from 'The Session' by Jerry Lee Lewis 1973)05 Juke Box (from 'The Session' by Jerry Lee Lewis 1973)06 Hard Days (from 'London Revisited' by Muddy Waters & Howlin' Wolf 1974)07 Poets And Storytellers (from 'Gaodhal's Vision' by Joe O'Donnell 1977)08 Rock Island Line (from 'Putting On The Style' by Lonnie Donnegan 1978)09 Drop Down Baby (from 'Putting On The Style' by Lonnie Donnegan 1978)10 Tarota (from 'Tarot Suite' by Mike Batt 1978)
