The son of Irish parents, Gallagher attended
St Michael's Academy, Kilwinning, and then worked as a marine electrician in the shipyards of
Glasgow. During this time, he also played bass guitar in local semi-professional beat group The Bluefrets, which featured
Graham Lyle on lead guitar. Gallagher's first published song was "Mr Heartbreak's Here Instead", which he co-wrote with Andrew Galt. This was recorded as a single for EMI-Columbia in 1964 by Dean Ford and the Gaylords, the bulk of which group later became chart-topping outfit
Marmalade. Galt then made two singles for
Pye, "Comes The Dawn" and "With My Baby", under the name James Galt; both were co-written and featured backing vocals by Gallagher and
Graham Lyle. In 1966, Gallagher and Lyle – who by now had forged a songwriting partnership – moved to London in search of a publishing deal. Both continued to hold down day jobs, Gallagher as an electrician and Lyle as a shipping clerk, while waiting for their big break. After an abortive contract with Polydor, which yielded one unsuccessful single, the pair joined
Apple Corps as staff songwriters and wrote several songs for
Mary Hopkin. Gallagher and Lyle first hit the chart as performers in late 1970 as the leading lights of
McGuinness Flint, a blues-rock band formed by ex-
Manfred Mann guitarist
Tom McGuinness. This band made two well-received albums and scored two Top 5 singles in Britain with "
When I'm Dead and Gone" and "Malt and Barley Blues", before Gallagher and Lyle left to work as a duo. Gallagher was credited as Bernard Gallagher on sheet music copies of early songs such as these, but later shortened his forename to avoid confusion with golfer
Bernard Gallacher. Between 1972 and 1975, Gallagher and Lyle made four albums for
A&M:
Gallagher and Lyle,
Willie and the Lap Dog,
Seeds and
The Last Cowboy, all of which were produced by
Glyn Johns, and met with favourable reviews. both of which also charted in the US; the latter song was covered successfully by
Bryan Ferry. The album included "
Stay Young", which
Don Williams took to No. 1 on the US
C&W chart, while
Art Garfunkel enjoyed a US
Adult Contemporary No. 1 with the title song, "
Breakaway". Their final two albums,
Showdown and
Lonesome No More – the last of these issued on
Mercury – failed to chart. They provided backing vocals on
Elkie Brooks' minor hit cover of their song "The Runaway" in 1979, but this was their final chart appearance. Gallagher and Lyle split in 1980, leaving behind an unreleased ninth album,
Living on the Breadline. A song recorded for this set, "A Heart in New York", was covered by
Art Garfunkel for his album
Scissors Cut and became a major US Adult Contemporary hit for him in 1981. Gallagher kept a low profile for much of the 1980s, but re-emerged in 1992 as bassist with
The Manfreds, a reconvention of 1960s
Manfred Mann members and associates. He remained a member until 1999, touring all over the world with the band and appearing on a live album released in 1998. During his tenure in the band, he co-founded and served as chairman of PAMRA (Performing Artists Media Rights Association), a UK not-for-profit organisation set up in 1996 as a result of EU directive 92/100/EEC, Article 8(2), which gave performers the right to receive "equitable remuneration", and also served as chairman of the Board. Prior to this, "non-featured artists" (including session and backing musicians, orchestral players and choral singers) did not receive royalties when their performances were broadcast or played in public. Involved in complex rights negotiations over his decade on the board, both nationally and internationally, by 2006, when PAMRA merged with PPL, the society had more than 15,000 members and was paying out millions of pounds in royalties to rank-and-file musicians. After a spell with
Dr Hook as bassist during 1999 and 2000, Gallagher embarked on a solo career as a singer-songwriter, touring the folk club and festival circuits. He also held workshops all over the British Isles for aspiring songwriters. In 2010, Gallagher reunited with Lyle for two concerts in their former hometown of Largs in aid of Haylie House, a residential care home in the town. The pair subsequently re-formed and performed at two events in 2011: "The Big Gig" at Glasgow's Barrowland nightclub, alongside
Marti Pellow,
Jim Diamond and
Midge Ure, and the MOARE Festival in Faversham, Kent, which was headlined by former
Average White Band stalwart Hamish Stuart. In 2012, the duo undertook a sell-out tour of Scottish venues, under the banner of "The Homecoming Tour"; their 22-song set included all their British chart entries and both their US chart-toppers, as well as "A Heart in New York" and "Willie", in which Gallagher used a harmonica on a harness. In March 2016, Gallagher and Lyle performed together at the Belfast Nashville Songwriters' Festival. In November 2016, the duo performed for four nights at The Green Hotel in Kinross. The summer of 2017 saw the duo perform as part of the 'Byre at The Botanics' season in St Andrews, and also at the Belladrum Festival in Inverness and the Albany Theatre in Greenock. In March 2018, the duo returned to Belfast to perform once more at the Belfast Nashville Songwriters' Festival. Gallagher has released two solo albums on his own OnSong label:
On Stage and
At The Edge of the Wave. The latter set includes "Tusitala", a tribute to
Robert Louis Stevenson; this song also appeared on the Greentrax CD
The Great Tapestry of Scotland. ==Stage musical==