The Beginning

Garry started his career in music as a drummer at around the age of 12 when his parents bought him his first set of Olympic drums for Christmas. Garry loved playing the drums and spent every spare moment playing them while annoying the neighbours.

After a while he got his first job job playing drums in a band which entertained the patients in a local hospital, and while there he was noticed by another musician (Mick Herring) who was quite a few years older than Garry and who had his own rock cover band called "Frenchie" that performed in the many working mens clubs and venues that were scattered throughout the north east of England... and Frenchie were looking for a new drummer!  Garry agreed to turn up for the audition.

The day arrived and after all the other drummers had finished showing their skills it was Garrys turn. He was the last person to audition that day and as he entered the hall where the band members had set up their equipment he could see the look of surprise and disappointment when these rugged looking guys saw this very young boy enter the room.

Not to be put off by this, and after introductions to the band members and roadies etc  Garry sat behind the drum kit and played the first audition song with the band......Garry took everyone by surprise and he got the job!

 

               

 

Garry went on to perform hundreds of gigs with this band and even did a summer season on the isle of wight with them. Garry eventually wanted to try something new and was asked to be resident drummer at the local working mens club which would mean backing all the different artists that appeared there which would mean having to be able to play all kinds of music styles from artists such as Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra and Shirley Bassey etc, which was a far cry from the rock he had recently been playing, plus it would mean that he would need to brush up on his music reading skills (Garry had been going for music reading lessons with a local drum hero Adrian Tillbrooke).

After a year or more as resident drummer at Trimdon Village working mens club on an evening and working in Hamiltons music shop during the day, it was time for something new. Garry was head hunted by a number of bands during this period but it wasn´t until the Gibsons Country Band came along headed by Brian Worton Gibson that Garry decided to try something different. Garry joined "The Gibsons" and stayed with them for a number of performing up and down the north east UK. 

It was with the Gibsons that Garry first sang onstage in front of an audience. Brian who was the lead singer in the band would bring Garry forward off the drums calling him "The baby of the band" to do his "Cliff Richard" impersonation.  Garry would sing the song "Daddy´s Home" and the rest of the band would be his backing singers (sounding more like the muppets) which was greatly appreciated by the audiences.

                     

                                       *The Gibsons Country Band

By this time Garry had taught himself to play guitar and had now begun to play guitar in the Gibsons rather than drums, he later even went on to form his own guitar duo with another local guitarist Michael Bourner.

After a while Garry went back on to drums and played in the rock band Prime Example, and then as a session drummer had the honour to tour or share stages with a number of artists including Bobby Thompson, Chubby Brown, Graham Gibson Band (an Elvis Tribute Show), Lulu,  plus many more.

 

       

            *The Graham Gibson Band (Mick Herring on Bass)

 

Garry always enjoyed the "touring" bit best.  Occasionally when the bands he was playing in would do gigs further afield he always loved these adventures.  During this time in his life however he had a number of other interests such as martial arts etc and there were periods when the music had to take a back seat for other things. 

 

               

 

After a few years Garry received a call from an agency in Manchester asking if he would be interested in being the drummer in a band that was being put together from a selection of talented session players. This band would then be used for all the American country artists that came on tour in Europe.  Garry travelled down to Manchester for a meeting and signed the contract for the first tour which would have him touring in Holland, Belgium, Germany, England, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden.  Garry performed with Artists such as Ray Pillow, Kay Adams, The Mercey Brothers, Mary Miller, Gordie West, among many others.

 

 

*Thank you to the reporters for allowing me to use these clips. If however you would like me to remove these articles at any time please contact me and they will be removed.

     

 

This is the cover of Garrys CD single "Wait Until Tomorrow"

 

Below is the front, inside, and back photos from the folding cover of Garrys album "Old Enough To Know Better"

 

This was the cover of the cassette tape that was released and could be found in the Statoil petrol stations during the early 90´s.

The photo above is of Garry onstage winning the competition that radio Kristianstad had for  "Who sounds the most like Elvis" in southern Sweden after a fan had sent the radio station a recording of Garry´s voice.

Radio Kristianstad had contacted Garry and told him that he had made the final 10 competitors from all the recordings that had been sent in to them. Garry didn´t even know that someone had sent in a recording of his voice and that he was in the competition!

At this point in time Garry had not yet started performing any kind of Elvis shows.