Biography

Musical differences are suspected. Gary and the drummer, Nick Becker (formerly of rockabilly band The Pharaohs) recruited Nigel Glynn and Paul 'Rat' Bayford on guitar and bass, and formed DadTV.
DadTV were somewhat better, and wrote some decent tunes between them. They were tight, if not the most gifted band around, and did ok for a short time. 

A year or so and one more rock contest at The Square later, DadTV broke up. A short and enjoyable stay in some mates' band (possibly called 'One Big Lie'), playing guitar, never really got off the ground.
Around this time Gary was sharing a flat with another mate, Adrian Batt. A great guitarist and a songwriter too, they started writing together. Some of these songs would become part of the band Swank's repertoire.

They had an albums worth of song demo's that eventually saw the light as "Swank - The Second Coming".
While all this was going on, Gary auditioned and joined a heavy rock band as lead vocalist. Chinatown had been going a year or so, but played mainly covers. They continued to keep some AC/DC and Thin Lizzy style covers in the set, and  Gary, with guitarists Tony Luxford and Keith Brighty, and bassist Mark Jewell started writing their own.

Searchin', Salt in My Wounds, and Down all became live favourites alongside Lizzy's Are You Ready, and AC/DC's Sin City. The Skint Chicken EP was recorded at Thornwood Studios, Epping, while the band watched England beat Spain on penalties in Euro '96!! Memorable gigs included The Rock Garden (Covent Garden), The Royal Standard (Walthamstow), and playing with Dumpy's Rusty Nuts at The Square, Harlow again.
By the summer of '97, Chinatown were playing less often - mainly due to lack of drummers (as usual). 

To keep from getting gig rusty, Gary reformed Swank as a three-piece. "The Second Coming" local pub 'tour' around east Herts and west Essex lined up with Darran P Short on guitar and vocals, Gary on bass and vocals, and Rob Hicks on drums. Playing mainly covers, every gig was done for fun, and a good time was had by all! Sadly, no live recordings can be found... 

The next year, Darran moved back up to his hometown of Blackpool, so Gary concentrated on writing and recording as many songs as possible.

Somewhere around the millenium, a few tentative chats happened between some work colleagues about forming a band "for a bit of a laugh". Mark Bundy would sing, Gary would play guitar, with experienced drummer Dave Lancashire, and bassist Ben Harknett making up the initial four. After what seemed like an age (as anyone who's formed a band will testify), and many ideas later, the band named themselves "The 11th Hour". 

They made the Strawberry Shake EP at Barnet Surgery Studios, which was released on CD and digital formats through the fledgling mp3.com, and did pretty well as downloads long before they were included in charts. The Aftermath and Kiss The Wookie demo albums followed, though sadly now unavailable after the dissolution of the mp3.com company.

The band name morphed from The 11th Hour to become Happy Millionaire due to varous film and video games of the same name. Line-ups altered (Mark and Gary being the mainstays, with regular members Simon Clough and Simon Ingram).

In the following few years Happy Millionaire recorded several albums and singles, "Behind These Eyes" (2010), "The Band That Never Was" (2012)  were subsequently released on the new 'Happy Millionaire Music' Record Label - Gary taking on production, remixing and artwork duties. They also contributed tracks to the 2009 Indie film "Underwood".

Whilst Behind These Eyes was recorded over 4 days at Mill Hill Studios, The Band That Never Was became the first made with Gary's new home studio setup, at a more leisurely pace. 

In 2015 Mark, Gary and Simon Ingram began working on a set of ideas and demos Simon had started. This was a different sound, and someway through they decided a new band name would better reflect the different style. Shadow Monsters, released the anticipated album 'Moments Of Clarity' on 1st September 2017, and several singles and EP's - including Nervous Breakdown, I'm Not Myself, I Believe In Love, and Hesitation Of The Mind.'

In late 2016, I began remixing one of North London's finest bands - The Edenites. What started as a couple of remixes to accompany their anticipated debut album 'The Edenites', including their Indie hit 'Welcome To London', ended up as a full album ('Forbidden Fruit') and several singles of remixes.

In early 2017, with Eden rapper Greg 'Gzus' Jarvis, multi-faceted Mark 'El Carlos' Riley, and vocalist Julie 'Angel' Savva, The Mandela Effect re-formed. Playing a fused style of funk, hip-hop and rap, their album ‘Affected'’ dropped in 2018, including festival favourites 'All My People', 'New Tricks', 'Fuzz' and 'What You Want'. 

New material already released in 2021, including the singles 'Violet', 'Fear & Panic', 'End Of Times' and 'Find Me' . Watch out for this one... #asitwas

My solo album 'Never Better' was released 15th December 2017, and includes singles Plasticine Queen, Another Drop Dead Gorgeous Maybe, Butterfly Effect, Crop Circles and Big Bad Wolf. There are also covers of Here Comes The Sun and Juanito The Bandito. 

A second solo album, titled 'Deep Breath', was released 25th September 2020, preceded by the singles Make A Wish, Circulation, Medusa On The Make and Breathe. The Single Psychopath Waiting followed on 30th October 2020. 

For 2021, a series of albums featuring remixes and extra tracks are coming. See "Remix Collections" for details.

Work has already began on a third solo album provisionally titled 'Rose Tinted'. It is currently being recorded, likely to be be released in 2023. The single 'Overrated' was released on December 25th 2022.

Interests: music, football, sports, cartooning, comics, books, films, Chelsea FC, animation, natural history, palaeontology, archaeology, astronomy, truth

Influences: Things I love, like and have been influenced by, in no particular order...

The Damned, Dweezil, Abba, Roxy Music, Tom Petty, The Monkees, Adam And The Ants, Stan The Man Lee, Jack King Kirby, Joltin' Joe Sinnott, Housemartins, Aerosmith, 1981, 1989, Beach Boys, Adam Ant, Marco Pirroni, Galileo, HR Geiger, Salvador Dali, Da Vinci, Bangles, Supertramp, Guns'n'Roses, Seal, Anti-Nowhere League, Inxs, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Storm, Yazoo, Fatboy Slim, Chris Merrick Hughes, Terry Lee Miall, Garry Tibbs, Steve Harley, Cockney Rebel, Frank Zappa, Patrick Moore, Ducks, Alien, Re-Animator, Science-Fiction, Science-Fact, Chinatown, Stereophonics, Soft Cell, Robert Palmer, Stray Cats, Spandau Ballet, Feeder, ABC, ELO, OMD, XTC, AC/DC, Supermen Lovers, Reed Richards, Robbie, Wham!, The Bees, Mary Jane Watson, Duran Duran, a-ha, Kylie, Monet, Miles Mathis, Checking the Facts, Archaeology, Palaeoanthropology, Attenborough, Madness, The Beatles, Darkness, Blondie, Black, My Life Story, Happy Millionaire, Swank, Strawberry Switchblade, Strawberry Shake, Big John Buscema, Alan Davis, Darts, Billy Idol, Neil Diamond, Clash, The Hives, Buddy Holly, Killers, Blur, Richard Harris, Nirvana, Oasis, Bright Lights Black Leather, High Heels In High Places, Carty, Colin James, Prince, Queen, King, Crowded House, Janus, Mimas, Enceledus, Tethys, Dionne, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion, Iapetus, Phoebe, David Bowie, Rick Springfield, B52s, GoGo's, Belinda, Bob & Tom, Mum & Dad, 45rpm, Chris Spencer, Trio, Ultravox, Ray 'Butch' Wilkins, Celery, Van Morrison, The Fantastic Four, The Famous Five, The Sinister Six, The Magnificent Seven, Cure, Offspring, Portishead, Texas, London, Television, Terrorvision, DadTV, Jam, Sex, Pistols, Los Lobos, The 11th Hour, Xtina, Eurythmics, Frankie, Pluto, Charon, Billy, Lucy, Jem, The Munchkin, We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It, Kim Wilde, Kaiser Chiefs, Kaiser Samosa, The Jacksons, Kinks, Rocky Horror, Stephen King, The Green Mile, Police, Roy Orbison, Nik Kershaw, Peter Parker, Rolling Stones, Queens Of The Stone Age, Emma Frost, The White Queen, Audioslave, Scooby Doo, The Ultimate Nullifier, Suzi Quatro, Iron Maiden, Joe Satriani, The Silver Surfer, The Teardrop Explodes, Swank, Kurt Wagner, Mr Tickle, The Sound of Silence, Swimming With Sharks, Whales and Dolphins yeah