Gary O'Toole  - Drums and percussion

Drummer, singer, guitarist, teacher... veritable polymath, in fact - Gary has been a top professional drummer for more than thirty years. In addition to worldwide live appearances with Bucks Fizz, China Crisis, and blues maestro Stephen Dale Petit he has a studio CV as long as your arm, drumming for top producers Marius De Vries and Richard Niles, and for a staggeringly diverse range of artists from Mel C to Kylie Minogue to Chrissie Hynde. Not content to keep all this talent to himself, he's also found time to set up his own music school, teaching Steve Sidelynk (Madonna) and Coldplay's Will Champion, to name but two. Gary has been a fixture in the Steve Hackett Band since 2000, underpinning countless gigs from Stockholm to Santiago (including the DVDs Somewhere In South America and Once Above A Time). He also caressed, cajoled and battered drums on, and lent his inimitable vocal talents to, the studio albums To Watch The Storms and Wild Orchids. You can read what Gary says about himself at www.myspace.com/garyotoole. Some of it may even be true...