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That particular evening started a chain reaction which I believe got me where I am now. Katriona is terribly modest and won’t take any credit but I fell in love with their music and through the friendship that developed Kat and Jamie introduced me to the Barnsley folk scene through which I have met many great musicians, contacts and more importantly friends.


I was now (2007) doing gigs in folk clubs and at festivals. These were mainly solo although occasionally Katriona would join me on some of the gigs. I’d not really planned to have a band but my son Liam was playing with me more and more and we had been to a Durbervilles gig and had got chatting to their new bass player, Ruth Wilde. Ruth said she’d like to be involved in what we were doing so in September 2008 the Gerry McNeice Band was born. I had already started work on a CD and that was released on the 19th of August 2009, my 50th birthday. In addition to myself and Kat the album also featured appearances from Liam, Ruth, Jude Rees, Steve Fairholme, Michelle Plum, Andy Cutting and Pete Robinson.


Although I had built quite a fan base I’d realised that unless you’re lucky enough to be a Kate Rusby or a Seth Lakeman and earn all your money from one


area of your talent you have to diversify. I’d decided way back in 2005 that if music was gonna be my livelihood I would have to branch out in other areas. I’d been doing live sound for years and having been to a few gigs where the sound was terrible Ani and I upgraded our system and became GMPA. We now provide sound support for all occasions from pubs to festivals and of course through that we have met even more musicians, made more friends and collected more band members! The Gerry McNeice ‘Orchestra’ can sometimes have eleven people on stage!


I’d had great fun recording my album Small Town Boy and I thought it would be interesting, fun and beneficial to me as a sound engineer to start recording other musicians. I’d gone to Alcester and Arden festival to play double bass with Duncan McFarlane and Anne Brivonese and following our gig we were relaxing in the bar. A young singer/guitarist/fiddler called Niamh Boadle came into the bar with her parents. Me, being the social animal that I am, started chatting and jamming with Niamh. I think we stopped playing at about 4:00am. By the end of the weekend I had somehow managed to talk Niamh into


joining the band


and had also agreed to record her solo album.


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