!980’s Nottingham rock and roll singer and agent
“The Sinatra of the Subways“

In 1978 Garry Slack was a singer with his five piece band band called The Wild Turtles.

The Wild Turtles line up:
Garry Slack: Vocals
Rick Gaskell: Bass
Pete Phillips: Guitar
Phil Wright (Leppo): Guitar
Bill Fisher: Drums

By 1982 the line up of “Garry and his Band” was

Garry Slack: Vocals
Brian Harris: Bass
Paul Hartshorne: Lead Guitar
Nemon: Second Guitar
Ben Ross: Drums

Also three girl singers
Marina
Sarah
Debbie

and sometimes a three piece brass section.

By 1984, Vaughan Wilkinson (formely with The Features & The Drug Squad) had joined playing guitar. “Garry Slack – myself and Paul H. did some recording with him at Sin City at around the same time we did The Drug Squad stuff and played live gigs, mainly miner’s welfares and the like. I remember we did some gigs with him whilst the miner’s strike was going on. In fact we broke a picket line at Radclffe power station to do one. I was on a single he did but not sure if it was the ‘Skeleton’ one. I have a tape myself and Paul recorded at Sin City with Garry that has four songs“

You can hear the session here.

He was performing covers like “Shakin’ All Over”, “Jailhouse Rock”, “Be Bop a Loola” “Route 66”, “Shakin’ All Over” and “Mean Woman Blues” but also some of his own numbers like “CB Jive” and “Brand New Haircut”. He cut a deal with Sin City Records in Nottingham to release a single (in January 1983) “Brand New Haircut” written by Gary and Brian Harris, backed with “Urban Rockabilly” co-written with Harry Stephenson, former Plummet Airlines frontman and at the time fronting his own Harry Stephenson Group. In Stamford where both artists had regular dates the record was to be available from Owl Records. It was engineered by Byron Sacorafos and produced and mixed by Clive Gregson.

Musicians on the single:
Garry: Vocals, Guitar
Steve Powell: Guitar
Paul Hartshaw: Guitar
Brian Harris: Bass
Ben Ross: Drums
Clive Gregson: Piano
Sarah Simmonds: Backing Vocals
Deborah Woodward: Backing Vocals
Carria Aswin: Backing Vocals
Nigel Manning: Clarinet
Vic Middleton: Tenor Sax
Mick Ward: Baritone Sax
Paul Edwards: Trumpet

In 1984, Garry also had a song released, “Skeleton in the Cupboard”, on the “Castle Rock 84” compilation album of Nottingham groups engineered by John E. Moon. After hanging up his microphone Garry turned his attention to running an entertainments agency call “Strike 1” in the late 80’s and early 90’s ranging from music to comedy.

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