Gary Green
For other uses of "GG", see GG (disambiguation).
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Gary Green was the lead guitarist for the band. A self-taught musician, Gary had his musical roots in the blues, and his sound lent a more direct edge to the music. But of course he could play as progressively as the rest of the band!
Guitar equipment
Alan Kinsman reports in On-Reflection:
Gary's guitar of choice throughout his time with GG was a 1960 Les Paul Standard, which he played on just about everything. However, for live performances of 'The Runaway/Experience' he played a 1970s Telecaster, but I can't confirm whether he used it for the studio recordings of those numbers. On live versions of 'Turning Around' and 'Mountain Time', he played a 1960's Stratocaster, which was Ray's.
The Telecaster was also played by John on 'Memories Of Old Days'. Kerry played the Stratocaster on 'Plain Truth', 'Why Not?' and 'Memories Of Old Days', and Ray played it on 'Nothing At All'.
... we talked about amps and pedals. In the early days of the band, he used a Laney 100 amp with two 4x12? Laney cabs. These were inherited from the Simon Dupree days. Later on, he had an H&H solid state 100w head with a 1x15 W cab, and in the final days of the band he used a Fender Dual Showman Reverb 100w head, initially with an Earth 4x12? JBL cab, and finally with a Marshall 4x12 model 1960B. (Note that I am not a guitar aficionado, so I've copied this from notes Gary passed to me, and I can't answer any technical queries!)
As for pedals, Gary had a Cry Baby Wah Wah, Dunlop Volume, Electro Harmonix Electric Mistress Flanger, MXR Phase, MXR Micro Amp, and, late in the game, a ?shitty no-name fuzz box bought and used solely for the chorus in 'I'm Turning Around' (Gary's description).
He used a mid-1970s Yamaha FG150 on the acoustic guitar duet, and a 12-string on "Funny Ways" and "Memories Of Old Days" — the exact instrument changed over the years. It was Ray's Hagstrom (from the Simon Dupree days) early on, but that was stolen at a gig, and towards the end it was an unspecified Fender — there may have been another along the way.
After Gentle Giant
Gary lives outside of Chicago, Illinois, USA. From 1983-1989 Gary played in a band called Blind Dates with drummer Albert Hurst. Reportedly they did some recording but it is unknown if it was ever released. Gary also guested on Eddie Jobson's The Green Album.
He later played in a band called The Elvis Brothers. Eventually the drummer in this band formed another called Big Hello, a "power pop" band nothing like Gentle Giant. Apparently, Big Hello completed enough material for a full album, but I don't think any album has been released. One song appears on a compilation CD called Pop Matters on the Wagonwheel label.
Gary left Big Hello and played on an album being created by Paul Adams.
Around 1992, Gary was also playing with a band called Mother Tongue. According to fan Beth Dooley, "They played 50/50 originals/covers (Tom Petty is one I remember). Mother Tongue was very tight, powerful, and the originals were just that - original. Gary was very down to earth with a crippling handshake!"
In September 1995, Gary traveled to Italy to play in the Marechiaro Blues festival with the band Divae. They played The Boys In The Band and a Divae original, "The Return of the Gentle Giant" (Il ritorno del Gigante Gentile). The latter piece appears on Divae's debut album, Determinazione, but without Gary Green.
In 2005, Gary played guitar parts on the "Back Against The Wall" tribute album (released 2005), a project of Billy Sherwood's. (Trivia: Billy and Gary hooked up through Dan.) This is a prog recreation of the classic Pink Floyd album, with contributions from many of the 1970's Prog greats. He plays on a number of tracks, including "In The Flesh," "The Thin Ice," "Hey You," and "Waiting For The Worms."
(Thanks to Jeffrey Suhs, Jon Pomplin, Todd Borsch, and Alex Canduci.)
In 2009, a song written by Gary, titled "Just Another Day," will be released on Billy Sherwood's Circa: HQ Live DVD.
Currently Gary is a member of Three Friends.
Articles
- More Prog to the Rescue: Steve Hackett and Gary Green - from Perfect Sound Forever online music magazine