GARY DWYER – DRUMMER AND LOVELY HUMAN BEING RIP

Kev McManus pays a small tribute to Gary Dwyer who passed away earlier this week  and then link it to the Eric’s piece.  

Really sorry to hear the sad news about the passing of Gary Dwyer who died after a long battle with illness.

I first saw Gary as a 15 year old music obsessive and he was this big fella behind the drums for one of my favourite bands of the time, The Teardrop Explodes. This was at the legendary Eric’s club, a place that shaped my life.  Some of my favourite memories of those days were seeing local bands Echo and The Bunnymen  (when they still had the drum machine) and Teardrop Explodes play in that sweaty basement. To my 15 year old self the lads in those bands were mysterious people who were somehow making magical music but who you would then see just hanging around. It only takes  me a to hear a few bars of  a tune like the Teardrop’s debut  Sleeping Gas and the memories come flooding back

Many years later I got to  know Gary a little and hang out a few times. He  was a lovely, funny, gentle man. There’s loads of great stories about Gary in what are now  lots of books about Liverpool music from that period  and no one ever has a bad word to say about Gary.

Gary was  definitely one of the good guys and I felt privileged to have got to know him.

He will be much missed.

Read more about how Teardrop Explodes and other Liverpool bands

Kev McManus