Al Gare
IMELDA MAY
PALOOKAVILLE
MIKE SANCHEZ BAND

The late 80's saw Al cut his bassin’ teeth with Sgt Bilko’s Crazy Combo, following which he spent the ‘90s touring the world, recording, and making TV and radio appearances with acclaimed rhythm and blues band, King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys. After performing with them on over 1,500 occasions and recording several studio and live albums, he finally called it a day and decided to go freelance in February 2001.

Al's travels have since taken him from the West Coast of the States to the northern tip of Russia, playing most major cities in Europe and headlining top festivals at home and abroad. Trips to America have included a university tour of New York state, Dan Ackroyd's House of Blues Club in Boston, The Brown Derby in Hollywood, shows in San Jose, San Francisco and Scottsdale, Arizona.

Frequent tours of central Europe have seen him playing hundreds of gigs at all the major venues and festivals, whilst back home Al has performed virtually everywhere in the British Isles. Highlights have been hometown gigs at the Symphony Hall, (support to BB King), The Alexandra Theatre (support act to the late Cab Calloway), the NEC main arena and the Royal Albert Hall in London, Ronnie Scott's clubs in London and Birmingham, plus regular appearances at top London venues such as the 100 Club, Mean Fiddler, the Dublin Castle and the Jazz Cafe.

Al is also the bass player with bands such as Palookaville, with their unique brand of trashy good-time rock ‘n’ roll instrumentals, along with The Giant Killers and Basehart. A brief stint with Internationally-known British blues band, The Nightporters was followed by Al finally settling into the wonderful Imelda May Band and the equally-brilliant long-time rockers outfit, the Mike Sanchez Band, led by the inimitable Mr Sanchez himself. More recently, Al’s been recording with highly-acclaimed Sheffield-based singer/guitarist Richard Hawley, Mike Sanchez of course and, as we’ve heard, he’s all over Imelda May’s best-selling new album, Love Tattoo, which saw Imelda and band being featured big style on the Jools Holland ‘Later’ TV show, which springboarded Imelda into the public spotlight.

"I love this reissue. This bass has a lot more clarity than other reissues that I've played, the two lipstick pickups have more depth, attack and aggression than even the original! The good people at Danelectro again haven't faultered on keeping to the original design either from the pickguard to the 63 pro/'coke bottle' style headstock. 'Rockin' out' to 'Tic-Tac', this is a great gigging guitar!" – Al Gare

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