The Gary Boyle Biography
How I resumed a long-term project after a massive hiatus
Several years ago, I began working on the biography of Gary Boyle, a British jazz guitarist. I was certain that I would complete the project in my spare time, and it would take me a couple of years or so. It didn’t quite work out that way…
About Gary
So that this makes sense, I had better tell you a little bit about the subject of the biography. This will be a potted history — I will be writing far more about his life in the book!
Born in Patna, India, in 1941, Gary Boyle emigrated to the UK with his family as a child, in 1949, eventually settling in south-east London. After finishing school and getting a job, he turned professional and worked the clubs in Hamburg when The Beatles were playing there; backed Millie Small and Lulu; and then, in 1965, joined The Echoes, Dusty Springfield’s backing band.
In 1966, he joined The Brian Auger Trinity. Late in that year, a certain American guitarist by the name of Jimi Hendrix came to England, and made a quick breakthrough on the London scene. Gary lent Hendrix his Stratocaster for jam sessions several times.
After leaving to spend two years at music college in Leeds, Gary returned to London and rejoined Brian Auger, cutting “BEFOUR” with the Trinity in 1970. He then went into studio session work, before forming jazz-rock group ISOTOPE in 1973.
After three albums and some line-up changes, Isotope disbanded in 1976 and Gary began a solo career, recording several more albums, performing regularly, and teaching music at colleges in the North of England.
The biography project
Initially, back in 2014 - 15, I had a really enjoyable and busy time interviewing Gary and other musicians from Isotope. I was also carrying out a lot of research on the internet, and engaging in email correspondence with other key figures from Gary’s musical life. As a freelance copywriter at the time, living in London, so I had a lot of flexibility.
A few years into the project, though — with bits of drafting done and various threads tying neatly together — I had what I now know to be the first of several burnouts.
These were autistic burnouts — not that I knew this at the time!
I have since attempted several times to resume and sustain work on the project to get the draft completed and tie up any loose ends in the process. In 2020, I thought I would be able to do this over the summer, but I had just finished my PGCE and had to do a lot of planning for the forthcoming school year…oh yes, and there was a pandemic raging!
Several more attempts at sustained work on this project fizzled out amid my first year of teaching…and then, having suspended my induction period because I burned out once again (massively, this time), I realized I was autistic. I asked my GP to refer me for assessment. In March of this year, I received my diagnosis. At last, everything in my life made sense.
A month later, I turned 42. I also started to regain some energy. I began the final term of my probationary year as a teacher. In mid-July, I passed!
At the present moment
As a teacher, I am off school at the moment for the school holidays. I am also with a supply agency, so I do not need to work on planning or anything else. I have the whole of August free, and I am going to use that time wisely to work on this project with the aim of finishing it.
However, I am going to need a bit longer than four weeks, I think, to produce a top-flight biography for a top-flight musician. My influences are people such as Peter Pettinger, Walter Kolosky, Ian Carr, Colin Harper, Ed Chang, and Ted Gioia — who, incidentally, prolifically writes a brilliant Substack blog, The Honest Broker. I admire these writers for their style and their passion for the arts and the subjects of their biographical works. I want to produce a piece of work that will stand alongside theirs.
That’s why I’m asking for your help. This is the first time I’ve ever done this, too.
I am asking you to donate to this project to enable me to continue working on it until its completion.
The more donations I receive, the less supply teaching and tutoring I will need to do to pay the bills.
Any donations I receive will not only help me to finish the book, but will also allow me to write about the process of writing it, and even expand my scope to cover some tangential stuff about music, and 1960s and 1970s London. This kind of writing on here will enrich the book, and further contribute to the already considerable body of work on social history that exists about the Swinging Sixties and the turbulent 1970s.
Writing this book about such a respected and brilliant musician, whom I am privileged to know, is not only immensely important to me on a personal level, but also equally important to the world of British jazz — in fact, the whole history of music.
I have a Buy Me a Coffee page, which can be accessed by going back to the third word in this sentence and clicking on the hyperlink. I would be most grateful if you would visit the page and donate whatever you can — and only if you can.
Thank you so much.