Mel Gaynor

Mel Gaynor
File:Mel Gaynor Simple Minds.jpg
Background information
Born	(1960-05-29) 29 May 1960
Origin	Balham, London, England
Genres	New wave, rock, pop, heavy metal
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Drums, percussion, vocals
Years active	1982–present
Website	www.mel-gaynor.com

Mel George Gaynor (born 29 May 1959, Balham, London, England) is an English musician. He is best known as the longtime drummer for the rock band, Simple Minds. Gaynor was born to a Jamaican father and an Afro-Brazilian mother.

After leaving Samson, Gaynor joined Simple Minds in 1982 as a session drummer for the New Gold Dream album (as a recommendation by the record producer, Pete Walsh), playing on six of the nine tracks. He later joined the band permanently for the New Gold Dream tour, as a replacement for Mike Ogletree. Except for a period (1992-97) away from the band after the Real Life tour of 1991-92, he has been the band's drummer to the present day.

Gaynor began drumming at age 11 and had his first professional engagement at age 14.

In addition to drumming, he is active as a songwriter and a record producer. Currently, he has also been working on a side project as part of a duo (along with Stephane Deriau-reine) called The Fusion Project. The Fusion Project's first album was released in April 2006 and is described as "a mix between progressive rock and jazz-fusion."

Gaynor considers The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra to be his main influences.

In addition to Simple Minds, he has played alongside other acts such as: Sir Elton John, Lou Reed, Tina Turner, Meat Loaf, Samson, Mango, The Associates, Orange Juice, Peter Gabriel, The Pretenders, Prljavo kazalište, Gary Moore, Jackson Browne, Little Steven, Brian May, The Nolans, Goldie, Robert Palmer and Joan Armatrading.

In 2007 Gaynor has kicked off his solo project with a version of play that funky music and is currently working on his new solo album in Germany due for release end of 2015.

Mel was also a member of Birmingham-based 'Muscles', a funk-oriented covers band that had minor chart success with "If it Relaxes Your Mind" and "I'm a Girlwatcher."

Gaynor has played a variety of drum sets over the years, including Yamaha and currently Dixon drums. He also uses Promark sticks He has played a variety of cymbals as well, including at first Zildjian during the first years of Simple Minds, but then switched to Paiste in the early 1980s, which he played for the much of the duration of his career. He has also endorsed Anatolian and UFIP cymbals as well, but in 2011, Paiste announced him as an official endorser again, and has remained so to this day. His current list of equipment is as follows.

Dixon drums.

24" BD 10" 12" 13" Rack toms

14" and 16" Floor toms

20" gong Tom

14x6.5 Signature Snare in Zebra wood finish

Paiste Twenty series cymbals

Promark 707L Signature sticks

Remo heads

External links

• Official website