Gerry Conway was born in King's Lynn, Norfolk, England on the 11th September 1947. He attended secondary school in London where he played drums in various school bands and was offered a place in the Chico Arnez Orchestra, but his parents wouldn't allow him to take up the job. He was thirteen at the time.



Leaving school at sixteen, he went to work at EMI Records before joining one of their signed bands playing Carribean Music. He later worked for about a year with the legendary father of British Blues, Alexis Korner in 1964. In 1968 he joined with Trevor Lucas in Eclection, a folk/rock band and worked with Sandy Denny of Fairport Convention fame in the band Fotheringay.



The rhythm section of Fotheringay was hired by Cat Stevens, and Gerry went on to be "Steve's" regular drummer from the "Teaser and the Firecat" album, until the official and regrettably permanent retirement of Cat Stevens in 1975.



After working for a couple of years in the USA in a new but unsuccessful band with Gerry Donahue, he went to renew old acquaintances backstage at a Tull gig in LA, and within a few weeks was to fly to the UK to work on a new Tull album, "Broadsword" which was released in 1982. Gerry toured with the band in that year and has subsequently played on Tull tracks from time to time, notably on the "Crest of a Knave" album in 1987 and the single, "Part of the Machine" in 1988. He most recently worked on the title track of the 1999 Ian Anderson solo record "The Secret Language of Birds" and also performed on Martin Barre's solo work "The Meeting."



Since leaving Tull in 1982, he has also worked, amongst many others, with Richard Thomson, The McGarrigle sisters, John Martyn and Pentangle; usually on a regular basis, since most acts would agree that that special something which Gerry brings to the party requires to be heard and enjoyed again and again. In 1987 he wokred with Jethro Tull once again.



Gerry Conway now has taken up the drum stool vacated in the Fairport Convention lineup by Dave Mattacks and seems set to tour with them for sometime to come.



Gerry smokes like a chimney, used to drink like a fish and, happily, still plays drums like……well……Gerry Conway. In an interview on Innerviews.org (2002) Conway reveils:

"Over the last few years, I started developing the percussion side of things. I started collecting a lot of ethnic drums and anything that was unusual. I tried to use those to best effect. When you're playing percussion, you're not thinking about a kit in particular. In my case, I'm thinking about my favorite percussionists and how they might approach something. I go through all those angles because with percussion, you don't feel like you're actually stating time so much. That means you can embellish and fill. It's a freeing thing because the rhythm is there and you can play fills in the strangest places, unlike a kit where a fill will happen in a more straightforward way. If I'm playing an ethnic drum across something, I can be quite free and it's a great feeling to layer things. I'm very pleased I ventured into this side of things."