Gary Twinn (born 7 December 1956 in

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancient ...

, London, England) is an English singer-songwriter, musician, TV host and editorial writer, currently fronting punk rock supergroup The International Swingers, which also features

Clem Burke Clement Burke (born Clement Anthony Bozewski; November 24, 1954) is an American musician who is best known as the drummer for the band Blondie from 1975, shortly after the band formed, throughout the band's entire career. He also played drums f ...

Glen Matlock Glen Matlock (born 27 August 1956) is an English musician, best known for being the bass guitarist in the original line-up of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. He is credited as a songwriter on 10 of the 12 songs on the Sex Pistols' only albu ...

and James Stevenson.

Supernaut

Twinn's family emigrated to Australia in 1969, where (while attending

Rossmoyne Senior High School Rossmoyne Senior High School is a public co-educational high day school in the City of Melville, located on Keith Road, Bull Creek, a southern riverside suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Founded in 1968, the school provides education for ap ...

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

) he formed the glam/punk band Supernaut, with fellow Brit-immigrant students Chris and Joe Burnham. Influenced by T. Rex,

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

The New York Dolls New York Dolls were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1971. Along with the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, they were one of the first bands of the early punk rock scenes. Although the band never achieved much commercial succ ...

and Iggy Pop, they quickly gained popularity and notoriety for their wild stage antics, clothes and controversial lyrics. When asked his impressions of Australia during a

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tour Paul McCartney mentioned Supernaut and the media immediately took note. The group's first single "I Like It Both Ways" was banned by radio and soared to the no. 1 chart position, thanks to TV performances on

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

and

Bandstand A bandstand (sometimes music kiosk) is a circular, semicircular or polygonal structure set in a park, garden, pier, or indoor space, designed to accommodate musical bands performing concerts. A simple construction, it both creates an orname ...

, forcing radio to reverse its position. Other hits followed, a gold album and a second, critically acclaimed but commercially poor, LP that more closely resembled the band's original style.

Twenty Flight Rockers

In 1980, Twinn had already decided to relocate back to London, where he formed

Twenty Flight Rockers Twenty Flight Rockers were a late 1980s English rock music band, founded by the singer Gary Twinn, drummer Mark Laff, and the bassist Steve Counsel. Career The band was formed in London in 1983 by Gary Twinn, former singer/frontman of the Austr ...

with ex-

Generation X Generation X (or Gen X for short) is the Western demographic cohort following the baby boomers and preceding the millennials. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1960s as starting birth years and the late 1970s to early 1980s a ...

drummer

Mark Laff Mark Laff (born Mark Red Laffoley; 19 May 1958) is a retired English drummer and former member of several rock bands, including Generation X. Early life and career Mark Red Laffoley was born on 19 May 1958 at Barnet General Hospital, at Chip ...

, joined by guitarist Ian McKean and Jeff Vine on bass. Drawing influences from

Eddie Cochran Ray Edward Cochran (; October 3, 1938 – April 17, 1960) was an American rock and roll musician. Cochran's songs, such as " Twenty Flight Rock", "Summertime Blues", " C'mon Everybody" and " Somethin' Else", captured teenage frustration and desir ...

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

Gene Vincent Vincent Eugene Craddock (February 11, 1935 – October 12, 1971), known as Gene Vincent, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rockabilly and rock and roll. His 1956 top ten hit with his backing band the Blue Caps, " Be-Bop-a-Lula ...

and Johnny Kidd, the new band adopted a black biker leather clad look and a focus on pure roll 'n' roll blended with a punk rock attitude. The group toured clubs in London, and were subsequently invited to play the BBC's

Janice Long Janice Berry ( Chegwin; 5 April 1955 – 25 December 2021), known professionally by her first married name Janice Long, was an English broadcaster who was best known for her work in British music radio. In a career that spanned five decades, ...

show. In 1985, Twenty Flight Rockers released the single "Tower Block Rock" (ranked No. 31 for Best Single on

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Magazine) with ABC Records, and in 1986 the single "Johnny 7" with

WEA Records Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and th ...

. Subsequently,

Bernie Rhodes Bernard Rhodes is a designer, band manager, studio owner, record producer and songwriter who was integral to the development of the punk rock scene in the United Kingdom from the middle 1970s. He is most associated with two of the UK's best kn ...

(the former manager of

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) was hired to manage them. He decided for the band to sign with Epic Records, and he had McKean replaced by The Rockats guitarist Danny B. Harvey. Twenty Flight Rockers recorded a series of sessions (compiled by Twinn and Harvey) as well as an entire studio album entitled ''Ride''. "Black Leather Jacket" was released as a single promo, with the album due to follow in mid 1988. However, Epic was bought out by

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

, who then dropped the band from the label. Disappointed by political mismanagement from record companies, Twenty Flight Rockers broke up. After the demise of Twenty Flight Rockers, Bernard Rhodes suggested that Gary record with ex- Sex Pistols bassist

and guitarist Steve New under the moniker Rhode-Twinn. In 1990, a single, "Bike Boy", was released on Rhodes' own Sacred record label. Twinn and Matlock stayed in touch and began writing and recording with The Damned drummer

Rat Scabies Christopher John Millar (born 30 July 1955), known by his stage name Rat Scabies, is a musician best known as the drummer for English punk rock band the Damned. Career Millar was born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. He played drums with Tor ...

and

guitarist Bob "Derwood" Andrews in 1996. Andrews named the band Dead Horse and a US tour was arranged. However, almost immediately Glen rejoined the Sex Pistols, and the group was disbanded.

The Honeydippers

Twinn reunited with guitarist Danny B. Harvey, forming a

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western musical styles such as country with that of rhythm and blu ...

duo named The Honeydippers (with

joining on drums and John Carlucci on stand up bass). The duo recorded some sessions (''Honeydipper Stomp'') as well as standard studio album called ''Big E Boogie''. The LPs were then followed by the 1997 Christmas album ''12 Days of Christmas''. Their song, "Rock, Santa, Rock", was featured in the 2001 film ''I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus''.

Speedtwinn

In 1998, Twinn teamed with Derwood and formed an alternative country band, Speedtwinn, along with Mario Barmosca and Dale S. Daniel. With a range of influences from T. Rex to Johnny Cash, Speedtwinn played a blend of American roots and

British rock and roll British rock and roll, or sometimes British rock 'n' roll, is a style of popular music based on American rock and roll, which emerged in the late 1950s and was popular until the arrival of beat music in 1962. It was important in establishing Brit ...

. Gary Twinn and Bob "Derwood" Andrews wrote and recorded the self-produced album ''California''.

The International Swingers

The band Supernaut reformed in 2007 for a successful Australian

tour. When approached in 2011 to repeat this, Twinn instead opted to invite his close pals Clem Burke, James Stevenson and Glen Matlock to form a band with the sole intention of playing Australian dates. Naming themselves The International Swingers the group played a Los Angeles warm up show in November 2011 and flew directly to Australia for shows in Melbourne, Geelong, Sydney and Adelaide. During rehearsals and the Australian tour they got along well and The International Swingers continued. In 2012 – 2014 the band performed tours in California and in 2013 a sold out show in London. Initially they played a set of the greatest hits of all the bands they've been in, but soon they began writing new songs for The International Swingers, like "FBI" (included in the soundtrack of the film Homefront), Via

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, the band raised the money to record their first full-length self-titled album, ''The International Swingers'' (originally under the working title ''Whatever Works Now''). The album was recorded at Studio 606 in LA which is owned by the Foo Fighters. It was then mixed by Peter Walsh who has worked with Simple Minds,

Pulp Pulp may refer to: * Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit Engineering * Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture * Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper * Molded pulp, a packaging material ...

and most recently Scott Walker.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Twinn, Gary 1956 births Living people English punk rock guitarists English punk rock singers People from West Ham English male singer-songwriters People educated at Rossmoyne Senior High School The International Swingers members