Music Biography

Gerry Laffy (born 4 January 1960 in Hoxton, London) is a singer and guitarist who has played in the bands Girl, London Cowboys, Sheer Greed, John Taylor, and Ultravox among others. Girl are still cited as an influence by many major artists 40 years later, even though they disbanded after only three short years, allegedly due to their record company and mismanagement.
Gerry has released over 30 albums; he has played in venues as diverse as Wembley Arena, Taipei Hard Rock Cafe, the Reading Festival and the now infamous Girl three-night residency at the former Marquee Club in Wardour Street and just about every club on the infamous Sunset Strip. Girl were first discovered by promoter Jon Lindsay, a partner of the legendary manager of The Who, Kit Lambert. Lambert and Lindsay were seeking out bands to sign to Lambert's new record company during the fledgling Nu Romantics era. The band were first introduced to music publisher Simon Napier-Bell of Nomis but eventually signed a recording deal with Jet Records.
In 1978, Laffy was a founding member of the band Girl with Philip Lewis. The band recorded three albums and put out two (Sheer Greed 1980 and Wasted Youth 1982) they split up in December 1982. Killing Time was finally released in 1998, and three live albums and an anthology were released subsequently.
After Girl disintegrated, Laffy joined the London Cowboys, (with former members of The Idols, Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls), which released two albums (studio: Dance Crazy, and Live at the Milkweg in Amsterdam) in 1985.
In 1986 he played guitar on some demos of Duran Duran's 'Notorious' album when their guitarist Andy Taylor failed to appear.
The same year he was a stage guest with the Stray Cats gig at the Whisky A Go-Go in LA, a charity concert where Gerry was invited on stage with the Cats along with actor Bruce Willis (harmonica) Ian McLagan (keyboards for Small Faces, Faces, Rolling Stones) and Skunk Baxter (guitarist Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers) heady company indeed.
Gerry has been a stage guest with LA Guns at several London shows over the years alongside his old band mate Philip Lewis who heads up the US rockers.
In 1990, Laffy founded GL Records and released his debut solo album Money & the Magic. The song "Shoot 'Em Down" from this album was included on the European soundtrack to the film Highlander II: The Quickening.
In 1992 Gerry formed a band Sheer Greed with some of Girl's alumni, who put out two albums. In 1992 a studio album: 'Sublime to the Ridiculous' and 'Live in London' in 1993. The line up was Gerry on guitars & vocals, Simon Laffy on bass, Pete Barnacle on drums. A further guitarist Neil Gabbitas was added for the live recording and some live shows. The album's executive Producer was Phil Collen (Def Leppard). The track 'Everybody Wants' reunited Girl members for the first time since the band's demise. Recorded at Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott's house/studio in Dublin, engineered by the band's house engineer Pete Woodroffe, and LA where Philip Lewis (LA Guns) wrote and performed the middle 8 section. Writers on this one song were Laffy, Collen, Lewis and Tony Fennell (Ultravox, Enuzz Z Nuff). Gerry Laffy wrote all the other songs on this release.
In 1994 Gerry Laffy & Simon Laffy released an album called 'Lying with Angels' on which the brothers alternately write & take lead roles.
Also in 1994 Gerry made a guest guitar appearance and co-wrote a track on the Ultravox album 'Revelation' this was at the invitation of then singer Tony Fennell and sole original member Billy Currie.
From mid-1997 to December 2000, Laffy was lead guitarist in Terroristen, John Taylor's band while on a 3 year hiatus from Duran Duran. Terroristen recorded constantly and gigged all over the United States and Japan, also playing in Taiwan and Germany.
In 2001, he released a second solo album 'All Day Long'. Self performed, written and produced except 2 tracks with drummer Larry Aberman (Terroristen, Foreigner, Jimmy and Stevie Ray Vaughan) who also engineered the sessions for 'Never Know Much' and 'Heaven Lost'.
In 2005, Gerry was a guest vocalist with ex-Freddie Mercury guitarist (in Sour Milk Sea) Chris Chesney on his album Diabolical Liberties.
In 2007, a third solo album - 'The Icebox Studio Sessions' was released. Self-performed, written and produced. Engineered by Glenn Gillard.
In 2013, after a brush with death after contracting septicaemia Gerry dusted off his Fostex MR16 to record again for the first time since 2007. In the early spring, at home, he wrote, produced and performed all instruments on 'Just A Little Blurred' (with a guest Craig Bundy on bass on a reworking of the Girl classic 'My Number') this was released in March. After being hospitalised twice that year Laffy pulled through with such conviction that he even found room to make a second album in the same year. 'Wrecked but Not Crushed' was entirely made by Laffy alone, again at home. It was released in September 2013. Both released on GL Records.
In July 2016 Rock Candy Records re-released the first 2 Girl albums ‘Sheer Greed’ 1980 and ‘Wasted Youth’ 1982. These 2 albums entered the Japanese International import chart at No.7 & 8 respectively proving that even after 35 years and various friendship dissolved that this little band Girl (Spring 1979 - Dec 1982) still has a legacy intact.
2020: Another attempt to get the band to reform in 2020 by Cherry Red Records to coincide with the Girl catalogue box sets releases never happened. Although all band members are still on friendly terms and Philip, Phil, Gerry, Simon and Dave all agreed to do something the Covid-19 pandemic hit and scuppered any possible plans. That meant a 40th anniversary reunion in 2020 was not on the cards. Gerry said 'Steve Hammonds at Cherry Red asked us to play and film a few shows (Tokyo, London, and maybe New York). We all said yes, why not. To be honest with this one exception I have long felt a reunion is pointless anyhow, we were 20, we looked great, we played great, it was just right, just then. To try and rehash it 40 years later seems a bit redundant. As far as I'm concerned now this excuse to do a few shows has been kiboshed I very much doubt it will ever happen, much as I love those guys'.
In 2020 Girl launched a merchandise shop in collaboration with Noise merchandise.
2020: Gerry Laffy also launched G-SPOT a merchandise shop featuring his art on T shirts and limited edition prints. This was also a collaboration with Noise Merchandise also @ https://girlsheergreed.noisemerchants.com
In 2020 Cherry Red Records released two box sets of all available Girl material facilitated by Gerry Laffy.
All the material was remastered by renowned producer Andy Pearce.
Girl: Sheer Greed / Girl - Live in Osaka ’82, 2CD Edition with Poster then released shortly after was
Cherry Red also obtained the entire Gerry Laffy catalogue available 2020 for download and streaming.