Band of friends was formed by Gerry McAvoy in 2012. The original line-up consisted of Gerry on Bass guitar & vocals, Ted McKenna on drums & Marcel Scherpenzeel on guitar & vocals. From 2012 this line-up played all over Europe, with increasing success. They recorded 3 CD’s “Too much is not enough” (2014) “Live n Kickin” (2016) “Repeat after me” (2017) In 2018 Gerry took Band of friends to the USA. With Ted McKenna on drums and introducing Guitar wizard Davy Knowles to front the band. They released a CD “Band of friends over America” in 2018 Through 2018 the band toured the USA twice, to great success. Sadly Ted McKenna passed away in January 2019. In March 2019 the band returned to the US with Gerry, Davy and Mike Hansen on drums. Then November 2019 Gerry brought Brendan Oneill ( Rory Gallagher 1981-1991) on board for yet another US tour. The band were due to tour again March 2020, but sadly the world went into lockdown because of a global pandemic. Now that things are getting back to normal, we look forward to touring the USA again. Gerry McAvoy played with Rory Gallagher from 1971 to 1991, playing on every Rory recording. Gerry also wrote his biography “Riding Shotgun” which was published in 2015. Brendan Oneill played with Rory Gallagher from 1981 to 1991. Brendan also wrote his biography (Meet Mr Sticks) published on 2020 Davy Knowles hails from the Isle of Man, a small island in the Irish sea between England and Ireland. Davy grew up listening to Rory Gallagher and found his playing extremely inspirational. He brought his band, Back door slam to the USA in 2007 to play at the SXSW festival in Texas. Sadly the band split up in 2009. Davy decided to stay in the USA, where he resides to this day.
