Andrew McGibbon

Andrew Paresi
Recording 'Not Today, Thank You' at the Cochrane Theatre, July 2007
Background information
Birth name	Andrew McGibbon
Born	1961 Chiswick
Instruments	Drums
Years active	1980–present
Associated acts	Morrissey, Bleed, Bucks Fizz

Andrew McGibbon (a.k.a. Andrew Paresi; born 1961 in Chiswick), is an English comedian, actor, writer, musician and composer. He has also produced and directed extensively, chiefly for radio.

The son of James, a prominent educationalist and child psychologist, McGibbon studied at St Edmund's Primary, Whitton and Salesian College. He learnt to play the drums, his chief instrument, during his time at Richmond Tertiary College. In 1980, despite serious thoughts about attending Berklee School of Music, he left college to forge a career as a working musician.

McGibbon initially associated himself closely with the London jazz scene, often rehearsing with Django Bates. However, he failed to make a significant impact, peaking with a performance alongside Lou Donaldson at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club on 22 March 1982.

The name Paresi was adopted around this time on the advice of his then girlfriend, who had found that it was an Italian medical term for embolism. "There was something appealing about naming myself after a heart attack", he remembers. "Some sort of post-punk bollocks, I guess, which meant a lot to me back in 1982".

His first big break came on 7 November 1984 with an appearance on Tyne Tees children's pop show Razzamatazz as the drummer in Jim Diamond's band. Given the success of his number one hit I Should Have Known Better, a subsequent appearance by Paresi on Top of the Pops was expected were it not for Diamond's regular drummer Simon Kirke rapidly returning to the fold.

Paresi soon built a reputation for his drum programming work, and working relationships with a number of record producers developed. David Motion secured Paresi's percussive abilities for Love in a World Gone Mad and I Used to Love the Radio, recorded during the sessions for Bucks Fizz's 1986 album Writing on the Wall. He also worked with Motion on One Way, an album by europopglam band Rok-Etz recently augmented by Sal Solo of Classix Nouveaux. That same year the drummer encountered Stephen Street, who mixed a single by A Pair of Blue Eyes, a short-lived CBS band to whom Paresi was assigned.