Gerry Hale

Gerry Hale
Birth name	Gerald Richard Hale
Born	1959 Newmarket, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Genres	Bluegrass
Occupation(s)	Musician, producer, actor, comedian
Instruments	Violin, mandolin
Years active	1975–present
Associated acts	Telephone Bill and the Smooth Operators, High and Lonesome, Bouncing Czecks, Rank Strangers, Uncle Bill, Innocent Bystanders

Gerald Richard "Gerry" Hale (born 1959, Newmarket, Suffolk) is an English-born, Australian-based multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. He has worked as a session musician for the Soft Boys (1978–80) and was a band member of Bouncing Czecks (fl. 1984) before relocating to Australia in 1987. He has provided violin and mandolin for Colin Hay Band (1988–90, 1994, 1998) and Broderick Smith Band (1990, 1994, 1996). Hale formed a bluegrass group, Uncle Bill, in 1996 which has had a variable line up. The group worked with Paul Kelly and together they released an album, Smoke (October 1999), which peaked at No. 36 on the ARIA Albums Chart. On that album, Hale provided guitar, mandolin, fiddle, dobro, lap steel, vocals and he co-produced it with Kelly.

Gerry Hale grew up in Newmarket, Suffolk and started playing music at the age of twelve, he turned professional at fifteen, spending three years touring rural England. He performed with American bluegrass pioneer, Bill Monroe, in 1975, at age sixteen. Hale worked in Cambridge from the mid-1970s, where he was a founding member of Telephone Bill and the Smooth Operators in 1975 on mandolin, fiddle and guitar, with Robb Appleton on harmonica, Anne Baker on percussion, Nick Barraclough on guitar and Chris Cox on double bass. Their first gig, in October, was at Mumford Theatre, Cambridge. He left the group after they had issued their first two albums, Pretty Slick, Huh? (1979) and Lounge Music (1980).

Hale was also a member of High and Lonesome. He was a session musician, providing violin, for Cambridge band, the Soft Boys, on their first two albums, A Can of Bees (1979) and Underwater Moonlight (June 1980).

In 1982 the Bouncing Czecks were formed in London as a cabaret, comedy group by Brian Bowles on lead guitar and Ricky Piper on lead vocals. They were joined, in 1984, by Hale on fiddle, Richard Lee on double bass (also ex-Telephone Bill and the Smooth Operators), and Australian-born Warren Wills on piano. The ensemble performed at the 1985 Edinburgh Festival and then toured Australia in October. Hale relocated to Melbourne. In October 1987 he competed at the second annual Tulip Time Bluegrass festival in Mittagong, where he won first prize in fiddle and in mandolin. One of the judges, Tim O'Brien (of US bluegrass group, Hot Rize) opined, "The musicians here seem to be developing real fast. There are a few really good players, and some that are coming along."

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