Born in 1972 and from Shepperton, Middx, Gary Willcox started playing the drums when he was 10 years old. Under his Father’s partial influence he quickly became immersed in the great jazz drummers Buddy Rich, Art Blakey, Max Roach and the jazz tradition. In the late 1980’s Gary started studies with Trevor Tomkins, a renowned drum teacher in the UK. These studies continued until the mid 1990’s. Concurrently, Gary studied orchestral percussion at the Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff, under the tutorship of Chris Stock, Principal Percussionist of the BBC National Orch. of Wales. During his time there he also had lessons with Pete Fairclough and Keith Tippett who introduced him to the wider world of Improvised Music. Since the Mid 90’s Gary has performed around the UK and Europe with Jim Mullen, Stan Sulzmann, Ian Shaw, Chris Batchelor, Iain Ballamy, Polly Gibbons, to name a few. ​