Gerry Cott (born 15 October 1954, in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

) is an Irish

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

, who was a co-founder of the Irish new wave

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary * Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, ...

The Boomtown Rats The Boomtown Rats are an Irish rock/ new wave band originally formed in Dublin in 1975. Between 1977 and 1985, they had a series of Irish and UK hits including " Like Clockwork", " Rat Trap", " I Don't Like Mondays" and " Banana Republic". T ...

. He started playing

flamenco guitar A flamenco guitar is a guitar similar to a classical guitar, but with lower action, thinner tops and less internal bracing. It usually has nylon strings, like the classical guitar, but it generally possesses a livelier, grittier sound compared ...

when he was 11 years old. In 1966 he saw

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

performing live in

and the experience influenced him radically. Cott left

in 1982, prior to the recording of the band's fifth album ''

V Deep ''V Deep'' is the Boomtown Rats's fifth album, and the first to be released as a five-piece band, following the departure of guitarist Gerry Cott. It includes the minor hit single "House on Fire". Name The name of the album is pronounced "five ...

''. In 1984 he released the five-song album ''I Left My Hat in Haiti'' that included the single "Alphabet Town". "Alphabet Town" hit the Canadian charts, peaking at #90 during a 9-week run near the end of 1984. As of 2008, Cott was working as an animal trainer and animal action supervisor in films and television with his company A-Z Animals. He was also, reportedly, writing a book. In 2010, Cott released a solo acoustic guitar album ''Urban Soundscapes''''Urban Soundscapes'', Amazon Track Listing
/ref> On 20 September 2011, Cott performed live on stage with

Bob Geldof Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (; born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer-songwriter and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead singer of the Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved popularity as part ...

at the Cadogan Hall in Sloane Square, London for the last three songs of the set. According to Geldof, it was the first time the two had been on the stage together in over 30 years.

References

External links

A-Z AnimalsGerry Cott - Solo Guitarist
1954 births Irish male guitarists Living people Musicians from Dublin (city) The Boomtown Rats members Irish new wave musicians 20th-century Irish guitarists 21st-century Irish pianists {{guitarist-stub