The Geckos are a British Band, based in Menorca, featuring Hugh Grundy, the original drummer of The Zombies, Mick Connor on guitar and Simon Holland on bass. IN 2023, after 8 years, they considered calling it a day, but soon missed playing together and they are now back performing live in Menorca. Hugh continues to make guest appearances with The Zombies’ current touring band. When we met, he had just returned from a concert at The Barbican with guest performer, and huge Zombies fan, Paul Weller.
How did the Geckos get together?
The band started out as The Flaming Geckos, founded by Jason McMurray who had a recording studio in Menorca. There have been other band members over the years: Yvonne Keller, Richard Velarde and Richard Guyatt, who we describe as our ‘best ever frontman’. Everyone referred to us as The Geckos and so that is what we became. Now there are three of us, and we like to say we are friends first and a band second.
Mick: I was the first one to arrive in Menorca in 1999. Alison and I bought an apartment at Vista Golf Son Parc, before moving to a villa and then to Es Mercadal. I am a joiner by trade and ran a management company here, but I brought my guitar with me, having played in bands in the UK. I met Jason McMurray and started to play in Son Parc Amateur Musicians, known as SPAM.
Hugh: I moved to Menorca to retire, and we have been living in Na Macaret for 16 years. My wife Tracy is the sister of Roy Sturgeon, whose family has a long connection with the island, and I fell in love with the place. I sold my drums when we left the UK, but I kept my snares, cymbals, and sticks. (Hugh’s snare drum from the Zombies is in the Hall of Fame in Cleveland.) I met Mick in the Taj Indian restaurant, in Addaia, where we got talking about bands and of course Mick told Jason, and I was invited to play the drums with SPAM. We then met Simon in Los Pablos, who was also a guitarist, but we persuaded him to join us as a Bass player.
Simon: I moved to Menorca with my wife Kim, our daughter Isabela, son Zak, and Kim’s mother, Avril, who had recently lost her husband. Our youngest son Austin was born here. I worked in construction in the UK, and here in Menorca I have a plastering and construction company, Concept Menorca Services, and we also offer bespoke villa management.
The Geckos at Alexancas Tapas Bar
Tell me about the songs The Geckos have recorded in Menorca
SIMON: We started out playing other people’s music and it was Hugh that suggested we write our own songs. The three of us, along with Jason and Richard Guyatt, wrote and recorded two songs in Jason’s studio. The first we named “I’d do it all Again” with Hugh in mind but if you listen to the song there is a bit about everyone in there. The second song is called “Rockstar” as we wrote it at the time the music industry had lost some big names, one after another, such as David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Prince, Leonard Cohen and George Michael.
You have recently appeared in a Zombies documentary. Can you tell us more?
Hugh: It is a big budget documentary, made by Tom Hanks’ production company and directed by Robert Schwartzman, called “Hung Up on a Dream: The Zombies Documentary”. It tells the story of the band from when we met as teenagers up to the present day. They filmed in many locations, including Abbey Road, and they came here to Menorca as they wanted to see what I am doing now. We shot a scene on Santo Tomás beach with a beautiful sunset. It is already out in the USA, and it should be released very soon in UK and Europe.
The Geckos on Santo Tomas beach
The Zombies were huge in the USA, some say bigger than the Beatles. Tell me about how your music took off and why it remains popular today.
Hugh: Yes, we were really big in the USA; we were known as an ‘Invasion Band’ and our music had a west coast influence. We were big fans of the Beach Boys. We had our first hit in 1964 with “She’s Not There” which reached Number 12 in the UK, but in the US it climbed to No 2, and sold over a million copies, earning us a Gold Disc.
In 1968, we launched our new Odessey and Oracle album, which we recorded at Abbey Road Studio. The album did nothing for a year, and we went back to our normal lives, thinking that our days as rock stars were over. However,
“Time of the Season” written by Rod Argent, suddenly became a surprise hit in the USA after a DJ in Boise, Idaho, started to play the song. Word spread from state to state and it climbed to No 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No 1
on the Cashbox chart.
Tracy and Hugh Grundy with Paul Weller at The Barbican
This year The Zombies celebrated ‘60 years on Tape’ and they are doing a UK wide summer tour. Last week they played at The Barbican where I joined them on stage. I was delighted to meet Paul Weller and we also had Irwin Sparkes from the Hoosiers and Sarah Brown who was discovered singing in a Gospel Choir. I didn’t expect Paul Weller to be so excited to meet me, but he has said that our album Odessey and Oracle is probably his all-time favourite record.
I have had the same agent, Rocks Management, for many years, and they have done a brilliant job looking after my career. In 2019, we were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and I had to make a speech live in front of stars such as Stevie Nicks and Barbra Streisand. By the end, I was crying my eyes out.
Our songs continue to be used in films and on TV, for example in Kill Bill 2, 101 Dalmatians, and The Awakenings. In an episode of Friends, Jennifer Aniston leans on a jukebox during a flashback and ‘Time of the Season’ starts to play. More recently, it has been used for the trailer of The Gentlemen.
How can people get to see you perform in Menorca?
We play at Alexancas Tapas Bar, in Son Parc, and at other venues around Menorca. We call ourselves an acoustic trio. We are happy to do other events on request, but our days of regular gigs are over, mostly due to the effort required to carry around our equipment!
You can find details of The Geckos gigs on their Facebook page www.facebook.com/thegeckos, but be sure to book as there was a packed house at their last performance.
