Kerry Minnear
Kerry Churchill Minnear is a classically trained multi-instrumentalist who played in the progressive rock band Gentle Giant during the 1970s.
Minnear received a classical music education at the Royal Academy of Music, with a degree in composition.
Contributing to the band's success as one of the composers and arrangers, Kerry, unlike most of the keyboardists of his time, chose to create natural sounds from his keyboards. Like the other members of Gentle Giant, he is quite adept on a number of instruments including the cello, drums, guitar, bass, idiophones, recorder, vibraphone, theremin, and timpani.
Minnear also composed the soundtrack to the 1996 video game Azrael's Tear, along with bandmate Ray Shulman.
He now lives in Solihull with his wife Lesley and has three children, Sally, Sam and Susie. Still part of the Gentle Giant franchise, he also composes for film and television.
In the years since the disbanding of Gentle Giant, Minnear has been a member of The Reapers during the 1980s. He has also been a teacher and, being a Christian, a church musician He and his wife Lesley own Alucard Music, which releases Gentle Giant CDs and DVDs.
His son Sam Minnear is a founding member of alternative pop band Misty's Big Adventure.
