Garry Bushell

A fireman’s son from Woolwich, south east London, Garry did his journalist training under Paul Foot on the Socialist Worker before joining the rock press in 1978.

He wrote for rock weekly Sounds where he was the first to write about such legendary bands as the Specials, U2, Bad Manners, Secret Affair and Twisted Sister.

He wrote Iron Maiden’s authorised biography Running Free and co-wrote Ozzy Osbourne’s first authorised biography, Diary Of A Madman.

Garry managed East End punk band the Cockney Rejects, landing them a four album deal with EMI, and shock rock combo The Blood.

He fronted (and still fronts) his own band, and notched up a Number One single with the all-star charity record Let It Be – a project he conceived and organised.

Garry’s Bushell On The Box TV column has appeared in The Sun, The Daily Star and The People. It currently runs every week in the Daily Star Sunday.

His own TV show, of the same name, ran for two series on ITV, attracting more than one million viewers at midnight and attaining an audience share high of 68per cent.

He has appeared on more than 2,000 TV and radio shows, including some of television’s biggest prime time hits.

Garry is an outspoken broadcaster who has written novels, appeared in movies and featured prominently in the acclaimed documentary films East End Babylon, Casuals and Rough Cut & Ready Dubbed.

He has worked with and befriended legends of British comedy, including Benny Hill, Bob Monkhouse, Bradley Walsh and Joe Pasquale.

Harry Hill has said his TV Burp was inspired by Garry’s column; guests on Bushell’s TV series included Lilly Savage, Vic & Bob, Craig Charles, Melvyn Bragg, Barbara Windsor, Lenny McLean and Penn & Teller.

Garry is a Charlton Athletic FC fan. He has been happily married to his second wife, Tania AKA country singer and DJ Leah McCaffrey, for 19years and has five children ranging from 17 to 41.

Television (as self)

Garry has appeared on more than 2,000 shows including Noel’s House Party (17 appearances), The Generation Game (seven appearances),  You Bet (six appearances), Celebrity Squares (five appearances), Drop The Celebrity, I’m Famous & Frightened, An Audience with Freddie Starr, the Big Big Talent Show (resident judge for the entire second series), GMTV (resident TV critic), The Big Breakfast (resident TV pundit 2001-2002), Through The Keyhole (twelve appearances), Children In Need (celebrity hypnosis sketch), The One Show (four appearances), It Was All Right In The 70s (three series), Newsnight, Barrymore, the Southbank Show, The Mrs. Merton Show, The Weakest Link Celebrity Special (twice), The Harry Hill Show, This Morning, TVam, Des O’Connor Tonight, Today with Des & Mel, Celebrity Poker, Sky Poker, Showbiz Blackjack, The Wogan Show, Do The Right Thing, Hit The Road, Celebrity 15 – 1, Britain’s Best Celebrity Dish, The One Show (four appearances), Loose Women (four appearances), Pets Win Prizes, Public Opinion, Stupid Punts, Saturday Night, and Nuts TV (resident pundit for six months, 2007).

Presenting: Bushell On The Box (host and writer, ITV, fifty consecutive shows), The National Alf (host and co-writer, Channel 4 documentary), Gagging For It (host and writer, ITV stand-up broadcast pilot), Garry Bushell Reveals All (quiz show host and writer, Granada M&M; four series), Sky TV talent show pilot (1996, host and writer).

In 2018, he filmed a TV pilot in Las Vegas called The Late Late Late Show with Garry Bushell.

Television (Acting)

Operation Good Guys (playing himself)

Generation Game (Sherriff of Nottingham)

Bushell On The Box (numerous parts)

Hale & Pace (Viking marauder)

Hypnotic World of Paul McKenna (randy milkman)

Journalism

Bushell On The Box began in 1987 and has appeared in The Sun, The Daily Star, The People and The Daily Star Sunday.

Walk Tall With Bushell, ran in the Star from 1991-2;  a similar current affairs column ran in The Sun throughout 1994.

He has worked full-time at the Daily Express since November 2018 as arts and entertainment writer and currently edits the Review section of the Sunday Express.

Garry joined the staff of the UK rock weekly Sounds in 1978, and started shifting on Fleet Street in 1985 (Sun, Daily Mirror, London Evening Standard). His writing has also appeared in Kerrang, the Independent, Vive Le Rock, Auto Express, Classic Rock, Iron Fist, Big Cheese, Temporary Hoarding, Street Sounds (launch editor and contributor) and the Modern Review.

Testimonials

Bob Monkhouse called Garry “a terrific writer, the sharpest and most knowledgeable TV critic in Britain” adding “I am proud to call him my friend.”

Richard Littlejohn describes him as “the best one-liner merchant in Fleet Street.”

Barbara Windsor dubbed him “the sharpest TV critic in the business.”

Roy Hudd called him “the Max Miller of Fleet Street.”

Former Sun editor Stuart Higgins said: “Garry is untouched and unbeatable.”

Former People editor Neil Wallis: “Brilliantly funny, our greatest ever TV writer.”

Howard Stern: “Garry Bushell is my ambassador in England.”

Radio

Second City radio (as host since 2017); Rancid Sounds, Sounds of  Glory and Highway To Hell.

Radio Litopia (as host); The Garry Bushell Talk Show – http://litopia.com/shows/the-garry-bushell-show/ and The Hungry & The Hunted – http://litopia.com/shows/hungry/ (2014 – 2016)

Total Rock (as DJ, 2002 – 2012); Rancid Sounds.

Bloodstock Radio (as DJ, 2013); Rancid Sounds.

TalkSport (as host, 2006)

Virgin Radio (as resident pundit, the Russ & Jonno Show, 1994)

Capital Gold stand-in breakfast host (2002). Numerous other radio appearances, including the Jonathan Ross Show, Steve Wright In The Afternoon, Radio One Breakfast Show, Chris Evans Drivetime, Nick Ferrari’s LBC show, the Danny Baker Show, Sounds Of The 70s with Johnnie Walker etc

Selective Bibliography

Includes the Harry Tyler pulp fiction crime trilogy (The Face, Two-Faced, Facedown), The World According To Garry Bushell, Bushell On The Rampage, Hoolies and Running Free – the authorised biography of Iron Maiden.

More recently he has published:

All Or Nothing, book one of a gangster saga set in 1960s London (September, 2019)

Hell Bent, comic fantasy novel (published October 2019)

Dance Craze: Rude Boys On The Road (the 2-Tone story, republished in 40th anniversary edition Oct 31st, 2019)

Time For Action (on New Mod, republished in 40th anniversary edition Oct 31st, 2019)

Sounds of Glory Vol 1 and 2 (2016, memories from his time on the road with everyone from the Specials to Ozzy Osbourne).

1,001 Reasons why EastEnders Is “Pony” (2015)

Cockney Reject, with Jeff Turner (2010)

Notes:

IRON MAIDEN: Running Free has been republished four times.

THE FACE: has been republished three times.

Spoken Word

Literary stage, Punk & Disorderly Festival (Berlin, 2019)

Literary stage, Rebellion Festival (2015)

Literary stage, Rebellion Festival (2014)

Literary stage, Rebellion Festival (2013)

Breakfast with Bushell (SkaMouth Festival 2013)

Bratwurst with Bushell (Randale Festival, Germany 2013)

Street Sounds launch party, Genoa Italy (2013)

An Evening with Garry Bushell (P&O Cruise; 2011)

An Evening with Garry Bushell & Jeff Turner, East Ham WMC (2009)

Stage/Stand-Up/Pantomime

Bushell On The Rampage (one man show).

A Festival of England (rock and variety show host: 2008, 2005 and 1996)

Dave Lee’s Miles Of Smiles (comedy variety show: 2002, 2000, 1998, 1996, 1995)

Garry Bushell Out Of His Box (stand-up show, 2000)

Bushell’s Blue Christmas (host, 1999).

Cinderella (1997-8), Wimbledon Theatre as Baron Hard-up

The Big Big Variety Show (host, 1998) – Blackpool Pleasure Beach; Green Room, Café Royal

Butlin’s Talent Weekend (host 1997 and ’99)

Gagging For It charity comedy night, host (1996) – The Orchard Theatre, Dartford.

Dick Whittington (1993-4), Westcliffe Pavilion, as The Ship’s Captain

Filmography

We Are Twisted F***ing Sister (2016)

East End Babylon (2012)

Casuals (2011)

Hell To Pay (2005)

Rough Cut & Ready Dubbed (1982)

Get Your Gonads USA (in production)

Charity

Masterminded Let It Be, the all-star single which raised £1million for survivors and the families of the victims of the Zebrugge ferry disaster (1987)

Vice President of children’s charities Dave Lee’s Miles Of Smiles, and Happy Holidays, raising money to pay for holidays for sick and terminally ill children and their families (1995 – 2002).

Currently working closely as unpaid press consultant with Alan McGee’s Musicians Against Homelessness Campaign raising money on behalf of CRISIS and as unpaid press consultant for the Bexley Deaf Centre.

Also: 1986, took part in a charity boxing match against world champion Lloyd Honeyghan (!) to raise money for Help The Aged (now  Age Concern).

2019: hosted celebrity charity football match for MIND in Bexley.

Album Discography

The Gonads: Live – The Official Bootleg (1984)

Live & Loud (1988)

Back And Barking (1999)

Schitz-Oi!-Phrenia (2001)

Old Boots, No Panties (2006)

Live Free, Die Free (2009)

Glorious Bastards (2010)

Greater Hits Volume One: Plums (2011)

Greater Hits Volume Two: The Mutt’s Nuts (2012)

Built For Destruction (2013)

Greater Hits Volume Three: The Complete Cobblers (2015)

London Bawling (2016)

All The Loon Stompers (2017)

American Gonads (2018)