Mel Gaynor's Risk and Through Infinity

Mel Gaynor is best known as the longtime drummer for the rock band Simple Minds. Gaynor was born to a Jamaican father and an Afro-Brazilian mother.

After leaving the hard rock band Samson (in which he played alongside future Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson), Gaynor joined Simple Minds in 1982 as a session drummer for the New Gold Dream album (as a recommendation by record producer Pete Walsh), playing on six of the nine tracks. He later joined the band permanently for the New Gold Dream tour, as a replacement for Mike Ogletree. Except for a period (1992–97) away from the band after the Real Life tour of 1991–92, he remained the Simple Minds drummer until 2017.