Neil got his first taste of being on stage when he was in his high school's production of Grease. He did musical theater for a few years, but started to soon front bands, and hasn't stopped since. He spent over 15 years writing and performing with Redhead Betty Takeout, a local cover group that turned to original music. He was fortunate enough to work with many talented people during that time, including musician, composer, arranger, and producer, Mike Post. Redhead Betty Takeout had some local radio airplay, but they disbanded a couple of years later.
Since then, Neil was briefly in a band called Field of Play, but he found playing solo and duo shows was more to his liking for that time period. However, in 2017, he was approached by drummer Matt DeCarlo (Hollywood Nights) to join in a cover band he was putting together. Neil agreed to go to a rehearsal, and he liked it so much he's been singing with Matt's Machine ever since!
In March of 2020, when Covid-19 started to close everything down, Neil was sitting at home and saw a post from a friend on Facebook, which had a response from a girl named Amber telling her cousin to "come see me". Neil thought "when Amber says 'come see me', you just say 'yes'" was a great idea for a song. He now had a lot of time to create, so he began to work on his very first album in which he did all the writing himself.
Upon completing several songs, Neil's first call was to friend and producer, Brian Bricklin. Brian listened to the songs and said he'd like to work with Neil on recording and producing the album. Brian, of course, did an amazing job guiding Neil through the entire process!
Next was getting musicians to play on the album. He asked the members of Matt's Machine and they all agreed. Matt DeCarlo plays drums on all the songs, as does Dave Calabria on bass (and background vocals), and Ben Slater on piano and keys. Lead guitar duties were spread between John Gattone (Matt's Machine), Vahe Sarkissian (Sid Miller Dance Band), and Ryan Valotta (SideArm) who plays the bulk of lead guitar on the album. In addition, Neil was lucky to have other musicians lend their talents, including Adam Flicker, Howie Gordon, and Joanna Pacitti.
In December of 2021, after almost two years of writing and recording, the album Things You Already Know, by Neil McGettigan and The Eleventh Hour, was finally released.
The band is looking forward to playing their songs for some live shows, as well as writing and recording more songs within the year.