Earl Gill was raised in Dublin's East Wall district by his parents, William and Mary (née Hunter).
[2] Among the musicians who played in the Earl Gill Band during the 1950s was saxophonist Sonny Knowles who later found fame in Ireland as a cabaret singer.
[5] In 1965, Gill and his colleagues were signed up as the house band on a new Telefís Éireann country music show called Hoedown.
While most of their recordings highlighted Dunphy's singing voice, Earl Gill's trumpet took the lead on the instrumental single, "Sunset" (an arrangement of Offenbach's "Barcarolle"), released in 1967.
In the late-1970s and 1980s he was the musical director of several significant shows, including the Cavan International Song Contest,[12] and Noel Pearson's production of Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S.
[1] In 1990, Gill released his first solo album, Enchantment, on which he played a selection of traditional Irish melodies and popular show tunes.