Ernie Graham was born in Belfast, and was training to be a mechanic, when he joined his first band Tony & the Telstars in 1965, as rhythm guitarist.
[2] Graham and McCullough returned to Belfast and formed The People, with George O'Hara, Davey Lutton and Chris Stewart.
Sharing management with Brinsley Schwarz and Help Yourself, they all toured together as "The Down Home Rhythm Kings" package and lived in the same commune in Northwood.
When Clancy broke up in 1976, Graham played with Nick Lowe[5] and tried to go solo, issuing Phil Lynott's "Romeo and the Lonely Girl" as a single in 1978, which was his last release.
In the early 1980s, he tried forming a band with Larry Pratt, who had briefly been a member of Clancy,[2] but when this failed, he gave up being a professional musician, worked on the railways, including as a guard on the Orient Express, and was training to become a counsellor,[2] but his "strong alcohol dependence"[1] caused his health to fail, and he died in London in April 2001.