My first gig - Playing with my Dad on guitar, my Mum on organ and vocals, and me on drums at the local WI Hall for a fashion parade.

The Fleetwood Four - My very first band !! - Following the success of the fashion parade gig at the WI Hall, my Grandad joined us on bass guitar, and we played a number of gigs at the local Community Centre, the highlight being the 'President's Night' for the local Rotarians society - a very important occasion.

New Milton Junior School Band - Playing snare drum in the school brass band (they didn't have a drum at school so I packed my snare drum into an old green suitcase, strapped it to an old shopping trolley and 'wheeled' it to school every week ! Conducted by Stephen Petty, we became an 'awesome' (in Junior school terms!) school band by the end of the fourth year, but then all of the band bar about 4 kids left to go to Senior school, and Mr Petty had to start all over again.

My new drum kit - Maxwin, by Pearl, in a bright orange colour. Standard 5 piece kit (later added two extra high toms to make it a 7 piece). Originally supplied with a cheap set of Ufip cymbals (the crash cymbal used to either dent or even invert if hit too hard - but did make a reasonable china crash sound when fully inverted !). Later change the cymbals one by one to finally have Paiste 505 HiHats (very heavy, and very loud), Zildjian Flat Top Ride, Sabian Crash Ride and a Paiste Crash. Excellent kit (still had it's original skins all the way until 1994 !) which I was quite sad to part with. 

New Forest Schools Band - Made up from all the local schools. Joined the 'Training' band one week, and then was asked to stay on and play with the 'Senior' band the following week (not that I was good, just that they didn't have a drummer !). Conducted by Adrian Moseley, played local schools, fetes, etc. and also entered a few competitions. Played full drum kit, and even had a regular drum solo piece (imaginatively called 'Drummers Delight') - which I very soon got fed up with, and now I avoid doing drum solo's when at all possible.

Drum Lessons - Originally with Jack Richards, who only taught at the Senior school, so Mum had to come to school to pick me up from the Juniors, and take me up to the Seniors and then return me back afterwards. Soon had private lessons with Jack in his Studio in a college in Winchester. I then learnt full percussion (Snare Drum, Xylophone, Timpani) as well as Drum Kit. I then changed to Ron Armstrong who continued my training in both Percussion and Drum Kit at both his home, and his studio in a Private School in Canford, Nr. Bournemouth. With these two teachers I passed the following Guildhall School of Music Exams:

Grade 1 - Snare Drum
Grade 3 - Snare Drum
Grade 4 - Drum Kit
Grade 4 - Xylophone
Grade 5 - Percussion
Grade 6 - Percussion
Grade 6 - Drum Kit
 

Hampshire Youth Concert Bands - Children taken from all the Schools in Hampshire. I started in the Junior Band (where we did concerts in the Winchester Guildhall, other schools, and went to Pontins at Torquay for a weekend away), then moved up to the Training Band (where we did similar things, but we got to go to Harrogate for a week for a Youth Music Festival - where I had my one and only experience of marching with a snare drum), and finally the Concert Band (conducted by Maurice Arnold, and then Leighton Rich) where we had many trips to Wales for Brass Band competitions, and we also toured Germany and Austria in 1988. In my final year in the Concert Band, I was principal Percussionist (each band had up to 3 percussionists). 

 

Arnewood School Band and Orchestra - The Arnewood School had both a full orchestra and a concert band (e.g. brass and woodwind + drums) conducted by Ralph Hebditch (my long suffering Music teacher) and Alan Martin. I was also very heavily involved in musical productions at the school, most notably 'Scrooged' and 'Tin Pan Alley' which were produced during my two final years at school. I also studied Music GCSE and passed that (Grade A) amongst my other studies.

Top Octave - Formed from the group of us who used to hang around the Music room all the time at school. We played one gig for the local round table society (the chairman of the society's daughter was a friend of ours), and we were the warm up to the disco ! - We played for approx. 40 minutes playing a selection of TV themes, old Pop songs etc. Neil Stopher and Euan Beattie played keyboards, Mark Caine played drums and I played bass - 'cos at this time we had all fallen out with the bass player at school, and so I agreed to play - this seems to have been the start of a recurring problem - I have since had to play bass as a stand in for other bands including The Flares, Lady Winwoods Maggot and Pass The Buck. I did get to play drums on one number that night - 'Music' by Johnny Miles - Mark never could get the hang of the section in 7/4 ! 

 

Perpetual Motion - My own musical project - when I left school I was a bit fed up with playing the drums and I'd been playing more and more keyboards, guitar and bass at school so I decided to write a load of my own songs, and record them. I recorded a tape, 'Seven Days and Eighteen Nights' with the help of Mark Shinn (who played Bass and Keyboards on some of the tracks) using my Dad's PC as a sequencer, and borrowing a load of gear from Rod Sones at Shoreline Music. The singing is all me (and extremely dodgy) but some of the songs are (almost) reasonable, and they have been looked at (but never actually gigged!) by bands I have played in.

The Moneymakers - Local rock singer/songwriter Nigel Bray formed his band, and asked me to play drums for him. This only lasted a short while, and I soon decided to call it a day. Last time I heard, Nigel is now playing and singing over in Germany - it's a Rock and Roll life for him !

The Wreckers - A local folk band run by Rod Sones, a very good friend of mine (he owned the local music store where I spent most of my spare time, and most of my spare money !) - I'd never had any contact with folk music at all, but Rod wanted a drummer, and I was happy to give it a go. We recorded 2 or 3 tapes, and at the height of our success, even organised a 'tour' taking in gigs in Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Sussex, Essex and then back to Hampshire. The band had it's own band bus (an ageing LT35) hand painted by me and Les in two shades of blue emulsion bought from Woolworths ! It was a large band (up to 8 members at times) and slowly the musical differences pulled the band apart, half of who went on to form The Hedgemonkeys (who continued to play around Hampshire and Dorest for a number of years) 

Lady Winwoods Maggot - A local folk / rock /punk band formed by Mark Baynes. He had teamed up with Les Breckon and Brian Woodsford (from The Wreckers) and they asked me to join them. We had excellent fun playing gigs all round the area with classic songs written by Mark like 'Get Off The Gas Stove Granny, You're Too Old To Ride The Range'. Recorded one CD (at Room with a View Studio) entitled 'My Home Town'. I left the band due to commitments at home (we had bought a very old house that needed a lot of work doing to it) but the Maggots still play on, and I can sometimes be found on stage with them towards the end of the night, singing along (I know I'm not much of a singer - but then it is only folk music !) 

Fate - I received a phonecall from Steve West (a local singer/guitarist) saying he was looking to put a band together to play contempory originals, and wanted me to play drums. As work on the house had slowed slightly, and I had a bit more time on my hands (and I was really beginning to miss my drumming) so I agreed. We rehearsed long and hard, and then rehearsed a bit more. In fact we rehearsed for nearly 18 months, and never actually played a gig, by which time I was really very frustrated, and so I called it a day.

My First Real Electric Kit - After many experiments into electronic drums (ranging from microphone pickups on my acoustic kit triggering an Alesis D4 module, to Boss Dr1 and Dr11 Pads, to home made pads built from Practice Pads), I finally took the giant leap and bought a Roland TD5. All solid rubber pads (but dual zone pads for Snare and Cymbals), and a simple to use but limited Drum Brain. This was my first experiment into real electric drums - and I was amazed... Amazed by how much trouble I had trying to get the great sound I heard in my headphones out from my poor old 50W MacKenzie Combo amp. The guy in the drum store and 'forgotten' to warn me how much I would need to spend on PA equipment to get the drums to sound good ! Anyway after much experimentation I slowly worked my way up to a large PA rig that I ended up using (including 700W power amp, 15" 3 way Peavey speakers, digital mixer, effects units and sometimes an additional 15" Sub with an additional 300W power amp). The electric kit grew over the next 3 years to include more pads, and extra brain (an Alesis DM-Pro), a Roland SPD-20 and one of the new 'V-Drum' pads - the PD80R for the snare drum. This was my first experience of an electric drum with a 'real' skin. I was hooked, and soon became dissatisfied with the rest of the rubber pads, and so began looking for alternatives.

The Flares - Following on from my disappointment with 'Fate', I contacted local musician/studio owner Tony Soffe, who I gigged with in both The Wreckers and Lady Winwoods Maggot (he is a regular 'stand in' musician for most of the local bands, mainly because of his great musical talent and ability to play almost anything - Bass, Guitar, Keyboard, Vocals and Drums). He was between bands at the time, but knew of a singer (Nicky) who had been a backing singer in another band, but was definitely lead singer material. We decided to give it a go, and The Flares was born (we were briefly called The Corduroy Flares, but this was soon shortened). We played many gigs throughout Hampshire and Dorset, and also managed to record a few of our original songs on CD. The Flares came to an end in December 2002, we all went our separate ways, either to other bands, or other musical projects.

My Clavia ddrum4 Electric Drum Kit - After playing the Roland V-Drum pad for a while, I realised how much I missed the 'feel' of a real drumkit. The Roland rubber pads were good, but they are just not the same as the real thing. I began to look seriously at the more expensive Roland V-Drum kits, and spent many weeks ready articles, talking to people, checking out websites etc, trying to decide which one was right for me. Purely by chance, whilst checking out www.vdrums.com (a great 'unofficial' website for V-Drum owners), I spotted a reference to the Clavia ddrum4 kit - of which I had never heard. After a little web searching, I found the relevant websites (see my links page) and began researching this new kit. I was soon hooked on the idea of real skins (not mesh heads as used by Roland) and infinitely upgradable sounds (not preset like the Roland brains) - this seemed like a dream come true!. I managed to find a store that had a ddrum4 in stock to try out (it meant a trip into London, but it was worth it) and was duly impressed by the kit. (In fact they had both Roland V-Drum kits and the Clavia all set up, so they could all be tried side by side). The Clavia ddrum4 was unbelievable. It played like a real kit, it sounded like a real kit (at that was just with the standard sounds in it - I knew there were better samples available from the Clavia website), and even looked a bit more like a real drum kit. I very quickly parted with large sums of my hard earned cash, and was soon the proud owner of my very own ddrum kit.
After playing the kit for about six months, I began to realise that the 'solid' cymbal pads were the weakest link in the kit. I began to notice that in the heat of playing I would go to 'smash' the crash cymbals (as you would on an acoustic kit), and my stick would meet the 'solid' cymbal pad and send a shockwave up my arm. A little investigation around the internet (and a lot of advice from my friends on ddrums.com - thanks guys) pointed me in the direction of a number of E-Cymbal manufacturers. The only manufacturer that actually distributed in the UK was Pintech - and they were also the cheapest !!. I ordered one cymbal, and loved it so I bought two more! I ended up using three Pintech Trigger Cymbals (two TC14's and one TC16). They make excellent crash cymbals (but do lack the fine sensitivity of the Clavia Pads to use as a Ride Cymbal) and so my kit had three crash cymbals (the Pintechs) and a Ride (the Clavia pad). I have now mounted one of the other Clavia cymbal pad's above my toms as a second hihat, and my old Roland V Drum PD80R pad as a second snare drum (mounted just beneath the hihat). That became my 'final' electronic kit, which I played and loved.

My 'Studio' - Having recently moved house, I finally had a garage, and so my long awaited plans for building my own studio begun. It was a long slow process, with much research and many decisions along the way, so check out my studio page for the full details.

Time to Play Again - Once the studio was completed, I began to get the urge to get out playing live again, and also spend time playing bass. I had an idea to start an 80's covers band (as I knew there were no local bands playing that kind of music, and I thought it would be popular). I put adverts out, and met dozens of musicians from Poole to Portsmouth, and for a while had the beginnings of a band put together. However, it was difficult to agree on material (it soon drifted away from the 80's feel that I had envisaged), and it lacked that 'spark' that would give me the confidence to believe it could grow into live band capable of entertaining an audience. So, I began to look around for other bands. I auditioned with a variety of bands, from a Club / Function band to a Soul band and even a Ska / 2-Tone band, and then had to make a decision...

 

Lady Winwoods Maggot - No, I didn't rejoin my old band, but they had a fairly major personnel 're-shuffle', and Tony Soffe was back with them on bass. However, due to his hectic schedule, I was his 'unofficial' stand-in, and was seen playing bass at a few Maggot gigs when Tony was otherwise engaged.  

 

Bad Toad - I decided on the Soul band. I'd always liked this kind of music, and love having a real brass section in the band. They all seemed like a friendly bunch, keen to play but also keen to have a laugh (and that's what it's all about after all), and so that's where I went. We travelled far and wide, playing from Poole to Basingstoke, and from Portsmouth to Reading. We played some really good gigs in top music venues such as Mr Kyps and Talking Heads, and also got to support some superb soul legends (Gino Washington and the Ram Jam Band, The FatBack Band, and The Foundations). By the end of 2006 I felt that Bad Toad had progressed as far as it could, and decided to move on. I also wanted to get back into my drumming, and so I decided to leave. They are playing still, and I will be there in the audience supporting them whenever I can.
 

Pass The Buck - Run by Dave Lambert (another 'ex Maggot') and his wife, Pass The Buck are a Ceilidh (Barn Dance) band. Mark from Lady Winwood Maggots is their 'normal' bass player, but due to the Maggot's hectic gigging schedule, is often unavailable. I play bass with Pass The Buck on a semi-regular basis when Mark is unavailable, and have also stood in for their (excellent) drummer, Danny Pearson.

Chango Mutney - As my time in Bad Toad came to an end, I began to look for a new band. I met up with a couple of bands who were looking for drummers, but couldn't find a band I was happy with. I didn't really know what I was looking for, but I knew these weren't it. Then I met up with 'Chango Mutney' - a local band (which makes a nice change from weekly rehearsals in Eastleigh with Bad Toad) who had lost their drummer due to him losing his job and having to move away. They were in an awkward position as they had a couple of gigs booked within a couple of weeks, so I agreed to help out with those, and following that I've decided to stay with them. The music is a little more 'chilled out' than some of my previous bands, but they play a wide range of musical styles, and are all very competent musicians. After a few gigs, it turned out that the female lead singer was no longer able to sing with us, which left us in an awkward position for a couple of gigs. As there was already a fair amount of 'musical incest' between the bands I was playing in (see below), I suggested we ask Sally to stand in on lead vocals for us. She agreed, and sung with us for a year. As 2008 started, it was apparent that the Chango gigs were getting less and less frequent, as many of the members (including me) had a number of other projects on the go. I realised I needed to cut back on the number of bands I was playing in, and so I played my final gig with them in May.