Hi,

I have been playing the drums since 2001 and practise daily. I wanted to play as a child but never went anywhere with it ... probably one of my biggest regrets in life.

 I am the youngest in a family of 5 children, and my Father never had spare money to buy drum kits or pay for lessons for me. I had my first drum lessons when I got a Saturday job. I was 14 years old and earnt £2 working in a wood yard, come DIY store, in Kingston upon Thames called Timberlands.  My schoolboy friend Trevor Diamore's (or was it Diamond) big brother used to play drums and I think I paid him 50p for an undetermined amount of his time to teach me on his kit, which was set up in the lounge of their council flat.. Knowing what I know now about playing I realise that my then teacher wasn't much of a drummer himself and his methods of playing and teaching were not very good . However, whatever it was I paid, I got something out of it because he gave me some sticks and brushes, which I used to practise with on a variety of different thickness books at home.... much to the dismay of the rest of my family.I was never encouraged as a child to persue my interest in drumming. If anything I was discouraged .  If I'd had the money to buy a kit in those days my Mother had made it quite clear to me that my Father would not have had it in the house. Dad loved his music, but his taste was strictly classical. 

Even at school my efforts were stifled. I vaguely remember when I told my music teacher of my desire to play drums how she made me play the triangle in our next class . I just couldn't get anywhere with it.

I started again late in life when my son showed an interest in playing the drums. We're talking about a lad here who liked nothing but Eminem! Then, while driving him to my house for a weekend once he asked me if I had any Fleetwood Mac in the car . I was so surprised! I asked why he suddenly wanted to listen to Fleetwood Mac and he told me he liked the drumming, and then went on to ask me how he could learn to play. Of course, I wanted to give my son a chance at something I felt I was deprived of at his age, so initially I bought him a set of sticks, a practise pad and a book called "Mel Bay Easiest Drumset Book". When he showed that his interest was more than a passing phase I went and bought a starter kit for my house . My son lives with his Mother, and she was not about to have a drum kit in her flat, so the kit stayed at mine and my son played it every other weekend when he was with me. Naturally, I couldn't resist playing myself when my son wasn't here! From then on I was putting in 2 or 3 hours an evening driving the neighbours insane. Within a year my son had persuaded his Mother to let him have the kit at home, so I went and bought myself my current kit, which is a Yamaha Stage Custom Advantage in mulberry red. I have Zildjian A custom cymbals with it and Tama Road-pro hardware.

Anyway .... that's where I started! Nowadays I have completely customised my cellar to accomodate my kit and I am study the Guildhall/Trinity school of music and drama syllabus. My progress is ok, but the exam sittings don't come round very often. I recently achieved honours in Grade 3 .... but it is my intention and determination to achieve all 8 grades.

I have lessons, and I am now teaching absolute beginners up to grade 3 level. I have 5 students at the moment and that is all I will take on now. So here's a big HIYA to Jason, Kieran, Alfie and Tom. I practise myself for between 5 to 15 hours per week. I am now (since April 2007) in a band, and where it is was recently just a hope that I would perform publicly with a band at least once in my lifetime, it is now becoming a distinct probability. In fact we hav already performed twice at the open mic night at a pub in Margate.

My teacher is Dave Neal. Dave was Suzi Quatro's drummer in her hey day. So when you listen to "Can the Can" or "Devil Gate Drive" that's my teacher on the drums.  Funnily enough those were hits when I first started to play back in my childhood, and that would have been my choice of music at the time, alongside Slade and Alice Cooper .....  I have a link to a clip of one of Suzi Q's lesser known covers in my links page. I have chosen this track because it's a good view of Dave playing, and it's a good track. Dave is a brilliant teacher and an even better player.

Over the next few weeks I will be adding video clips, pictures and other stuff to this page. Keep checking back for updates. (Last update 25th July 2008... removed band journal! )

Please visit the blog and leave me a message  . It's my guestbook, and I only know how many of you have been here by how many of you have signed in there. It would also be good to hear what you think of my choice of clips and pictures.

 Thanks for checking out my page, hope you find it interesting or fun, or whatever you're looking for here

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