Drums
As far as I can remember, seeing Status Quo on Top Of The Pops inspired me to start hitting pillows at the age of 3, which quickly turned into a passion for drumming. My parents stupidly bought me a kit at the age of 8, which only made me want to do it more! I started playing in church at the age of 9, and by 10 years old I had my first full size kit (cheap Taiwanese kit called Manhattan) and Pearl cymbals, which were rubbish! But the best I could afford.
At school I played in many musicals and was involved in the school orchestra, which took us to lots of summer fairs and local events. The highlight of these years was playing the British national anthem in front of 28,000 people at the old Wembley Stadium inLondon! I was the most nervous I have ever been, but it was fun!
I have been playing in churches and at christian events for as long as I can remember. Some of the most memorable places I have played are a sheep shed in Peterborough, drumming to a kids' group theme tune for 4000 amused adults, playing at a beach mission in Cornwall on the back of a lorry, and playing in a supermarket at Christmas.
Bands
At school I was in a few bands, in one of which we were the support act for The Searchers in 1998.
In 2001, I got together with some friends from Kingston University and we formed Ethel for a year. We did several pub gigs in the Kingston/Twickenham/Putney area and recorded 8 tracks. Have a Listen to one of our songs.
In early 2006 I depped for One Nation, a 9 piece Jazz Funk band based in Leamington Spa, mostly working on the development of 5 new songs. I also did one gig at the Belgrade theatre (Coventry) with them. See their website.
Kits
Currently I own an Arbiter flats kit to practise with, and I've put mesh heads on it, to keep the noise down (which works very well).
Recently, I had to sell the shells of my main kit for money reasons, but when I had it, I owned a Pearl Masters MHX mahogany kit in Diamond Burst lacquer finish.
Sizes: 8x7, 10x8, 13x10, 15x13, 22x18
I like lots of cymbals (as you can see!), and currently own:
UFIP Class Series splashes, 8" and 9"
Zildjian K splash, 12"
Sabian HH Bright Hats, 13"
UFIP Class Series crashes, 14" and 16"
Sabian HHX Evolution O-zone crash, 16"
UFIP Class Series rides, 18" and 19"
Zildjian K Mini China, 14"
Snares
My first "decent" snare was a Pearl Chad Smith Signature 14x5
Then I sold that and bought a KD Purpleheart Segmented 14x5
Then I sold that and bought a Ludwig Black Beauty 14x5! (That one's a keeper)
Studio
In the summer of 2005 I took my kit to One Nation Studios in Leamington Spa, to experiment with recording and see what the kit would sound like. James (the owner) and I played around with different effects and settled on a sound similar to what Chad Smith achieved in the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Give it away" tune. This involved a fair amount of reverb effect, and we altered the EQ on the bass drum to make it sound very "clicky". Also I found the snare sounded a lot nicer when mostly the bottom mic was used.
Click on these links to listen to some sound samples: