1964Started learning piano!
1970-1974Joined school orchestra to learn only instrument left – percussion! Dad bought me my first drum kit from the local second hand shop! This is where it really started.
The first drum kit!Under the guidance of principle percussionist with Grimethorpe Colliery band – Len Addy. Played in national competitions (Albert Hall) and on BBC’s “Brass” programme.
Started own band “Creation”. Two styles – pop covers playing working mens clubs all over Yorkshire; rock covers playing local pubs – mainly The Dickens in Rotherham town centre on a Saturday lunch time – Freebird, Pink Floyd medley from Dark Side of the Moon and Hocus Pocus by Focus played at breakneck speed were favourites!
1974-1979Became youngest ever student at the time to be taken on Performer’s Diploma course at Huddersfield University (then Polytechnic). Other choices were Royal Academy in that London (too southern!) and Manchester School of Music (too Lancastrian!!). Began re-learning my snare drum technique under one of the best classical percussionists ever – Eric Woolliscroft of the Halle Orchestra.
Left Creation to join various college orchestras and ensembles – the best fun being had with The Northern Jazz Orchestra. We played some big band classics, but specialised in taking prog-rock classics (e.g. Genesis Los Endos) and arranging them for big band. Also got heavily into punk during this period and dabbled in a few non-successful punky type bands.
The Dicks circa. 1978 - 90 mile an hour 2 minute classics - eat your heart out Rat Scabies!Exposed to masses of different types of music during this period and saw some top bands live – XTC, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Talking Heads, The Stranglers, Ultravox (original line up), Split Enz, Zal Cleminson, The Damned (original line up) etc. Saw John Shepherd play live for the first time also in a pub in Huddersfield in Sneakers.
Carried on with the brass band work also – played with all the main ones – Brighouse & Rastrick (toured Scandinavia with them – that was an education!); Yorkshire Imperial; Black Dyke etc. and won competitions with them all.
Best playing moment though during this period was standing on the stage of Sheffield City Hall with the Halle Orchestra rattling out the snare drum part to Shostakovitch 5 with my ever so proud Dad in the audience.
Towards the end of 1978 (my last year at college) I met up with a guy who was to have an influence my musical career for the next 10 years or so. I answered an ad on the musicians wanted notice board in college for a drummer to take part in some experimental electronic stuff with a bloke named Andy Tillison. Having just got into Tangerine Dream at the time this seemed a good idea. It also happened that Andy played keyboards in a rock band well known on the Leeds circuit who were looking for a drummer – The Vye. I auditioned – got the job – and moved to Leeds. And we did the experimental stuff as well!! By 1979 I was established in The Vye and we were undertaking our first UK tour – “Into the 80s”.
1980 to 1997The Vye did loads of gigs – everywhere! We went to Holland for a series of dates around the country including the famous Paradiso in Amsterdam where we totally blew No Dice off stage (not that anyone knows who they are now!). Other bands we supported included The Ruts, 999, Slade, The Human League. We did sessions for BBC radio and loads of studio work.
We recorded a few singles (on that black bendy stuff) and took part in a tax dodge compilation album for Elton John on his Rocket Records label. You can still buy our singles on Ebay believe it or not!
After a couple of years Andy and I started to want a bit more say in the music we were playing – The Vye was quite definitely the vehicle for Dale Hargreave’s song writing and there was no room for anything else. So we started up own sideline project – A New Opera – which in the end we left The Vye for to do properly. We kept on working with Dale – helping out with his Flamingo’s and his solo work until his tragic death from a brain tumour in 1986.
A New Opera took a while to settle down both in style and line up – perhaps the best one was around the 1983 period with me, Andy, my brother Simon on bass, Duncan McFarlane on guitar and Quentin Churchill (Q) on backing vocals and non-concordant white noise generator (in-joke – sorry). Many bands say this – but I truly believe we were ahead of our time – we had some great audiences in Leeds but could never really get across what we were trying to do elsewhere. We needed a break – a good record deal to give us the time and money to fine tune our sound – somewhere between punk, Simple Minds and Van der Graaf Generator! However – it wasn’t to be and despite some blinding gigs and great times, regular line-up changes and lack of progress resulted in me leaving in the mid-80s.
The rest’s a bit of a blur– mainly trying to keep playing professionally without really making any money – the last straw ending up in a Country and Western band in the back end of Wales somewhere. At that point I gave up – got a proper job and the drumming took a back seat. I tried a couple of local bands playing blues, various covers and finally ending up for 18 months back in the originals scene with Leeds band BUiLD who played at the now long gone Duchess of York in Leeds on a regular basis. However – work, studying, family etc. meant I didn’t have the time or the energy to continue playing so around 1997 I gave up – sold the trusty Pearl kit and moved out of the big city to the more rural surrounds of Selby.
2004 to presentAfter a gap of 7 years, the itching wrists got too much so I took the plunge on Ebay and acquired an 80’s Premier Elite kit – in black a colour I’d always wanted. Trouble was I could only afford to pay a few hundred quid so ended up with a bit of a shipwreck! However – 3 months work and several tons of Duraglit later, I had a presentable set up to try and find a band.
I found out about the websites where you can advertise for musos, or yourself for bands (what the hell did we do without these before?) and found a bunch of guys trying to do the same as me – form a band for a laugh and do some live work. Fragile Alliance was formed in February 2005 and we rehearsed for 6 months – went through 2 singers – and never gigged once. I left – enough was enough!
In October 2005 I went back to originals again and joined a Leeds based band that couldn’t decide what it wanted to call itself (last known name was Pound’s Artists). We did 3 months rehearsing – played 1 gig in the guitarists back garden for bonfire night to his mum and her mates – and I left in December after too many cancelled rehearsals.
Back to the websites!
Lots of options came up – but in the end I auditioned for Splinter and was immediately impressed with the professionalism of the band. Not only are they top blokes – they know the songs – amazing!
So in January 2006 I joined – got the call on a Thursday and the following Saturday (yes – 2 days later) did my first gig – no rehearsal. We played at the Boot & Shoe in Ackworth and had a stonking night.
That’s it – for now. There’s probably loads more I’ve forgotten but I hope this gives you a flavour of my musical experiences over the last few years.
