11th June 2025 - Drumming or Juggling? You decide! (Solo shows)

Back in 2013 when I released “Prove You Wrong”, my first solo album, I talked of the desire I had at the time to scratch an itch and record some of my songs properly and commit them to an official release.

At that particular time of the album’s release, I did do a show as support to Wishbone Ash in Islington which was a very proud yet nervous moment for me and a couple of years later I had a couple of appearances at Putney’s Half Moon venue to play my songs live with a band.

One of those occasions was an acoustic set in support of Cats In Space’s first ever live performance. I decided that, for that evening I would play drums and sing as usual, only this time I would STAND UP to play, in homage to the incredible Andy Sturmer of Jellyfish fame. More on that later

That acoustic show (in 2016 I think) went pretty well on all fronts - including my stage balance - and since then I’d always held in my mind the desire to do full electric shows along similar lines.

That opportunity has just been realised with 2 such gigs in my home turf of Birmingham and (when it comes to making original music and incredible lasting friendships) my kind of 2nd home in South Wales.

Getting the lineup together for this was a cinch. It was always going to be Gary Piears-Banton on bass, who’s been my rhythm section/erection section partner longer than anyone I reckon…and someone I locked in with as a drummer from the moment we first rehearsed together back in 2005! Easy pick…

Keith Laurent is my best mate, my oldest musical buddy and once shared my delusions of grandeur as teenagers in our first band Dangerous Games. He knows me better than anyone, and I know I’d have been sued had I not brought him in to this lol! In all seriousness, he’s always been a great, versatile guitar player and a very dedicated and determined one too. Another easy pick - but don’t tell him that ;)

Graham Ettrick was the other obvious choice as lead/rhythm guitar - his riffs and moments are there to be heard here and there on all 3 of my solo LP’s but especially 2022’s “Rule Of Three”, where he also co-wrote several brand new compositions with me…as well as dusting down hitherto unheard musical artefacts from our past life in Shotgun Wedding - a band who we should not forget won the hotly contested “Best Backdrop” award at the 1988 Coventry General Wolfe Battle Of The Bands competition. So there.

Gray and me hadn’t shared a stage since Shotgun’s last performance at the old Exposure Rock Cafe in Brum back in 1994 just before the band breathed its last. Gray was never into being in a tribute band like the rest of us did - he was always more into creating riffs and tunes of his own, which is to his eternal credit. He continued with bands like Unfaith & Yel Piracy post-Shotgun and is STILL giving me riff ideas to this day

The two shows have just been completed this past week were a joy and I am so pleased to have done it. There is more in this band I believe in terms of live work and getting my music out there in front of an audience. So this isn’t a one-off musical fling to my mind at all.

The Birmingham show was also an opportunity to play one last show with my pals Phil Docker & Nigel Joiner as The Three Amoebas, who’ve been playing the same disjointed, unrehearsed, chaotic and rather entertaining set list (by and large) since our first show at The Saddlers Arms in the early 90’s. Once the Asylum 2 show had been booked for my stuff, Phil suggested an Amoebas swansong and it felt right. Naturally we did NOT rehearse in order to maintain strictly held traditions within our number so that the chaos on the night was genuine…and no one was disappointed on that front!! Was lovely to have some fun with those guys one more time and do my best Muttley McLad impression on ‘Fluffy Pup’ :)

Rehearsals most certainly were called for when it came to my own songs with Gray, Keith & Gary. I have to give fulsome praise to the guys for being as brilliant as I knew they would be after just 2 get togethers at a rehearsal room that was central to the 4 of us geographically. The problem you often get rehearsing songs you haven’t performed together as a band is that you’re in an enclosed space, usually facing one another in order to take cues and make regular eye contact as you work through stuff. This means that guitar amps, bass amps, PA speakers and drums are all facing one another, the collective sound heads for one central part of the room and it can get a bit cacophonous where no one can truly hear themselves and their individual parts too well.

We had a 14-song set to deliver, some with additional keyboards and some without. The ones with keys necessitated a bit of extra work on my part re-recording piano and synth lines for those particular tracks along with a click track that I would have in my in-ear monitors to go along with all the other instruments I wanted to hear on gig night. Initially, I did try to be Mr Lazybones and split the original recorded versions up into their individual parts using music software, but it didn’t work out too well and I had to therefore admit defeat, start from scratch and try to remember what the hell I’d played when I’d first recorded songs like Landscapes and We Believed!! Nothing was ever written out that’s for sure!

It was a worthwhile exercise re-recording those bits in the end, though, as it made me listen to the tracks that little bit more intently…as well as the lyrics, which suddenly needed remembering for 13 original songs and one cover - with no teleprompters like all band vocalists seem to have nowadays due to their fading memories! 

I’ve made no secret of my love for all things South Wales/Steelhouse Festival-related things over the years, so the 2nd show at The Patriot in Crumlin, a small town within a few miles of the Steelhouse site, was something I really looked forward to. Venues like The Patriot - not one in a major town or city centre with regular footfall in and around it - are the lifeblood of rock bands in this country. You look at how Ange the owner has grown the reputation of the place and you just think “Care is being taken here” and the rewards are there to see when you look at the posters outside advertising upcoming shows; Electric Boys, Donnie Vie from Enuff Z’Nuff, Robin Macauley from MSG, Terrorvision, Florence Black etc etc. It’s a place that knows its audience and caters to it quite superbly. 

Not only that but their resident sound engineer Dylan did an outstanding job getting our soundcheck sorted in double quick time with no fuss and everyone very happy with their own individual monitor mixes and setups. It isn’t always as easy as Dylan made it look in the space of just 15/20 minutes with 4 guys needed vastly different things sound-wise. 

I must mention Beth Blade at this point who supported us with a blinding acoustic set before we played. I’ve known Beth since she came to watch Dressed To Kill shows with her Mum & Dad when she was in her teens and has such a passion for original composition. Her voice gets more powerful each time I see her and it was particularly noteworthy to hear in an acoustic setting. Keep an eye out for Beth and the Beautiful Disasters - great live band too

“So why are you standing up to play?” was the most oft asked question by pretty much everybody. It is unusual to see a drummer not sat down and playing after all, I get it. To me, it was about 2 things; firstly it was about that thrill of seeing Andy Sturmer of Jellyfish do it when we were lucky enough to see the band tour the UK twice in the early 90’s. It felt back then like some kind of magic trick that Andy was performing on stage. How on earth etc etc? Secondly, it wasn’t necessarily about just copying Andy for the sake of it…you are always looking as a musician who performs original material to push yourself beyond your comfort zone and not just go through the motions. I think it’s fair to say, therefore, that standing up, resting all your weight on your left leg and slamming away with your other 3 limbs as hard as you can is not necessarily “comfortable” LOL

I enjoyed it and embraced it really. My only slight gripe was that my floor tom legs would only allow me to sit that drum ‘so high’ - ideally I’d have liked that drum to my right to be about 6 inches taller, but it wasn’t prohibitive to my playing the height that it was. So I really truly was challenging myself; singing lead vocals, playing drums standing up, listening to a click track for keyboard backings to play along with, listening to my fellow musicians for pitch and reference points for me as both a vocalist and a drummer, and interacting with both them and the audience as a frontman behind a purple see-through acrylic Natal kit.

I think I did ok - well I didn’t fall over so that’s a win! 

More to come I reckon in future