We've now outdone Spinal Tap - bloody drummers

SexyGreyFox · 24 Jul 2006 at 20:10

I've been with the band for six years and in that time we've had six drummers.
One was nuts, one died (RIP Paul), one gave us one minute notice to go with a band who can't get gigs now, one had woman trouble, one had an ego that was larger than Dave Lee Roths and the new drummer has just given his notice in because another band has offered more money and he is having money problems

Before I joined, the band was together for eight years and they went through six drummers.

If anybody out there in the Staffordshire area knows any good rock drummers then get in touch.

SexyGreyFox · 24 Jul 2006 at 20:40

I was thinking of you also

SexyGreyFox · 24 Jul 2006 at 22:04

Dave said:
so I'll ask him if he's interested in ditching teaching and rocking out instead

Not enough money for him

locutus12 said:
what i want to know is how the bloody hell did you find 6 drummers in 6 years ?! there like gold dust here in cov

And all six were/are brilliant.
Its going to be very hard to replace Paul.

SexyGreyFox · 24 Jul 2006 at 22:17

cleanbluesky said:
Try a percussionist next time...

We tried one two years ago and he's now at university doing a percussion degree or something.
He was bloody useless but could play a mean xylophone.

SexyGreyFox · 24 Jul 2006 at 23:33

Munkyman said:
are we? cool

seriously though, everyone i know wants me to teach them how to play. i didn't realise we were so thin on the ground

Plenty of drummers - not many good ones.

SexyGreyFox · 25 Jul 2006 at 07:09

starscream said:
Won't complain

Reliable

Keeps time

Won't nag you into lugging all their kit round

been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

SexyGreyFox · 9 Aug 2006 at 22:57

Auditioned a drummer tonight and he was excellent. We had a good talk after and he seems as though he's on the same wavelength as us. Fingers crossed.

SexyGreyFox · 10 Aug 2006 at 18:47

Over the last two weeks I collected about 30 phone numbers of drummers.
I even paid for a subscription to the very useful Musicians In Your City http://www.musicians-in-your-city.co.uk/
Over the weekend I rang all 30 and about 20 were already taken or had stopped playing.
Eight of the remainder went quiet when I told them how much money they would be on. A five piece band in the Stoke area gets around £200 so the wages would be £40 which is not enough for some people. All of them asked if we were going to try and get on the next few steps of the ladder playing bigger and better paid gigs all over the country but we've all 'been there and done that' in other bands because its false economy eg driving 4 hours to get to a gig, get £100 in your pocket and then a 4 hour drive back and work in the morning. I've got nothing against anybody who wants to do that but we don't want it anymore at our age.
Once these drummers heard that we wanted to stay local at a local price they weren't interested.
That leaves two drummers - one that is already with a working band and one who is free and thinks exactly how we think. He's done the false economy gigging too. There two more but one hasn't got a drumkit and the other is 16 and wants to make it big. Sorry mate we're ready for retirement.

SexyGreyFox · 12 Aug 2006 at 12:33

Bloody typical.
At last nights gig three drummers turned up, all who have gone past their sell by date like us but we've already chose a drummer.
I kept their numbers because something is bound to happen.

SexyGreyFox · 12 Aug 2006 at 12:54

Cuchulain said:
And you only need to punch the information into it once....

Funnily enough after the drummer audition on thursday night I fell asleep and dreamed about a drummer who was using a drum machine in conjunction with his kit. He was brilliant but I can remember thinking that it wasn't exactly 70's rock.

In May I helped another local band out because the singer had to have nodes removed. When I got there the three of them were practising and the drums sounded awesome. I was then amazed because for practise he uses one of those Yamaha toys with about six pads on it and a floor pedal button for the bass drum. I obviously had to make a comment and he said it saves time and energy over setting his Mapex Saturn up. Some of you may have heard of the band that he also plays in - they're called GRACE, made six albums and are still big (ish) in prog circles.

SexyGreyFox · 12 Aug 2006 at 13:20

Cybermyk said:
Wasn't Bill Bruford was it? as you say though I don't think he started using it in the 70's more like 80's Linky

Probably my favourite drummer

Amazingly I've been listening to The Yes Album this morning at work.

SexyGreyFox · 24 Aug 2006 at 19:45

QABoy said:
Hows your new drummer going on and when can we expect to see him?

He had two practises last week for about 75 mins each and he was getting better.
On tuesday I was talking to two musicians (seperately) and when I mentioned his name they said he was one of the best drummers they've ever seen. His REMO drumkit is endorsed by REMO because he's that good.
He came to practise last night and he was on fire. When he went we all looked at each other and said "We won't hold onto him for long".
I can't wait to gig with him and lets hope he wants what we want (just to play a local gig once a week for a bit more than beer money).
He will be with us on sat night and tomorrow we're still using Paul who lasted two months.

SexyGreyFox · 24 Aug 2006 at 22:48

raz0rr said:
A Remo kit!?
If it's a Remo-made kit, and not just one with Remo heads...

Those kits are damn nice.
*wants one*

He said it cost £4000

SexyGreyFox · 25 Aug 2006 at 07:05

Neon said:
or a remo kit? your not serious? remos no biggy sure the heads are great but kits.. hmm not so good. acoustic that is

it didnt cost 4k if hes endorsed.

Just rang him and he said he was endorsed when he played with a punk band called Broken Bones and the drums were valued at £3,700. He got rid of them and the drumkit he will be playing on saturday will be a Pearl something (not Export).

SexyGreyFox · 25 Aug 2006 at 15:23

Spoke to the drummer in this band today - http://ledballoon.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/ and mentioned our new drummers name. He opened his mouth and asked how we'd got hold of him because he was a drummers drummers drummer. He said he's the best he's ever seen and he's got seven arms. It looks like we'll be looking for a new drummer soon.

SexyGreyFox · 25 Aug 2006 at 16:26

Neon said:
Ive never heard of him or the band before, so hmm. your new drummer that is.

Ooops, I'm guilty of sounding like he's some kind of superstar out of some massive band.
Its just pub musicians talking about other pub musicians.
However, our new drummer played with these for a while and this is why he was given the REMO kit - http://www.broken-bones.co.uk/bbhome.html
If you know your Punk history then Broken Bones are in there.

SexyGreyFox · 25 Aug 2006 at 17:28

Neon said:
Ah i thought we were talking about some big industry star here hah! no worries ive only heard of broken bones to a certain degree.

At my time in my life I'm not far from hanging my boots up and we have some brilliant musos here in Stoke (like everywhere).
I just want somebody who'll come along up to twice a week and play drums and have a few beers.
When I hear that somebody is at the top of the tree (in the area) then I don't expect them to be with us long.

SexyGreyFox · 1 Sep 2006 at 17:15

Violent-J said:
You actually make money with your pub cover band and pay wages?

Yeah, I know we aren't that good but anybody can earn money in Stoke.

SidewinderINC said:
^ yeah, even if you're gigging in pubs every single night of the week i doubt you'd get enough to go round the band and live on at all.

just saw that drummer you were talking about on TV dave, pretty interesting. was that his own kit too?

We get an average of 30 to 40 pound each and a rock band is lucky to get two gigs a week in this area. A trio will obviously earn more per man. If I went back to solo work I could be earning up to £150 a night and play about 4/5 times a week.

Apparently, the drummers Dad is a millionaire.

SexyGreyFox · 4 Sep 2006 at 20:10

Vauxmad said:
Slight thread hijack :- Any plans to play at hanley weatherspoons? Been going past few weeks and its normally gets a decent crowd. Fav band thats played there is called Storm - apparently the guitarist used to play with ozzie. Might just be pub hype tho.

We played there about 6 weeks ago and will be playing later this year. The old guy on the Half Flying V is called Slim and his daughter is the manageress. Slim organises all the bands at Weatherspoons and he loves us even though we knicked his drummer. Him and the manager have asked us to do a set dedicated to AC/DC but I'm getting rather fed up being known locally as the guy that does AC/DC.
I don't know about the guy in Storm but the guitarist in Giantz who played there 8 weeks ago did have auditions for Ozzy. Storms other guitarist was watching us play and he isn't old enough to have been with Ozzy to be honest - unless you're talking about Slim.

UPDATE -
Just got off the phone with Slim and its pub hype I'm afraid. He does know Ozzy and he even went to see Queen with him back in 77. He also mentioned Trevalyn in Giantz who you might have heard the rumour about but he didn't even have an audition. He sent tapes and Sharon sent a nice letter back. Nice to know that Slim says we are his top band and he has got 3 dates for us for next year.

SexyGreyFox · 4 Sep 2006 at 22:21

fireblade900 said:
Broken Bones were good in their day. I play drums btw, well, used to a few years ago.

Well, you can always have an audition because no doubt he probably won't last long.
You've seen us live, do you think we wear drummers out?