I
started drumming in 1980 (age 18). A few years later
I started playing with
club/pub bands
mostly playing
r ‘n’ b and gradually building my technique and
knowledge in various styles of playing. Then in 1984
I moved into another musical genre
joining "Body, Heart & Soul" a sixties
Soul/Motown band fronted by superb vocalist Les Walker
(ex Warm Dust, Tiger – Who had successful albums on EMI in
the seventies).
A couple more blues/soul bands
followed before joining "Cookin’ Tonite" in 1987 with Les
again and Charlie Whitney (founder member with Roger
Chapman of renowned band "Family").
Finding myself at
a loose end in March 1989 I checked out the
‘Musicians Wanted’ ads in Melody Maker and answered
the
appealingly brief ‘Blues Rock trio require
drummer’. This was
English Rogues. Gerry threw me
straight into a gigging schedule I had previously
only dreamt of – the band were doing about 15-16
gigs every month across the south-east.
By June 1989 Gerry was looking for a new guitarist
and asked his old mate
Paul Samson to stand in for a
couple weeks. That couple of weeks turned into a
couple of years as Paul found we gelled so well as a
power-trio rock band that he put his own line-up on
pause for the time being. Samson had been leaning
towards the ‘curly-perm, tight spandex, big
keyboards’ type of rock that was so prevalent at the
time. Paul enjoyed our
back-to-basics straightforward rock ‘n’ roll sound
which was refreshing to him!
We embarked on a very busy schedule, including a
number of tours in Europe, especially playing and
recording in Germany .
After a
while
the "Rogues" took a short break. I
continued in Samson until 1994, appearing on a
couple of Samson albums and playing an incredible
number of gigs up and down the country and abroad
(over 200 gigs in 1993!). I finally left when almost
living in a white van on motorways started to lose
its appeal!
I returned to playing in a couple of pub rock bands
("Saucy Jack" and "Faith Healer") as well as doing
occasional dep gigs for Paul (who sadly passed away
in 2002) and another (part-time) stint in English
Rogues with Gerry and Alex, and then Mick after
Alex’s untimely passing in 2003.
Things were generally quiet after that until getting
a call to play for
The V12 Soul band in 2006, as
ex-V12 drummer Chase Aitch
had joined my old mates in English Rogues!
Tony's Drum Kit is comprised of: |
