ANDREWS PAGE
Must Ash is the first tribute and covers only band I’ve played in, before this it has always been mainly original material I played with a few covers thrown in. So, with Must Ash there is no change really in the way our audience views us as most of the Ash songs might as well be originals to the great unwashed out there! I am a seasoned veteran to the ‘play us something we know’ shouts.
I started playing with the side drum in the Boys Brigade marching band. I recall this involving hours of practising double stroke rolls on a bread board at home! I progressed to my first kit and rock music when I was 16, and played with several different musicians in bands with such joyous names as “The Pickled Babies” and “Stolen Waters” over my teenage years and early twenties. The couple of photos included here prove that I was once young, and had a drum kit which was small enough not to obscure the bass player’s stack.
My first kit had an unnerving quirk in that the bass drum mount for the crash cymbal was none too robust and on a regular basis in the middle of a song it would drop back into the drum taking the cymbal with it making an almighty noise!
The bass and tom had wooden hoops and calfskin heads too. A real vintage piece it was.
My drum hero has got to be Larry Mullen (U2). Being a fan of theirs since 1980, I learnt and could play the drum parts for every song off their first album ‘Boy’ when I was 17.
I had a lengthy 10 years break from bashing the skins when my two kids arrived on the scene, but got back into it returning to the drumming world with Must Ash a few years ago. The diversity and complexity of the Wishbone songs makes it all very interesting and never a dull moment, dare I say never quite the same song twice!
The good thing about playing now is that I have infinitely more available funds to lavish on kit than I had when I was in my teens not earning. Wife permitting of course.
This has enabled me to assemble my current setup, and take full advantage of the wonderful trading that can be had on ebay for drum related gear.
My current setup is as follows:
Premier Artist Maple kit – 10”, 12”, 13” toms, 16” floor tom, 22” bass.
Snares – matching Premier Artist Maple 14”, or a Pearl Free Floating Copper Piccolo Snare.
Cymbals are Sabian with the exception of an old Paiste 2000 10” Splash I still like, the collection comprising:
14” HHX Stage Hats
17” Vault Series Crash
15” AAX Stage Crash
18” Hand Hammered Thin Crash
16” HHX stage Crash
20” Hand Hammered Leopard Ride, or 22” Hand Hammered Raw Dry ride (though I’m not really sure I’m 100% with either of these so they may appear on ebay soon – if I can acquire a 21” Phil Collins Hand hammered Raw bell dry ride!)
Lifetime devotee of Remo heads – Pinstripes on Toms, Powerstroke with falam slam on the bass. Piccolo snare is a coated Ambassador, but on the Artist snare I use an Evans Genera ‘Dry’ head.
Oh, and of course my drum mat – a roll of old blue carpet …”Smell those Touareg campfires Boff”.
