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Pete (Drums)
My biggest influences are John Henry Bonham - Led Zeppelin, who is THEE drumming deity, Cozy Powell (rock solid), Ian Paice (legend)-Deep Purple, Neil Peart (sublime)-Rush, Buddy Rich (Unsurpassed)-Jazz and finally because I’ve never had a lesson in my life, I met up with these two men and they both gave me great advise, the great Eric Delany-Jazz Big Drummer and Dave Kear alias Charlie Chuck-drummer/comedian.
I was always a restless child, tip tapping and generally being very noisy. At the age of 9/10, I started to get interested in girls and I really liked the look of the majorettes in the local juvenile Jazz Band, strutting their stuff in little mini skirts, so I decided to join as a drummer.
To my surprise, I almost enjoyed the drumming as much as watching the girls and soon became hooked on playing anything that made a noise when ‘hit with sticks’. I stuck with the marching band until I was 15/16, at the same time developing a love of rock music. My mates & I formed our first band at the age of 14, playing a bit of Quo, Lizzy, Sabbath etc.
At the age of 16, I played with several local bands in the Mansfield area with many of the local ‘muso’s’ of the time, several who are still around now. It was around this time I got to know Russ, who was working at the local Coal Mine where I was and we obviously got on, because we shared our love of music.
Throughout the 80’s, I played with many local bands such as Bad Axe, Sundown, Powerpack, Sacrilege, Karen & the Kittens and many more, playing mainly Rock and Blues, It was during this time I was involved in quite a bit of session and recording work with various artists, with one of the most memorable, drumming with Brian Connolly of the Sweet. The best time I had though, was touring America in 1984, with a Rock and Blues band for about 6 months, enjoying all the excesses of ‘gud ole Rock’n’Roll’.
I met up with Russ again not so long ago after he saw me in my other outfit, The Ruf and Reddy Band’. He asked me to fill in for him when his drummer couldn’t make a gig. The rest, as they say, is history.
I didn’t realise at the time, but I have shared the stage many a time with Rick in his days with Dawn Trader and Fire Brigade. I have also played for Old School a couple of times - not sure if Russ was with them at the time.
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