Monthly Roundup #13 - March '19

March was a pretty full on month, with functions every Saturday (minus one where I had a band call!), gigging with an Eagles tribute band, and a couple of shows to top it off - on top of the usual teaching, of course! So it’s been a busy one, but a lot of fun!

The first gig of March was with local function band, “The Rhythm Crew”, where we were playing a nice local hotel gig. Musically, it’s mostly dance floor favourites, ranging from ABBA to Dolly Parton and Elvis to Donna Summer. The band is made up of a really nice bunch of guys, so we always have a laugh on these gigs! We were out on all but one Saturday in March, so saw plenty of each other which was a pleasure!

My go-to setup for “The Rhythm Crew” gigs.

The next gig was with Eagles tribute band, “Alter Eagles”. My last gig with them was back in October when I last depped for their regular drummer, so it had been a few months, but for the rest of this year there are quite a few more outings with them as their regular drummer has had to step down in order to take on a touring theatre show. As such, myself and a couple of other guys will be filling in the band’s dates until the end of the year, so I’m looking forward to getting to know the music a bit better over this time.

Tight squeeze for the Alter Eagles gig this time around - had to sacrifice the 2nd floor tom! Also, having to mix and match my Brooklyn drums to get a 10” and 12” along with the 22” bass drum!

The rest of that weekend involved another night with the “Rhythm Crew”, and a band call for an upcoming run of “Bugsy Malone”. Following that, there was a slightly quieter week before another “Rhythm Crew” outing the following Saturday too. Then the run of “Bugsy” started, which was a fun little show, as always! My drums and I did manage to escape any “splurge”, but the same couldn’t be said for the reeds, who seemed to be in a more vulnerable position in the pit!

Set for “Bugsy Malone”

The following week was another show, this time, “Cabaret”. It’s a show I’ve done before and really enjoy the music from, and adding to the enjoyment was the wonderful 16-piece band (I think it was 16, anyway!). We were on a platform on show above the stage for this production, so had to be on our best behaviour during the show, but fortunately didn’t get roped in to wearing costumes as was a potential threat at the band call(!), but it was all good fun. It was also another chance to pull out my rather special 1940’s Premier snare, which did the job wonderfully!

Set for “Cabaret”

The last outing of the month was back where I started with function band, “The Rhythm Crew” at another local hotel. As always, it was a fun gig with a great bunch of guys, and a local gig is always a bonus - packed up and home within an hour of the last note of the gig - nice!

Another Rhythm Crew outing

Finally, there was another “drum hang”. It actually fell at the beginning of April this time, but let’s keep with the monthly theme and mention it here! Once more, it was great to get together with a load of like-minded drummers and hang out. This time, we each brought along some cymbal selections to show each other, so we were rather spoilt for those!

That’s a wrap for my antics over March! I’ve more-or-less got a couple of weeks off over the Easter holidays (minus a couple of gigs) which will be nice, so after a couple of busy show weeks I shall look forward to seeing my wife again to remind her what I look like! Despite the busyness though, it’s been a really good month with lots of variety, and I’ve really enjoyed making lots of very different music with lots of wonderful people - so I can’t ask for much better than that! As always, I hope you’ve found this vaguely interesting and well done if you’ve made it this far…! I shall catch you again next time! All the best, Ed.