Hard to believe 4 months has flown by since my last blog update! It’s been a busy time, one way or another. December and 2 weeks of January were mostly taken up by around 60 sold out shows at the London Palladium. It was a joy to work with some old friends and to make some new ones, and work daily on a set of Yamaha Recording Custom drums. This set could almost be classed as vintage now - they were all made in 1986 - and they just sound great. Together with a set of Paiste Masters Custom cymbals (14” Dark Hats, 16 & 18” Dark Crashes and a 20” Dark Crash Ride) it was a joy to get to work…. And my December blog suspicions were correct -  it was, in varying degrees, mayhem, hectic, participatory, noisy and busy!

January 16 saw me heading to South India for a two week respite before coming home to start work for 10 weeks on the the UK tour of a new show called Wonderland - based on Alice’s adventures therein. With music by Frank Wildhorn, this is a new take on the classic Adventures In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass.

I should mention my friend Stu Roberts who played the first two weeks of the show for me in Edinburgh and went well beyond the call of duty to do so! Stu, you know what I mean and I thank you!! The adventure continues!!!

I’ll be leaving the Wonderland tour to work on the opening of the much anticipated The Addams Family … So it’ll be back to Edinburgh (April 20-29) and then wherever the road takes me for the summer months.

Check out The Addams Family website for more details and tour schedule.

We also have a new addition in the Shop with Jim Blackley’s magnificent book The Essence of Jazz Drumming becoming available again from around the middle of April. This is an amazing book from Jim that will open many doors across all musical styles and was the original inspiration for my practise resource Meet the Bass Player Vol.1.

I'll be continuing my teaching schedule as and when my playing commitments allow so do get in touch if a lesson or two is of interest or see the teaching page for more information.

Contact me by email and we’ll get it together.

So, see you on the road!

All best wishes

Al