Merry Christmas It’s December 21st and I don’t have another show until the 27th! Since my last blog it’s been non-stop. A trip to Australia, Solo shows, TV show and a new album. I guess its now time to relax…. with family. The 60s Gold tour finished in Manchester on November 1st and on November 3rd at 10.40pm I was sitting on a plane, in business class on the way to Australia to do our final Rock the Boat of 2016. We arrived in Brisbane at 7am on the 5th. This was the first time we have flown business class to Australia. We normally go economy, but now we have experienced business, I doubt we can go back to cattle class. The acts on this Rock the Boat 6 are Chubby Checker, Gary Puckett, The Fortunes, P J Proby, The Troggs, The Pacemakers, a few Australian bands and us. All the bands arrive in dribs and drabs at the Hilton, Brisbane during the day and after a few hours sleep, some food and a little walk round the shopping centre, it’s suddenly early evening. Next door to the hotel is an Irish pub and it would be rude not to visit. Fair play to the band playing that night. They were not fazed by the fact they had so many 60s acts watching them. They even asked us to get up and jam with them, an offer we turned down due to excess alcohol. I returned to my hotel room around 3am. Now jet lag is an amazing thing, at 6am I was up wide-awake. No way was I getting any more sleep. I ended up getting showered, dressed and going out for a walk round Brisbane. During this walk I bumped into the bassist from The Pacemakers, who was also struggling to sleep. We returned to the hotel around 7.30am, just in time for breakfast. Perfect timing! All the acts then made their way to the Legend of the Seas, owned by Royal Caribbean. Not the biggest ship in the World, but its home for the net 7 days. It’s Sunday and our show day is Wednesday. We have 2 sea days, 2 island days, then 2 sea days before flying home from Brisbane. The American musicians for Chubby and Gary are not only amazing musicians, but also they are some of the most funny, friendly partygoers you will ever meet. Harry (Chubbys drummer) myself and Fabrizio (Australian drummer) have ended up becoming real good friends and there is footage of all 3 of us messing around on the last night at the Finale. Once we arrived home, its straight back to our solo shows and I also take delivery of my brand new Liberty drums. Liberty drums are 10 years old this year, which is no mean feat in this industry. I spoke to CEO Andrew Street in October at his factory and we chatted for ages. Just before I left for Oz we had another chat by phone and I am proud to announce, I am endorsed by Liberty drums. I have 2 kits; a Searchers kit and studio kit and both with my Istanbul Mehmet cymbals look and sound amazing. In my ‘spare’ time I also helped a couple of other bands with their albums. On one studio session I turned up early and recorded a quick video showing the equipment I use. This can be found here https://youtu.be/NnjIOIICIGM There is also footage of me playing with The Searchers, before my GoPro battery died. And my other band, The Pocket gods have recorded a new album, 100xmas30 That’s right, 100 30 second Christmas songs and we have just found out that for the 2nd time this year, we are again in the Guinness book of records for the most amount of songs on a cd. The album to date seems to be doing ok. The Pocket gods are also the ‘house band’ for NUB TV music show, so most Thursdays when I’m not on Searchers duty, I join Mark and Noel in the house band. The TV show is an hour long and the host Steve Blacknell each week chats to 2 celebrities from the industry and we, the house band, play 1 of their hits as they walk to the couch. We also write a 30 second song about that days show, which we perform at the end. We have just finished filming the Christmas day show, which was a right laugh to film. The guests were Lee e John (Imagination) and Mike Berry. All Searchers shows in December are classed as Christmas shows. We sing loads of Christmas songs at the end of the show and the audience normally wear Christmas jumpers/costumes with lights and glow sticks. These shows are great fun and the view from the drum throne is spectacular most nights. Our last show was on the 18th December at Hull. This was the bands 29th consecutive Christmas show in Hull and tickets for next years 30th anniversary show are already on sale and nearly sold out. Its now time for me to enjoy some family time, I hope you all have a great Christmas and I hope you have an amazing 2017! Take care, keep drumming and see you all next year Scott

As I write this, I am sat back stage at the Royal Concert hall, Glasgow. The 60s Gold tour is about to start at 7.30pm and we are not on till 9.35pm! This tour started on 20th September in Reading and has been to Southampton, Cardiff, Gateshead, Plymouth, Bristol, Southend and many more venues. Sadly they all do drift into one after a while. Tomorrow we travel to Inverness to do 2 shows, 5.45pm and 9.45pm! This tour finishes in Manchester on November 1st and then all the acts fly to Australia on November 3rd to play on a cruise ship for a week on a Rock the Boat cruise. This tour has already done 1 Rock the Boat cruise, which left Southampton on September 30th on board The Celebrity cruise ship, Eclipse. It was a 3 day cruise stopping in Bruggs and Cherbourg, before heading back to Southampton. This is the life I lead at the moment! Every day is a different venue and a different part of the UK or the World. On this 60s Gold tour, Nick Woolgar is the main drummer backing the other acts, who are: Wayne Fontana, PJ Proby, Brian Poole, Chip Hawkes, Dave Munden and from the US Gary Puckett. Because of this we are using his Sakae kit with my 16” and 17” traditional crash and 20” ride and his 12” hihats (which I don’t like) The Searchers solo shows resume again on 17th November and I shall be sat behind my own kit (that will be changing, but more on that next time) and my own 14” hihats! With a tour this big, we do have a tour manager and catering. Sadly most of the food on offer is chocolate, crisps and pasties, which does not help my waste line one bit. Sat back stage for so long, you rely heavily on free wifi. I spend a lot of my time watching Netflix, youtube drumming videos and reading books. My current book is Phil Collins autobiography, which I am finding to be a great read. You also grow to hate road closures and motorways! Inbetween the 60s Gold tour, I have also been recording in the studio, playing live and recording a tv show advert with The Pocket Gods. Mark Lee, the lead singer has managed to get his own tv show every Sunday night on Sky, Virgin and Freeview. It starts on November 13th at 10pm. Sadly because of my touring schedule, the first three shows I won't be involved with, but after that, unless my dep is better, I should be on your tv Sunday nights Well, its nearly time for me to get suited and booted and on stage to play the hits. Take care and see you all real soon. Scott

Good evening people, It’s been a while since I wrote on here, but I thought I would talk about the new show I am doing and my cymbal choice!  I am happy to announce that I am now drumming for The Phil Collins Experience which boasts a 10 piece live band starring ‘DEANO’ the UK's no1 Phil Collins tribute artiste and impersonator. The show is a two hour production covering Phil Collins & Genesis greatest hits…‘Sussudio’ ‘In The Air Tonight’ ‘Against All Odds’ ‘Invisible Touch' 'I Can't Dance' to name a few.  It also features songs from Phil’s Oscar winning movie soundtrack ‘Tarzan’. With playing such a back catalogue of songs, I was after bright sounding cymbals for the show, so I tried my Radiants cymbals, but for some reason, they did not seem to be working for me. I then tried my Session series cymbals,which provided me with the sound I was after. I knew from playing the first song that using this model was the right decision.  They really are a versatile all - around cymbal! they have a mixture of the Radiants and the Traditional in there! Playing with a 10 piece band, I needed a  pair of hi hats that would cut through the band and these do! If you have not seen the hi hats, please check them out, they are impressive, they have a  heavy bottom which gives a very crisp sound! Now for my ride cymbal, I have a number of different ride cymbals, and I always find myself using the same one, my 21” 50’s Nostalgia, however this time I have gone for a 21” Session Ride, whats good about this is that it has a power bell on it, this is little bigger than the usual bells! With a lot of songs we are playing, I find myself doing a lot of bell work, so this cymbal is just right! My set up on this show consists off: 14” Hi Hats & 13” Hi Hats 8” 10” & 12” Splash, I am using this as a stack cymbal, it sounds killer in songs like Sussudio. 18” 19” & 20” Crash 15” Holy Crash 18” & 20” China 21” Ride My next couple of shows with The Phil Collins Experience are: Friday 16th September -Winding Wheel Theatre, Chesterfield Saturday 17th September-Thwaites Empire Theatre, Blackburn Until next time .... Rick

Hello!  I am currently on the road with Big Boy Bloater and the LiMiTs, touring our new album, Luxury Hobo.  Following on from my last blog when I was on tour with CASH and choosing cymbals based on a vintage sound, I thought would write a little about my experiences recording with my Istanbul Mehmet cymbals and also how I have had to adapt some of the recorded sounds for live situations. STUDIO SECRETS It's no big secret that all musicians have a variety of different instruments for use in the studio than those we usually see used on stage.  It's also no secret that certain producers have favourite drums/amps/guitars etc that they like to use on their sessions.  I recall at least one session where I arrived at the studio to find a vintage kit, fully tuned/pre-muffled and complete with particular bass drum beater selected and cymbals that had been muted with gaffa tape for a particular sound, all mic'd up and ready to go - the producer clearly had very strong ideas on what sounds he wanted on the recording!  This isn't always the case of course and out choice of instruments can be just as important as how we play them when getting booked for a session ... EXPERIMENTATION Like many of you, I have done all kinds of sessions - demos, albums, library music etc.  Sometimes you know that will never play the songs again (as with a library music session), sometimes you know you'll be touring the songs you are recording at a later date.  Whatever the case, the music rules and as such selecting the right instruments for recording is imperative! I have my favourite cymbals that are my 'go to' set and experience tells me that they record beautifully, have clear bell sounds and are well balanced with a nice pitch difference between each size when crashed or used as rides; my old faithful 22" Nostalgia 50's, 20" Nostalgia 70's and 15" Nostalgia Hats usually do the job for me.  Add to that an 18" Nostalgia and I have most bases covered - for my own tastes at least!  Although I adore the sound of this set and find them to be incredibly versatile, I have to professionally admit that they are not ideal for every song on every session - some producers and indeed many songs themselves have different ideas - as the old studio saying goes ... "The Song Rules"!! When I was working with Elliot Ireland and Geoff Smith on the Dawn Songs album, the brief was for a big wide-open feel, but not necessarily traditional cymbal sounds - 'cinematic', 'big', 'washy', trashy', 'metallic', edgy' and 'layered' were some of the words used to describe what was required.  We set the drums up in a huge warehouse space that had natural 'verb for miles - the sound was HUGE!  I knew I wouldn't be replicating these sounds on stage so to get the right sounds I experimented with my cymbals a lot of this session and in the process I got to overlay all kinds of cool stuff.  The basic cymbal set up was a 22" El Negro Light Ride, which has 8 rivets, with 20" 70's Nostalgia and 22" 50's Nostalgia and 15" hats with all cymbals interchangeable as rides and crashes.  On some tracks I used a pair of 18" crashes as hats for a full dark trashy sound and I also overlaid various stacks - my favourite of the session being a 20" Turk China with 18" Nostalgia on top which sounded great!  One take even had a stack of 3 cymbals on top of a 22" El Negro Flat Ride which was beaten with a soft mallet.  This sounded incredible on the ambient mic's - nothing like cymbals at all with all that natural room reverb, but an amazingly subtle texture when brought into the mix!  All of this experimentation made for the big cinematic sounds Geoff and Elliot were after - thankfully, nothing that I would have to replicate on stage! Knowing I would be touring the songs, I used a much more traditional approach when recording Luxury Hobo.  I used my 'go to' set as the basis for the whole album but with some odd changes as dictated by the songs - in addition to my regular set I brought a 20" Turk China, my riveted El Negro Ride and Flat ride amongst other old cymbals to the studio. I used the China cymbal most notably on the title track 'Luxury Hobo Blues' and also on the Tom Waits-esque 'I Got The Feeling Someone's Watching Me'.  As its' use is subtle on the album, I have decided to stick with the basic Nostalgia set when playing these songs live.  Over the years, I have found that some songs seem to work better on stage with a more traditional kit & cymbal approach despite what was used on the recording; that some of the studio subtlety does not always translate well to a live situation.  That said, I'm using various percussion sounds from the album on the gigs - tambourines, a pandeiro, a BFSD head on some songs, making changes in-between songs during set.  To be brutally honest, not bringing an additional China or effects cymbals for one or two songs in the set has also helped me not to over complicate my set up on stage! Given the volume we play live, I decided not to bring my El Negro Light Ride on the road for fear of damage due to mis-treatment every night!  That's the cymbal you hear on 'I Love You But Can't Stand Your Friends' though, and to replicate the trashy crashes of that song in the set, I stack an 18" Nostalgia on top of my 22" 50's ride.  That combination sounds great on stage and records wonderfully too - it's also the ride and crash sound you hear on 'It Came Out Of The Swamp'! On all the tracks are my 15" Nostalgia Hi Hats - possibly my most favourite cymbals of all time!  I get to tip my hat, (but come nowhere close) to Earl Palmer and Bonzo on the opening track 'Devils Not Angels' and the pitch & weight of those cymbals is perfect for the song.  Exactly the same with the Al Jackson/Howard Grimes inspired stomp of 'All Things Considered'.  Those hats sound great both in the studio and on stage, they are very musical and warm with the ability to really cut through when needed.  There are minimal percussion overdubs on the album and most of the percussion you hear was part of the kit - the cowbell, pandeiro etc, and I usually lay an old wooden tambourine on top of my hi hat for some added jingle!  You can hear that one on 'The Devils Tail' and 'Luxury Hobo Blues' - it's something I've used on stage for quite some time now. Translating some recorded sounds to a live situation can prove more difficult.  As drummers, we can't always know how our recorded parts will come out on a finished mix unless we are producing.  A recent case in point is the beautiful finished mix of Robert Ray's 'Love Curse' single.  The post production process has taken the sounds of my original recorded drum take somewhere else altogether and there's no way I can replicate the sounds on the record on an acoustic kit - in this case, we've been approaching the song in a much more organic & traditional way on stage recently, making sure we play with the subtlety of the record! MAKE THEM SOUND MORE PURPLE! Well, that's just a little insight into how I'm using my Mehmet's in the studio and translating some of the sounds onto the stage.  Of course, there have been sessions where the producer asks for my cymbals to sound 'more purple' or 'like Ringo' or 'like a tropical thunder storm' ... yup, all real producer requests!!  (Still not sure how we made the 'purple' request work!!).  All I can say to that is to make sure you have a great set of versatile cymbals you know you can rely on and a choice selection of different sounds you can pull out of the bag when needed! So if you haven't already done so, get experimenting next time you're on a session and see what sounds will work when you take the songs to the stage! For anyone interested, 'Dawn Songs' by Geoff Smith and Elliot Ireland, 'Love Curse' by Robert Ray and 'Luxury Hobo' by Big Boy Bloater and the Limits are all available from the usual places online - iTunes, Amazon etc! Catch you next time :) Matt