Graham Collins - Back Beating

Back in April, I had put down some rough drums on a demo for a local duo who are currently writing their first original album.

Aside from them working on this project, their regular day job, is as a full time professional corporate entertainment and wedding band, called Taylormade who play countrywide and have supplied live music for the likes of National Trust, Tesco, Marks & Spencer, the Armed Forces, Comet while having also appeared on the BBC.

In early June, I was delighted and humbled to be asked if I was interested in joining Taylormade on a full time basis.

Having never really played in this area of music, I knew it would be a challenge to me, but one I very much welcomed, so I took away a 30 song list from the meeting and an initial 12 dates to put in the diary.

Due to the wide range of rock, pop and soul that they perform, I had suggested that the electronic kit maybe the most productive kit option, allowing me to change kits and sound samples track to track, so I have been working with that and the two hour set list for the past couple of weeks in my studio.

It has certainly been a challenge to play many styles of music that I have never played before.
An excellent discipline in timing and finding solutions to rhythms that did not initially sit comfortably with my style of playing, while rehearsing in 40c has been an excellent way to lose weight and get fit again!

We met up on the final day of June to run the 'e' kit using the 2Box module at it's heart, through their PA. Everyone was delighted with the sound results and the 1st July sees the first of 3 rehearsals before my first show with Taylormade in Worcester on July 10th.

The next few months will see shows come thick and fast, so exciting times lay ahead!