Tales From The Sticks - Two

It's very late, but I did promise more on drum sticks...

That was because I was getting some funny looks on the train on the way into London, when I spent a considerable amount of time winding large, blue rubber bands around the ends of a couple of old sticks.

They were a present, of sorts, for a stickless drummer who needed a pair of beaters which could also be reversed to double as ordinary sticks. I had to pass them on to someone who could then pass them on to him in time for a special performance (which I couldn't get to).

Special, because it was born out of a series of music workshops at Crisis (the charity for the homeless) where I've been doing volunteer work for several months, as part of my training to be a music workshop leader.

And a present, because if I'd passed on a pair of my own beaters/sticks, I might not have seen them again.

Appalled at the number of red rubber bands deposited on the streets by postal workers, I had found a while back that they could be used to create rubber beaters of varying sizes, simply by wrapping them around and around the ends of old or damaged sticks.

Hence my quick manufacture of a pair on the London train. With those regular "If you see anything suspicious..." announcements being made, I became conscious that commuters were eyeing me as a potential security risk. But no one could bring themselves to ask me what the hell I was up to...

Tales From The Sticks - Part One

I promised to write more about sticks. Those not interested in drumming should look away now...

Without sticks, you are generally in some difficulty. Yes, you can play with your hands. And even though John Bonham was known to do it, it doesn't really look so cool...

Drummers love sticks. Some of them spend a lifetime looking for the right ones.

To me, Vic Firth American Classic 7As are perfection. But the more you play, the more sticks you have to buy. Like everything else, they don't last forever...

I called in to a shop in London just to buy a couple of pairs, and inevitably got talking about drums. This is, of course, the main reason for visiting drum stores, to look at drums and to discuss them in fine detail.

I asked what the drummer who used to run the shop was doing now. "Spending more time with his wife," I was told bluntly. "Something he should have done 10 years ago."

The ensuing conversation focused on the links between drumming, divorce and self-destruction. The chap now running the store, previously a full-time professional drummer, had been through his divorce some time back. Gigging every night, even though it was to pay the bills, hadn't gone down well at home. "She knew I was a drummer when we married, but... "

I said I knew it was rare to find a partner who understood about drumming, gigging, being in a band.

He said: "If it's any consolation, just about every full-time musician playing in the West End is divorced."

The conversation turned to drink and drugs (the time-honoured ways of the musician to deal with stresses of all sorts), and in particular to Phil Seamen (the man from whom Ginger Baker got a lot of his Ginger Bakeriness). We had both seen him play.

Seamen dealt with the strains by using cigarettes, alcohol and heroin. He died at 46, having made a name for himself as a drumming genius... but a walking disaster area.

I took my two pairs of sticks, thanked the man in the shop. And we wished each other well in keeping on going...