Daintees Diaries Pt. 3

Welcome to Part 3 of Daintees Diaries! Wrapping up the end of 2021 with a quartet of very fine shows indeed! Prepare for a few words, plenty of photos and some drum chat too!

Starting with the final 3 dates of the tour, picking up the action in Sheffield at Crookes Social Club. Now this is a rather legendary room in its own right, hosting the likes of Def Leppard in their very early days, and even featuring in the recent ‘Everybody's Talking About Jamie’ Movie. A fine venue indeed, and a wonderful gig that followed, as you’d expect this deep into the tour, the musicianship was reaching new heights up there. Martin as always was in fine form, sharing many an anecdote threading one song after another, rather wonderful indeed!

*Rocking Sheffield, L-R; Spider, Rupert, Me, Martin, Gary, Adrian. (Photo - Craig Heron)*

*A moment of quiet before the fun began! (Photo - Craig Heron)*

From Sheffield to Manchester (via Durham for a Panto band call - very different indeed!) and to St Clement’s Church in Chorlton. This would be the most stripped back gig of the tour, no frills, just letting the music do the talking, and boy were the audience in for a treat, with a near 2hr long set of Martin’s classics and a few deeper cuts played to a very welcoming audience in a simply magnificent setting.

Now in such a room as this you really don’t want a loud obnoxious drum kit, so I opted to strip my setup right back to basics, and channel a bit of my inner skiffle, with just snare, hi hat and ride cymbal at my disposal. Using brushes for that subtle but expressive tone that just sat right with the band level wise, especially considering there was no instrument mics onstage (nor were they needed), quietness was key!

*This was some backdrop, and amazing acoustics too! (Photo - Joanna Rutherford)*

*Hiding in the shadows… (Photo - Mo Dixon)*

*As stripped back as it gets, more gear talk later on!*

A great night in Manchester was followed by a small detour the following day to go and see my pal Pesky at Nicko McBrain’s Drum One over on Trafford Park. Phil is a legend of the drum biz and really knows his stuff, we chatted over coffee in the shop for a good hour before stocking up on a few essentials in the stick dept! I could’ve stayed there all day, but I couldn’t leave without posing for a quick pic with Nicko’s Somewhere Back In Time Tour kit, oh and someone took a sneaky selfie!

After Manchester, we were headed to a sold out show at Sage 2 in Gateshead, and what a triumphant finale for the tour it was! A homecoming show was always going to be a particularly special one, and the pressure was really on to deliver the goods! Not only was it sold out, I had some family in (always special!) and the presence of a camera crew filming the show, hopefully to be released down the line, meant there was really nowhere to hide on this one. The lineup for this finale was a biggie too, Martin leading as ever, with Gary Dunn on guitar duties, Adrian Dunn and Chris Mordey on duelling basses all night, Yours truly in the drum stool, Finn McArdle on percussion, Spider MacKenzie on Harps, Bruce Michie on all things Brass, and Anna Lavigne guesting vocals for a couple of tunes too. Certainly a troupe not to be messed with!

*Quite the lineup! (Photo - Deborah Carney)*

*Snapped in Soundcheck (Photo - Spider MacKenzie)*

Some wonderful shots below from Anna Lavigne, from both soundcheck and the show…

Wrapping up the year, a bonus non-tour related gig at Butlins Skegness for the Great British Folk Festival, on after Tom Robinson (which is a hard act for anyone to follow!) who’d played a great solo set. Lineup for this one was as stripped back as it gets, Martin, Gary, Chris, Anna and me, though we were graced with Tom’s presence for some guest backing vocals (and high class dance moves) on Harajuka Punks!

*On stage in Butlins, with Tom Robinson (Photo - Gary Oldfield)*

Geartalk…Part 3

Keeping it compact; Just sticking with a snare, hats and ride means choice is everything. The snare was an easy one, the newly acquired British Drum Co. Maverick was a perfect option, so sensitive which suits any volume level, from the brushes of Chorlton to the big hits of the Sage! Cymbals stayed very simple too, sticking with the 18” Zildjian 60’s A ride, and some Sabian 13” AA Regular hats. Brushes of choice were the Vic Firth Steve Gadd models, and some Promark Cool Rods on standby incase I needed a little more clout for anything (Though they just ended up being used for the cross stick on Boat To Bolivia in the end!)

For the Sheffield and Sage gigs it was the full setup pretty much as per the previous Daintees Diaries post, with one notable exception…the snare!

As you may or may not have seen, the snare collection grew a number back in November, with the addition of a British Drum Company Maverick snare. The Maverick had been on my radar for a while, and i’m not going to lie, i’ve been wanting a BDC since I first saw their drums back when they launched! The Maverick has a 10 ply Maple shell with the outer ply being some gorgeously figured eucalyptus. Palladium hardware all round, with an attention to detail you just don’t see from so many other companies. This snare just oozes class, and the thin shell gives a wonderful resonance, but with superb articulation and clarity across the head. Perfect for these gigs in other words! Anyway, enjoy plenty of Sage setup pics now!

Groovecast Ep. 7: 2021 Recap

2021 In Review