Daintees Diaries Pt. 5

*Doing the bit in Glasgow (Photo: Kevin Kerr)*

Here again with another edition of Daintees Diaries, as we get the 2022 tour underway! So far we’ve covered Sunderland, North Shields, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Liverpool, and we’ve only just begun!

Starting with a lovely local gig at The Peacock in Sunderland, with Martin, Gary and Adrian, in a lovely room (apart from the staircase you have to climb to get in!). This gig was a great ease in to the tour, going back to playing the classic Daintees material, as well as a few additions (which were a surprise on the night in some cases) and the first time we’d played a Daintees gig since Alnwick and Sunderland shows over the summer, about 3 months ago! This was also the first run out using the Hipgig kit i’ve recently purchased from Paul Smith, a kit thats been in the family for about 22 years now, and has retired from his arsenal and moved over into mine. Mighty fine it was too, I won't bore you with the details just yet though, keep reading on for that! Oh, I also debuted a new cap! (See dressing room selfie!)

From Sunderland to North Shields (not a great distance it must be said!) for 2 nights at Three Tanners Bank, with an all original Daintees front line for the first time this tour, welcoming Anth Dunn back onto the stage again which was great, and he’ll be making plenty more appearances this tour (and in this blog). 2 Great gigs, really intimate and with great crowds. We felt tight on stage too, things fell in nicely, just how we like it!

From North Shields up to Scotland next, returning again to 2 great venues, firstly The Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh. We played here on the last tour in 2021, and it’s a great room, lovely sound (with a great in house engineer) and great vibe to it. An intimate audience enjoying every moment of the set is what we always like to see, and thats exactly what we got! Martin was on fire, Gary playing great and there was some fine groove-age from Adrian and I in the engine room. Also we had the great Nicky Murray joining us on these Scottish dates as support act, and he was playing some great tunes too, and will be back out with us again towards the latter end of the tour. We stayed over in the most homely of farmhouses out in the middle of nowhere in Kirkcaldy, so picturesque and a great spot for a morning walk before heading for Glasgow! Martin and Anna really went to town to look after us all (as they always do!) and the farmhouse kitchen was fully stocked for post show and breakfast options galore! Bacon and eggs consumed and on to Glasgow it was, via a stop off for me to see the guys at Drummer’s Only for a few supplies for the Yamaha kit (more on that later) that I have on this part of the tour, as well as popping with Gary to pick up one of his guitars from a luthier giving it some TLC. Again the venue for the gig was the same as the previous tour, Oran Mor. A cool, vibe-y basement venue beneath a church, with a great setup and crew once again, as well as friend of the band Kevin Kerr in taking some great pics (more of these to come once I have them - but they are well worth waiting for!). I’ll let the pics do the talking, some highlights of 2 nights up in Bonnie Scotland!

Next stop was Liverpool at the rather lovely Philharmonic Music Room. Having played the Philharmonic Hall next door with the Islands in the stream show before, it was nice to see what the smaller venue had to offer. Once again a great in house team looking after us, and a great sounding space. With an excellent post-soundcheck pizza thanks to Rudy’s down the road. A packed out room as we took to the stage, with Anth with us on bass again for this gig, and a great feel all-round. Couldn’t ask for any better than that could we!

Talking Drums (a continuation on last tour’s gear rambles)

As with the last Daintees tour back in 2021, different shows and travel requirements mean i’ve used a couple of different setups so far, fluttering between 2 different rigs depending on what’s happening. For the 2 dates in North Shields and last week in Liverpool I had my typical working kit out, the Natal Originals Maple in black sparkle, 20x12”, 12x7”, 14x12” complimented by a new snare acquisition, a 14x5” Gretsch 4160 Chrome over brass from the early 70’s. This setup sounds great wherever you put it, and is pretty much my go to setup for just about anything (though the snare will change all the time depending what I fancy!).

To make logistics easier on a few gigs (car sharing etc.) I needed to use something a little smaller, enter the Yamaha Al Foster Hipgig kit. Now don’t get me wrong this isn’t the smallest kit in the world, but its a great halfway house, without compromising on sound at all, proper sized drums that sound beautiful, option to nest them (though personally I don’t), less hardware to carry and 1 less drum bag (as the snare and ‘floor‘ tom fit into a bag together. The sizes are as follows, 18x22” (yes 22” deep!), 12x6.5”, 14x8.5” and a 13x5” matching snare (with added Yamaha Groove Wedge and Snareweight M1), all mount to the bass drum which is really nifty, and I even get the ride cymbal on there with a clamp. This kit was ideal on the Scottish gigs, and also the Peacock in Sunderland (because of its upstairs load in) and will be invaluable on the upcoming London gig too. This kit is a real favourite to take out, the bass drum alone is one of my favourites to hear, really focused and with a ton of projection, and the toms sing nicely. The snare, for a 13” is something wonderful too, it really doesn’t sound or behave like a piccolo, more like a regular 14” drum, with no fancy heads, just a good old Evans G1 coated.

Cymbal wise on both rigs it’s the usual bunch, 13” Sabian AA Regular Hats, 16” Zildjian K Custom Session crash, 17” Zildjian A Thin Crash, 60’s Zildjian 18” Avedis Heavy ride.

Again I was using Tama Classic Hardware, Gibraltar throne, Protection Racket & Ahead cases, Drummer’s Brainchild Brush holder, Vic Firth SSG2 Natural finish Steve Gadd models, VF Gadd brushes and a Peter Erskine model felt VicKick VKB5 bass drum beater. I think that completes the drummist info!

Now I may not be on the next few tour dates because of the panto stuff (oh yes it is that time again!) but if its coming your way you’d be mad to miss a Daintees show! I’ll be back on them from Hebden Bridge onwards, till the end of the run, climaxing with an incredible show at 229 in London with the legendary Tom Robinson popping along to sing some of his classics. Now that really is a gig not to be missed! All the info for all the dates below! But on that note we’ll wrap up another Daintees Diaries, and i’ll try and get another update in at the end of the tour or early next year with more of the same!

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