There’s only one place to start a round-up of September – Rhythm’s 25^th birthday! We celebrated in style by interviewing a heap (25 to be precise, see what we did there) drum icons.We also looked back on some of our favourite ever Rhythm covers.

We also found time to talk to Tommy Lee about his plans for a drum riser rollercoaster. He told us that he thinks he’s pretty much got it figured out. Look at for that one at a venue near you.

In the gear world we all sniggered when the Bum Chum turned up in the office. Then we tried the monitoring system for ourselves and fell in love with the Bum Chum. Then they went and changed the name to the BC2, phew.

The bombshell of the month (and possibly the year) came as news filtered through that Mike Portnoy had left Dream Theater. At the time of writing a replacement is yet to be announced, but we’re told that DT have found their new. That’s some pretty huge shoes to fill.