A new regular drum event hits the capital
In celebration of their position as new Premier Drums Flagship Retail Partner, London drum store Wembley Drum Centre hosted a special in-store event on Thursday 27 March as part of their regular Live & Sticking fixture.
Live & Sticking takes place on the last Thursday of every month and takes advantage of the store's newly contructed stage and audio set-up. It might look like a drum store display by day, but by night it converts into a fully functioning live stage with space to seat plenty of happy drummers, following by the chance for some late night drum shopping.
This, the second night (the first featured Pete Ray Biggin) was a Premier special, featuring Julien Brown (Massive Attack) and Pat Lundy (Funeral For A Friend) and provided both drummers with the chance to show off some skills as well as put some new Premier drums through their paces.
Julien Brown's performance
The kit that both drummers shared was from Premier's exquisite One Series and sounded seriously good, despite both drummers playing at distinctively different ends of the musical spectrum.
Kicking off the night was Julien Brown. His latest gig is double drum duty with Massive Attack and Julien has also played for Westlife, Kylie Minogue and various X Factor contestants in the past. He is a seriously hard working musician and used the event to talk about his career path from church to arenas, insterpsering conversation with some superb performances.
He kicked off his set with a nice fusion workout before laying into a brief but tasty hip-hop track. It was clear Julien is capable of anything and ending his segment by effortlessly jammng with a bass player was all the proof we needed. This was a great lesson in hard graft and dedication to self-improvement and evolution.
Pat Lundy
Next up was Pat Lundy who was clearly going to bring a different vibe and attitude to proceedings. Despite his day job, refreshingly Pat kicked off his set with a complex and dynamic track that took in drum & bass, dubstep and lots more in between, proving that he is certainly not a one trick pony. There were plenty of chops on display and some serious hand speed. A refreshing approach to a clinic track and at plus 10 minutes long it was a proper workout and much respect is due for his near-perfect performance.
Despite appearing a tad nervous (this was Pat's second ever clinic), his playing was impeccable and the FFAF tracks that followed showed his expertise at the heavier end of the spectrum. Definitely an emerging talent from the UK and despite little conversation with the crowd, his ability behind the kit speaks volumes.
Overall a great night and kudos to Wembley Drum Centre for investing in the facilities to host such a night. The healthy crowd and the famous faces amongst them suggests this is already a popular event and is set to become a great hang for drummers.
The next event takes place on 24 April and features Malefice drummer James Cook.