Drumfest 2003

Reviewed by: Dawn Rose
Rhythm Magazine

Those who suffered withdrawal symptoms after last year’s annual Drumfest was cancelled are duly compensated this year with a truly stellar show. Featuring Jason Bowld, Pete Zeldman, Mark Mondesir, Zoro, Ian Paice and Gregg Bissonette – plus an Ozzy Osbourne impersonator as compere – the Midlands’ much-loved festival was back with a punch.

Jason Bowld (ex-Pitchshifter) kicks off proceedings full of fire and raw energy. His sound is simply awesome and he explains that the essence of being a drummer is to establish the groove for whichever type of music you are playing. The only difference with heavy music is you can’t stop when you’re knackered! ‘Superclean’ and ‘Cyber Head’, from his Pitchshifter days get an airing which utilise syncopation and dynamics in the extreme. Just when you think he can’t possibly squeeze out any more intensity, he shifts gear and powers it up again. His motto: start twice as slow as you want to play and you’ll get to where you want to go twice as fast. Wise words.

Pete Zeldman plays without backing tracks and displays absolute independence. His genius-tinged use of ghosted left-hand notes makes him sound like several drummers playing at once. To experience such delicious complexity is a rare treat indeed. He chooses speed of notes for his topic of discussion and demonstrates his ideas by playing four on the snare, with five on the hi-hat, three on the rim and seven on the floor. The audience simply gasp with amazement at such magical and explosive drumming skills. 


Brit-drumming hero Mark Mondesir appears to a very warm welcome. His kit sound is fat and juicy as he starts off with a freestyle solo and moves on to explore ideas with a sampled loop. His exquisite touch and timing charms his kit as he coaxes, manipulates and plays with sounds. Even at top speed he is tom cat-cool. His Q&A session explores such esoteric subjects as ‘Time is what you hear but pulse is what you feel’ and ‘It is the space around the object that helps define what it is’. A hugely talented musician with a highly individual sense of musical spirituality.

Zoro bounds on-stage beat-boxing an amusing rap about Drumfest, clearly very thrilled to be here. His performance is based around the origins of r’n’b, and features a screen onto which are projected images of the albums and drummers which shaped the many stages of the genre. Zoro looks back to the old African-American spirituals and original gospel through to New Orleans’ second-line drumming and Clyde Stubblefield’s early funk influence. A passionate drummer, Zoro plays along to the songs that were pivotal to the history of the genre he obviously adores.

Rock drumming megastar Ian Paice of Deep Purple starts his spot with a swing beat so sweet and phat it makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time. His playing incorporates a fantastic use of accents and he certainly wows the crowd. However, most of his slot is actually taken up with a Q&A session. Of course, everyone loves his 24-Carat rock’n’roll anecdotes. One member of the audience asks how Ian played the intro to ‘Fireball’ with one bass drum. “I didn’t” he replies somewhat apologetically. “I nicked Keith Moon’s bass drum from another studio and did it the easy way!”  Gene Krupa was the drummer who first inspired Ian, and he demonstrates his one-handed roll, which he says he only does now when he needs to get out of trouble. Rounding off the session with another solo, this has been a real pleasure to watch.

Headliner Gregg Bissonette regales the audience with his belief that a drummer needs to acquire knowledge of a myriad different styles of music in order to be a well-rounded player. He moves on to discuss ear protection and monitoring, as well as giving us a fascinating history of the original drum kit formation. He then warms-up by playing a superbly smooth yet chunky solo, during which he manages to change his drum stool. Gregg’s admiration of Ringo Starr continues today’s theme of how vital it is to actually pick the right tempo for the song. And he aptly demonstrates everything he has discussed with the most enthralling 25 minute-long solo which boasts a stunning awareness of space and depth, light and dark and, dynamics. A triumph for Gregg, and a welcome return for Drumfest.

Words: Dawn Rose

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