“B****cks” I said, after putting the phone down  (I’ve come to realise that when you’re employed, you swear after you put the phone down, but when you’re the employer you can say it while you’re on the phone!).  Jeff Wayne had just called to ask me to use an electronic kit on the upcoming Australian, New Zealand tour with The War Of The Worlds.  I didn’t want to.

For the benefit  of those of you who don’t know what The War Of The Worlds is, it’s Jeff Wayne’s musical version of the H.G. Wells classic.  It’s the story of  an invasion by the Martians and is  set in Victorian England, the time Wells was living.  The British Empire was at its peak, Queen Victoria was on the throne, and the King of technology was the steam engine.

When the album was first released in 1978 it had a cast of superstars, with the country’s top session musicians playing on it. It sold over 25 million copies and went to the top of the album charts in no less than 22 countries, and has remained in the charts almost continuously since. It received not one but two Ivor Novello awards at the 1979/80 ceremony.  In short it was a phenomenon, becoming a milestone in the recording industry.  Richard Burton provided the narration as The Journalist, with Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues as “the sung thoughts of the journalist” (Justin went to number 1 all over the world with the single “Forever Autumn” from the album).  Chris Thomson the lead singer of Manfred Man was the voice of Humanity, along with Paul Vigrass, Gary Osborne and David Essex. The list goes on.

Fast forward to today and the live version is no less impressive, with some of the original cast including Justin Hayward, Chris Thompson and an amazing CGI 3D animation of Richard Burton.  During the show there’s a 40’ x 100’ screen with full animation with a huge two and a half tonne Martian Fighting Machine descending from above the stage. A 43-piece string orchestra (ULLAdubULLA Strings), and a ten-piece rock band (The Black Smoke Band) complete the amazing scenario.

The original album was mostly recorded at Barry Morgan’s studio. He also played drums on the album, and was a great inspiration to me as a young musician, being one of the most prolific session players of his time.  Sadly, Barry passed away only last week as I write this piece  (November 2007).

Being able to step in and play on such a momentous project is a privilege indeed, especially when the band is of the calibre it is.  Herbie Flowers, the music legend who played bass on the original album, is playing in the Black Smoke band, along with Chris Spedding on guitar. ( If you come to this show and don’t know who these two luminaries are, then you paid too much for your ticket!) Then we have Gaëtan Shurrer (Soul to Soul), Steve Turner (Kylie), Ian Wherry (David Essex), Neil Angilley (Vanessa Mae) all playing keys.  Virtuoso Harpist and percussionist Julia Thornton (Roxy Music), Andy Holdsworth and Huw Davies two of London’s top guitarists.  In short, a world class band.

After the telephone conversation I mentioned earlier, I contacted Joanna Awad, (Artist Relations at Roland) and explained how I really wanted to play one of their kits in the show.  They very kindly agreed to send me a TD-12K to try out in my studio at home.  This meant moving my acoustic kit, but I didn’t mind. Really, no really!!  The boxes duly arrived and I got a cup of coffee and set to putting the thing together in my studio. 

Now, I stopped using electronic kits about 15 years ago, as every one I tried was just so “buggy”.  I swear the last one I had used to turn the coffee machine on if it was left on too long, so I was reluctantly but pleasantly surprised to find not only did the kit go up really easily, (I remember an instruction manual the size of a family bible and the need for a degree in electronics the last time I did this), but it looked really cool, a bit like a space-aged drum kit.  Also the thing just worked!! A bit like my Apple computer, whoever put this thing together knew what they were doing.  After plugging in the colour-coded cables (easy peasy) putting the drums in place (easier peasier), I put a pair of cans in the Roland brain, and played.

The sound that came out of the drum kit was simply jaw-dropping.  I had to stop for a second to take in the experience.  Multitudes of differing kits, with incredible response, and the Hi Hats? OhmyGod, the Hi- Hats!!  I instantly phoned Gary Langan who lives close to me in Wimbledon.  He’s one of the producers of the TWOTW album  (he’s also got a Grammy for his work with The Art Of Noise), and is doing “front of house sound” for the tour.  He came round and loved it.

So, moving forward to the rehearsals with a BIG smile on my face and my new shiny TD-20K (no less) kit. Actually as these kits are so popular, Joanna let me use an ex-demo kit for the tour.  After spending a couple of days, pre-programming the kit for different sounds,  (drum sizes, damping, tuning, different sounds, amount of gaffer tape, all virtual of course and programmable), we began. 

They worked  like a dream.  Instead of being at the back of the stage in a Perspex shed, I was right in the middle of the band, centre stage. Fabulous.  The sounds were not only amazing, but also consistent.  No tuning of bottom heads, no changing heads, no cracked cymbals, one flight case (a first for me), no mikes.  In short, fabulous.

For the first time in a long time, I actually felt part of the band.  As I am a “hard hitter”, over the years I have been banished further away from everyone on stage and surrounded in all kinds of soundproofing. As everyone has increasingly turned to DI boxes and in-ear monitoring, acoustic drums have become more of a problem on stage.  Sometimes being the only acoustic instrument, the ‘bleed’ into vocal mikes alone is enough to turn even the most accomplished sound technician prematurely grey.

Roland has solved this problem in one fell swoop, and simultaneously brought me back into the band environment.  When I look to my left, being able to see Julia the percussionist a matter of feet away, with no screen between us, definitely improves the feel of things.
So impressed was I with my new set-up with TWOTW, I am now setting about duplicating it for the upcoming 2008 world tour with the Moody Blues, which kicks off in March in San Francisco.  And when someone phones me for a gig and asks which set-up I use, I’m going to say (before I put the phone down), “I play a Roland TD-20K, they’re the B****cks!!”