Eliza makes us smile

I received a few messages around a month ago now from one of the North East's hardest working and well respected musicians. He asked if I knew any decent young drummers who were ready to gig as he was putting a band together to manage and mentor. All the band members were in place minus the drummer (damn its hard to get a good one). I suggested a young chap called George Rowan who after a few years of lessons and a lot of practice and effort has become a great, cool, calm and solid player.

Jump to Tuesday just gone and I'm standing in my local pub for the first Tuesday buskers night a very busy well ran evening giving a chance to solo artist, musicians or bands alike. I ended up there to support George and his new band having beaten off any competition he is now part of Eliza Smiles.

After 4 rehearsals the female led pop rock outfit played a hand full of songs inc Foster the people's Pumped up kicks and Jessie j's Price tag. For a band of 14yr old musicians this was a brilliant, confident and mature first performance and I'm very happy and proud to say that with a few month of practice and a full set of catchy songs these guys will be the hottest young band in the north east!!!!!!!!

Awesome stuff
Wez

Drumstars of the month (December 2011)

Hey guys it took us a while but we got there in the end

Check out who blew our festive socks off in December

http://www.drumstars.co.uk/drumstar-of-the-month/

Cheers Wez, Phil and Amy

Drumstars UK - Pupil news and review.

I started playing drums about two years ago in lessons with Amy at Drumstars. I started as a total beginner at 16 so I could get up to a good standard to pass my audition for a music course at college. My two main influences are Nicko McBrain and Lars Ulrich, but I also really like Shannon Leto and Michael “Moose” Thomas.

My first experience of playing in a band, and live in front of an audience was when I started college last year. My first time performing was a Halloween themed gig put on by my college at a pub called The Smugglers. There were quite a few bands playing so everyone played a two-song set. The songs I played were “Ghostbusters” by Ray Parker, Jr. and “Werewolves of London” by Warren Zevon. The night went great and I wasn’t nervous like I thought I might be.

The best gig I’ve done so far was another one put on by my college at The Sage Gateshead. It was a great venue and we played in Hall Two in front of around 300 people. My group did a medley of four classic Disco songs, we got a great reception from the crowd and everyone enjoyed themselves.

I’ve really enjoyed my time at Drumstars and learned so much thanks to the great teachers there. In the future I’ll be constantly trying to improve my playing, learning new techniques, and hopefully getting a band started and doing my own gigs. And thanks to an evening put on by the Drum Shop, I got the chance to meet Nicko and buy a signed Iron Maiden snare!

Next year I’m getting the chance to go to New York with my college and work with some musicians over there. Then once I finish college I plan to do a foundation degree course at university, and to think all of this happened because I started getting drum lessons two years ago at Drumstars.

Andrew Skelton

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Kit

Two of our longest serving drumstars got a great surprise on Christmas day when their parents teamed up with Andy, Wez and the rest of the Drumshop UK crew to build them the mother of all drum kits.
Jack and Catherine Marley are two of our longest serving Drumstar students and after a couple of years of working with their teacher Amy are playing to a grade 7 standard!

Jack and Catherine's dad came in to see us and opted for a monster set up, as you can see from the image there was a load of gear however it was easier to build than to keep a secret. It's hard work not putting your foot in it but we managed and they are both over the moon.

They received

Yamaha birch custom (inc. a full set of hardware)
22 bd
10
12
14
16
14sn All fitted with Evans drum heads

Full set of Paiste PST5 cymbals

And a nice little Paiste 2002 bell tree (Gavin Harrison style)

They also got a PA for play along's not to mention a dedicated drum room built in the family garage!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you both hope you are loving the kit and thanks for your continued hard work and support, enjoy it dudes it's rock n roll !!!!!!!

Christmas / New Years opening times

Hi All

Drumstars will be closed over christmas and new year, we will be closed on the following dates

CLOSED - Sat 24th Dec

CLOSED - Sun 25th Dec

CLOSED - Sat 31st Dec

CLOSED - Sun 1st Jan

We will re open as normal sat 7th Jan (9am) as normal

Merry christmas and a happy new year !!!

Wez, Amy and Phil.