You will have noticed over the last year that our regular drummer, Brian Greene, has been covered by Ian Sands. Many of you will know that Brian still plays professionally, alongside his music business and teaching practice. Brian is away touring during May with Rock Band Space Elevator, who are signed to record label SPV/Sledghammer in Germany. Ian Sands is kindly covering all of the bands rehearsals, gigs and concerts in May and we thought we would let you know more about this great stick smith.
Ian’s playing career has taken him all over the world playing a wide variety of musical styles. He is a highly versatile player and fluent in all contemporary styles of music: Pop, Rock, Latin, Jazz etc.
His father is a musician, so there was always music in the house. He was given his first pair of sticks when he was 6 and played around on pots & pans until I got his first kit at 13. At 17 he played in his first band with friends playing 50’s rock & roll.
It was about this time that he really started to study the drum kit properly and learned to read music. Not long after he started working semi-professionally in cabarets, amateur dramatic shows, Jazz and Latin bands and a number of function bands.
At 26 he gave up his day job as the Pop band he was in secured a record contract. They released 1 single and were on TV, but sadly it didn’t take off. He found work playing as an accompanist playing percussion for dance classes.
He studied with Bob Armstrong (one of the most respected drum teacher in the country) for 3 years, as well as taking Latin percussion lessons with various musicians.
Ian and Brian have become good friends through their shared connections with members of the band and it is great to have a very talented drummer in Ian to join the band, as one of the band.
Ian is great to have in the band as he is a keen cyclist so is careful what he eats, meaning his consumption of sandwiches is considerably less than his portly counterpart Brian. We hope you enjoy Ian playing in the band, he is great – but although he is a better, slimmer, younger looking drummer than Brian, he is rubbish at the raffle!