The Musiclab Live - Session 3

The Square - Sunday 10th July 2011

After a quick food break (Big Tasty mmm...thanks Josh), we were back for the third and final session of the day. Those students who stayed around from session two were in for a real treat as our most "senior juniors" got ready to strut their stuff.

After an introduction set by The Labrats we had the first of a trilogy of drum solos. Three of our most advanced junior drum students, Josh, Toby and Ash were given the challenge of creating a themed drum solo and we then added the extra pressure of having them perform them individually on-stage, on their own with no-one else to fall back on. First to take the challenge was Toby with a piece entitled Brasilian Love Affair. Toby kicked off with a superb tribal tom groove that broke into a Samba based beat with some excellent kick drum groove work. This mutated into a "Rockier" feel before oby displayed some nice double-stroke work on the toms and some well-place Hi-Hat barks coupled with a relentless 4 on the Floor kick pattern. An excellent solo piece, performance and a thrilling start to the show!

Our first student guitar group of Session Three took to the stage next. Holly and Toni were joined by Jack on bass, Rhys on vocals and Chris on drums laid down a head-nodding groove with spot on dynamics and fills for Steady As She Goes. Excellent guitar work from the girls and some nice backing vocals by Toni made sure that this was a real crowd-pleaser. This was followed up by an excellent version of Monkey Wrench with Toni taking lead vocals. Ollie then took over from Chris on drums bringing his powerful and punchy playing into the mix for Misery Business and Slither.

Second in our trilogy of drum solos was Josh (accompanied by cowbell pixie, Toby). Josh's theme was "Scizophrenia" and this was related to good effect by Josh constantly chopping and changing between feels with some great dynamics and tension building, punctuation and agression. Superb work from Josh, leaving everyone guessing, just what is his main instrument?!

Next up we had Jack, Salv, David and the as ever sartorially elegant Kieran for Since You've Been Gone, Dancin' In The Moonlight, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and Church On Sunday. Again, the improvement in ability and confidence was really pleasing to see as the guys proved that they are getting better and better all the time.

Next up we had The Labrats back on stage for three numbers, all in the same style. Again the idea was to provide Ash, Josh and Toby with a fresh challenge and this time we took three Bo Diddley songs learned the original and very distinctive tribal drum pattern, then asked the drummers to adjust it to their style and bring their own personality to it. First up was Josh (joined by Ash on Maracas) on Bo Diddley and Josh's version was probably closest to the original groove, but that is not to take away from the inventiveness Josh showed in making subtle changes to stamp his own personality on the song.

Next up was Ash on Cadillac. Acommpanied by Toby on Maracas and Josh on backing vocals (C-A-D-I-L-L-A-C!), Ash went for more of a train beat feel that really drove the song along and his groove and accuracy made it a breeze to play with him. Part of this performance can be seen here. Toby then took to the kit with Josh taking over on maracas (anyone remember the name of Bo Diddley's maraca player?) for Who Do You Love. Toby took a much funkier approach, moving the standard Bo Diddley pattern around the hi-hats and snare to create a relentless head-nodding, foot-tapping groove. Overall, excellent work by the guys.

Next up, were Labrats Josh and Bob. Salv took to the drum stool first for Times Like These and Time. I have to confess that I did a double-take to check it was Salv as I couldn't believe how much he had improved in the few months since I last saw him perform. He really drove the songs and showed some great work on his fills.

Great drive and fills were also on display when Andy took to the kit for Red Morning Light and Roxanne. Andy did a great job drumming for these songs and showed an excellent attitude in taking on another song that he had not played before at short notice, due to a drum student pulling out of the performance on the day.

Chris kept up the high standard on Been A Son and we have also seen big, big improvements with Chris' playing and confidence in his ability this term.

The third and final part of our drum solo trilogy, saw Ash take centre-stage for his piece. Ash's solo had a strong military feel and also, some of the underlying groove taken from the work we had done on the Bo Diddley material. Therefore, his piece was titled Diddley March and was a fest of controlled rudiment work with some super snare playing, pressed rolls, agression, subtlety and dynamic control.

On stage for their second set of the day were Katie, Will and Joe. Joined by the tireless Rhys on vocals, there were quick adjustments as their drummer had pulled out at the last minute (without telling anyone!), so into the breach stepped Andy, Ash and Josh and what's so impressive is how seemless the change was and how difficult it was to tell that the drummers coming in had not rehearsed. This is both down to the skill level and attitude of the drummers in question, but also the confidence and ability of Katie, Will and Joe (add to this how well rehearsed they were).

The final three numbers, saw Hannah join Will, Katie, Joe and Rhys on stage for Through The Glass, All The Small Things and Plug In Baby. Hannah, always accurate and able on the drum kit is now starting to add some power to her playing and this was apparent on all three songs. Plug In Baby provided a fitting finale with Katie's signature guitar kicking things off. Sadly Katie is leaving us to head off to Uni and we wish her all the best and look forward to seeing her at The Musiclab again in the future.

Also moving on to pastures new is Bob and we would like to take this opportunity to thank him for all his hard work, excellent musicianship, incredible "anorak" knowledge and Jimmy Saville impersonations.