This year's been another busy one. Come February it'll be 3 years since I joined Wishbone Ash. I can't believe how quickly that time has passed. We started the year in Europe - mainly Germany - with a 5 week tour. It was cold but it was good to be working at what always used to be a really quiet time. We took 10 days off to go skiing/snowboarding which was great fun but I had to be very careful not to break anything. In the weeks leading up to the ski break I'd been figuring out how I'd get through a set without the use of one of my limbs. I figured I could just about pull it off but didn't really fancy having to put it into practise.
In March I took 10 days out and visited New York to take a few lessons with some of my favourite drummers. I was grilled by Billy Ward, Jon Riley helped me with my jazz chops, Robby Ameen gave me some afro-cuban tips and Mike Clark demonstrated how to play like a genuine funk legend! It was hugely inspiring and I came home with lots of new ideas to work on. If you ever find yourself in New York I highly recommend hooking up with one of these guys. I was really impressed with their massive enthusiasm for the instrument and was struck by how each one had their own completely distinct style.
A UK tour followed shortly after my trip. Andy Powell has kept Wishbone Ash going for 40 years - a pretty impressive feat! In celebration of this fact we did a 40th Anniversary gig at Shepherd's Bush Empire which was filmed for a DVD (check it out at the Wishbone Ash store)
Summer was a bit quieter but I got the opportunity to work on new material for the MasterClasses. The response to these lessons has been great and I hope to get some new ones up there in the not too distant future.
We played a few European festivals in August. One of them was with Slade. I obviously know Slade music but they were really before my time and I only recognised Dave Hill because I'd seen Bob Mortimer's impression of him on Reeves and Mortimer. It was spot on!
We toured the UK for a second time in October then spent 10 days in November working on a song for a new single. Current plans are to release it next year. I'm very pleased with how it turned out.
I've got a month off over Christmas and have been doing some Custom Drum Track sessions and getting in some much needed practise. Next year looks like it'll be more of the same. We head out to Germany in January. I'm intending to visit the Sonor factory to see how my drums were made - I'll post some photos from the trip. Later in the year we have some gigs in South Africa with Deep Purple and Uriah Heep which I'm very excited about.
That's all for now. Have a wonderful Christmas and here's to 2010!
Joe
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