Friday 15 October 2010

James Agnew: Drums, Percussion, Vocals



Literally no one has asked me how we got together, so bowing to popular non pressure this is how I met the rest of the band, chronologically, with the exception of myself who I have just always known.

I met drummer James Agnew when we were at school in the 1980s. The first thing I said to him was, "You've got the same name as me, you bastard!" I later stole his girlfriend, how on earth we remained friends I'm not sure but I do consider him my best friend.


Against his wishes, yes he put up resistance, I somehow joined the band he was in. I could barely play, I was more of a noise maker. Fortunately for me their much better guitarist, Neil, rarely showed up for rehearsals. From this point on we bounced between increasing awful band names and not actually that many gigs becoming really good friends.

I'm lucky enough to have been in at least three really good bands with him in which he has treated me to his unique drum style, which really is a lot like professionally tuned space hoppers. James could also sing and keep up his frantic 'Animal' from the Muppets drumming style, I cannot impress enough how difficult that is, like simultaneously juggling, sprinting and eating.

He wrote one of my favourite Roger's trout Farm songs, 'All kinds of fruit' and coined the phrase, 'drumming is about hitting hard with skill', genius!

No comments:

Post a Comment