My Drumming Career began several musical styles ago using Promo-Pencils from the local  Record Bar. I used them to drum on my desk with, whenever school lessons got boring (which was pretty often).  I then progressed to hard core pillows and cardboard boxes at home, but I got tired of collecting new boxes every couple of days when the old ones wore out. Several thousand hours of Air Drums later and several broken pairs of $1 drum sticks (also from Hannams Record Bar,) my first tax refund cheque arrived in the mail for $100. Without consulting my parents who were away on holidays, I looked in the Melbourne Trading Post and found a complete 4 piece red sparkle drum kit for $100.

When my parents got home from holidays at 10 on Sunday night, they felt the good vibrations of the kit I was playing as it shook the driveway and the carport. Years later I asked mum if she was upset that I didn't ask their permission to buy the kit, and she said "Yes we were, you should have asked us first", so I said "What would you have said if I'd asked you?". Her reply was "We would have said no!" So naturally I said "There you are, now you know why I didn't ask you". (Disclaimer - We accept no responsibility for any musical instruments bought by rebellious teenagers without consulting their old fogies first). I spent every minute available playing that kit along with all the best bands LPs on head phones in my bungalow.

I spent every minute available playing that kit along with all the best bands LPs on head phones

Six Months later I was sitting on stage at Kooyong Tennis Stadium playing Air Drums behind John Bonham's kit on stage, prior to Led Zeppelins amazing concert in Melbourne. One of my friends snapped a great colour photo of me doing so, with Bonham's Roadie standing behind watching with his hands on his hips possessively guarding his bosses' Green Sparkle Legend-Making Ludwig Maple Cannons.

Years later Page and Plant toured Australia's East Coast playing Zeppelin songs brilliantly again. I was lucky enough to spend an hour with them, their band and their Egyptian Orchestra backstage after the show. Jimmy Page told me that there were no other photos of anyone else sitting behind Bonham's kit from their 12 year career, so the lesson here is get to concerts early with a camera and a mate.

Jimmy Page told me that there were no other photos of anyone else sitting behind Bonham's kit from their 12 year career

For the next 7 years I bought a number of new single & double bass drum kits for live use, and then began restoring and recovering used and vintage drum kits for fun and profit in my spare time. This evolved into a business in '87 so obviously in 2009, we're celebrating our 22nd birthday, which you'll have to admit is not bad considering I'm still only 28 years old! In fact this proves that drumming is good for your health and keeps you youthful (unless you're dead, of course!)