BEST BITS . . .

I did so many jingles and sessions over the years that it's hard to pick out just a few. A lot of the TV things were really good, like the first series of Victoria Wood and all the French & Saunders shows. And I did all of the Super Ted animated Kid's TV shows too, all sorts of stuff. And although it was only a short job, I was always very pleased that I was on the original Capital Radio jingle.

In contrast were the four Royal Command performances I did with Roy Castle. At the first one we were introduced to the Queen and she took a couple of minutes to speak to me. She asked me if I got much chance to spend much time at home with the family, and I told her that I was actually in the middle of decorating. Four years later we were back doing the same show, we got to meet the Queen again and she asked me how the decorating was going. Amazing but true!

Q: I first remember you from seeing you play live with Roy Castle every week on TV. How did that come about?

Roy's gig? I was doing Rolf Harris in Yarmouth. Roy was playing the ABC theatre and the drummer had a crash on the way and couldn't get there, so I had a call from his MD, who I'd previously played with in a panto, asking me if I could fill in at short notice. I didn't know at the time but it was to do the whole show, not just Roy's act. So I was in at the deep end, sight-reading a two-and-a-half-hour show without rehearsal. I'm glad I wore brown trousers! The next day I got a call from Roy and that was it. I spent 11 years with Roy and they were some of the happiest times of my life. Roy Castle, three musicians and a rodie together for 11 years and never a cross word - that say's so much about what kind of a person Roy was.

Q: You also worked in television with Cilla Black, Morecambe & Wise, Mike Yarwood, and French & Saunders. On stage you've done Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Royal variety performances, Andrew Lloyd Webber, The BBC Radio Big Band, then there were the jingles, records, the lot. A lot of drummers would have been happy to carry on in that vein. But when I met you, you'd just decided to stop it all. Why?

I was six months into doing a show 'La cage aux folles' at the London Palladium, which was a drummer's dream - the entire show hung on the drum effects. Conductor in charge of the band? Don't you believe it! Anyway, It was a Saturday matinee and I looked up at the stage, at these actors and actresses in their pretend world, and decided I'd had enough. The teaching was taking over the playing anyway. I've always taught people, and I made a conscious decision to be the best teacher I could be. So I gave in my notice and that was it.