Drummer Kev is breaking the mould in rock
IN our borough we have a multitude of talented people.
Among them is a very well known, much in demand, rock drummer.
He is a rock drummer who explodes the myth that they are a breed of crazy people who are guaranteed to do the outrageously unexpected.
Kev Whitehead is a softly spoken, gentle man who is in two rock bands, John Lees Barclay James Harvest and Dare, and is currently in the studio with Lisa Stansfield, working on her new album.
I asked Kev how he had first become involved in drumming. He said: “Playing felt tips on the sideboard. My mum used to put the radio on before school and I started tapping along.
“It was my sister who said ‘get him some drum lessons will you’.
“I was about 11 or 12. Something attracted me to it and it has felt natural ever since. From my first drum lesson I just loved it.”
Kev went on to reveal the long path he trod to get where he is today, saying: “It has taken a long time.
“In my teens I played in working men’s clubs to earn money, then in the Manchester Ritz house band.
“After 14 years there I got a call from a bass player I worked with to play with Barclay James Harvest.
“They had split into two and John Lees and Woolly needed a rhythm section.
“He recommended me for it.
“It was 1998 for an album called Nexus. Not long after that came a big European tour. So that was the end of the Ritz days for me!”
“Around the same time I did an album with Dare called the Calm Before the Storm.
“I couldn’t do any live dates with Dare because I was so busy with Barclays, gigging all the time over in Europe.
“Then in 2005 there was an unveiling of a statue of Phil Lynott in Dublin, with a big concert at the Point.
“Everyone was there who had been involved with Thin Lizzy.
“Dare were involved, with Darren Wharton being the keyboard player.
“Not long before that, Dare’s drummer had gone missing, literally, in Germany. Darren was panicking, gave me a call, I learned a few songs and I have been playing with them ever since, juggling the two.
“I could never imagine not playing, whether in front of thousands at a festival or a few at the Flying Horse.”