Whizzer and the replacement drummer

I love being the drummer in The Last Ghosts, but sometimes my skills have been needed elsewhere. This happened when we were playing in a tiny venue hidden below a coffee shop, supporting the local band of the area.

Anyway, our set went down well, and the crowd was warm and welcoming to us, even though it was clear they were all there to support their local music heroes. As we sat down at the back of the venue, we heard the headline band take to the stage and begin their set. Then, they abruptly stopped—and stayed stopped!

Nemo went off to see what had happened and then came rushing back, saying, “Get back on that kit—you’re stepping in for the main drummer!” I hurried onstage to find the band’s drummer crippled at the side of the stage. In his excitement at playing in front of his hometown fans, he had decided to open their set by standing on his kit. He then proceeded to jump in the air and land in time, hitting his crash and snare drum on the first beat after the intro guitar solo.

Except things did not go according to plan—he landed his foot directly on top of his kick pedal and completely mangled his ankle. It only took a few minutes (and some insanely quick swelling) for him to realise he couldn’t continue at all.

It was soon after this that their bass player turned to Nemo and said, “Your drummer sounded good. Can he play with us?”

So I ended up jumping behind the kit and jamming my way through their set, with the bassist and guitarist cueing me in. Luckily, both our bands had a similar style, so I could roughly play their drum parts on the fly. They also threw in a few cover songs to replace some of their more complex numbers.

The crowd didn’t seem to mind—they loved it.

As they say, the show must go on!