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| It's all about me! | Vipercussionist
104 posts (1 today)
0 Awards
21 November 2008
| Hey everyone, remember, you asked for it L0L!!!
My story, and I'm stickin' to it!!
Started drumming kinda late, I was 16years old. I used to go to a friends house and watch him play drums with his band (who were also my friends) I enjoyed watching and listening and picked up the Guitar for a short while and really I was quite inept with it so I never did much more than mess around with it.
But I kept hanging out with my friends that were in this band and I kept watching the drummer quite closely. He and I would discuss our favorite songs and how to play them on the drums. There was a time shortly after that I finally got a cheap set of no-name drums from another friend for $20 dollars and I began to learn more. I learned quickly enough that this band soon came to MY house and asked ME to be the drummer in the band as I was getting better than the guy who inspired me!!
I remember the day they all gathered their gear and carried it across the neighborhood to my house so we could practice together. I guess it was kind of rude for this to have happened, but as a 16 year old, I had no clue as to what emotional trauma it may have inflicted on my friend and drum mentor at the time. Though we are still good friends to this day, I've never even broached the subject hoping it is a long passed memory for him.
Well, time went on and I played with TONS of my friends who happened to be musicians as that's what you do when you're 16, 17, and 18 years old. I even had yet ANOTHER drumming friend in my band at the same time, TWO DRUMMERS!! It was really fun!! Our kits were the same color, so we would make what looked like one HUGE drumkit on the stage and we could each reach a small portion of the other's kit so it really was pretty cool to watch. We played lots of Rolling Stones tunes and other stuff like that, including some Southern Rock that WAS pretty double drummer oriented.
Next was the heavy metal band that also did lots of classic rock, which at the time was NOT as classic yet!! L0L!! Priest, Van Halen, Forigner, Triumph ya know stuff you'd hear on rock radio back in the late 1970's. We even had a contest and had to play whatever song a fan picked and it was I Love Rock And Roll by Joan Jett!!
The next "phase" was an "original" band with an older chick lead singer who tried to mature our musicianship up to her level, it didn't work, but it was still fun!! I started really getting into singing harmony vocals then, that's helped a lot in getting gigs. We actually gigged pretty good for an original band! That got me to the mid 1980's.
Then I joined a corporate cover band, one of many bands run by a music entertainment firm. It was kinda like the first metal/ classic rock band back in the late 1970's, but with newer tunes, again, Van Halen, Ratt, Bon Jovi to Huey Lewis or whatever was on the radio. BIG 5 way PA, soundmen, roadies and I made about $200.00 a night!! That was good cash for the times, still is today!!
After that band dried up, the singer and I and some other friends got together and formed a Blues Band, my first blues experience and was I ever GREEN!! I listen to the tapes from that and CRINGE!! L0L!! But we worked pretty steady and it lasted a while until the most popular Blues band around (Young Neal and The Vipers, remember that name!) was loosing their singer. My then Guitar player asked if the singer (who was/is very popular in that genera locally) would like to start a band, so my guitar player and I jumped ship and went to the new singer's band.
So was born Dave Howard and the High Rollers and for 12 years I gigged quite steadily and happily with that band until a rift formed between the guitarist who I had originally started the band with. He decided I wasn't what he wanted anymore so I was fired after 12 years and being an original founding member.
Then the next chapter: OK, remember the band that singer quit to form The High Rollers with me and the firing guitar player? Well, the day I was fired from the High Rollers the leader of Young Neal and The Vipers (who were STILL at the top of the local food chain) called me and I got that gig without so much as a rehearsal. I didn't like being fired, but it afforded me a more high profile gig with better pay and I never even had any time off!!
That's where I stand today after 6 years in The Vipers, I'm still enjoying gigging and making a few extra bucks too.
Hence my name, Vipercussionist!
tl:dr
Sorry, no short version. | | Message posted 1175 days ago |  IP Logged |
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bluzman
1,621 posts (1 today)
0 Awards
21 November 2008
| I took the liberty of searching your band, so greetings, Mike, welcome to THE site for no-nonsense (well, maybe a little) drum talk!
Phil | | Message posted 1175 days ago | IP Logged |
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| Vipercussionist
104 posts (1 today)
0 Awards
21 November 2008
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bluzman
1,621 posts (1 today)
0 Awards
21 November 2008
| Very cool playing!
Phil | | Message posted 1175 days ago | IP Logged |
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| Vipercussionist
104 posts (1 today)
0 Awards
21 November 2008
| Thanks, it's the best band I've ever been in, so I hope it keeps up!!
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Mike  (unearned sig) L0L!! J/K | | Message posted 1175 days ago | IP Logged |
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| | | Vipercussionist
104 posts (1 today)
0 Awards
21 November 2008
| It's not your computer, this site renders links a bit differently than others.
Yes, but that's the OLD website when BigNoise did it for us. We have our own website now at
http://www.YoungNealAndTheVipers.com
Updated on 11/21/2008 12:40:38 PM ______________________________________________________________
Mike (unearned sig) L0L!! J/K | | Message posted 1175 days ago | IP Logged |
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