OUR SUPPORTERS

Ian first began to play drums at the age of 9, inspired by his two uncles who also play drums, Steve and Carl Palmer. He spent many years under the tutelage of Malcolm Garrett who he truly believes is one of the finest drummers ever. Malcolm can be found honing the skills of many fine, young drummers at Birmingham Conservatoire, one of the UK’s leading music schools. Ian’s formative years were spent as drummer with the Midlands Youth Jazz Orchestra (MYJO) under the direction of Dr John Ruddick MBE. John Ruddick developed the talents of many young musicians including drummers Pete Cater, Neil Bullock and the late Chris Dagley. Other notable ex-members include Mark Nightingale, the Arguelles brothers and Martin Williams. Ian performed all around the world with this group, including appearances at the Montreaux Jazz Festival, the International Association of Jazz Educators’ Conference in Toronto and a concert at Disneyland, Orlando. MYJO were prolific winners of the BBC Big Band competition. He won two awards as a young member of this group; the Kenny Clare award and the Musicians’ Union Young Musician of the Year. In the early 1990s, Ian started his own contemporary jazz quintet along with trumpeter Guy Barker, saxophonist Dave O’Higgins, pianist David Newton and bassist Alec Dankworth. They played many shows around the UK and recorded at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London. During his formative years as a musician in the 90’s Ian was fortunate to study with the great drummer Joe Morello in New York. To this day, Joe is regarded as one of the world’s finest technical virtuosos in the art of drumming. Back in the UK, Ian continued as a sideman in many groups and ensembles and have had the opportunity to perform with many notable instrumentalists and writers including but not limited to Randy Brecker, Ray Russell, Martin Taylor, Mo Foster, Johnny Thirkell, Mike Clark, Bobby Shew, Rob McConnell, Georgie Fame, Alan Price, Gerard Kenny, Leo Sayer, Roy Wood, Salena Jones, Nigel Kennedy, The Climax Blues Band, Jane McDonald, Stedman Pearson and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO). He played in saxophonist Alan Skidmore’s jazz group for a few years and appeared on three albums on ITM Records; Live at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall (along with Georgie Fame), Impressions of Coltrane and a double album Naima featured myself on one side and the legendary British drummer Tony Levin on the other. This turned out to be Tony’s last ever recording. In addition to this work, Ian co-founded the hugely successful series of concerts ‘The World’s Greatest Drummer’ in honour of the man known by this title, Buddy Rich. These shows were originally the brainchild of his friend, the late Jon Brookes of British band The Charlatans and Ian himself. Premiering in 2007, these concerts have featured some of the world’s most famous drummers including Steve Gadd, Steve Smith, Keith Carlock & Benny Greb. Ian is based in London and aside from music he has two other passions, aviation and running.

Rob Brian is a busy UK session & touring drummer who also performs drum masterclasses & clinics for DW Drums and Vulcan Cymbals. Robert was introduced to drumming at an early age by his father, Ray Brian, who was a session drummer in the 1960s. His father played him a video of Buddy Rich which Rob described as a “defining moment of his musical education.” Rob has worked with many diverse artists such as Loreena McKennitt, Goldfrapp, Peter Gabriel, Laura Pausini, Miles Kane, Simple Minds, Siouxsie Sioux, Black Box, Clara Ponty, Michel Polnareff, Andy Partridge & Colin Moulding, Modern English, David Rhodes, Herbie Flowers, Hugh Cornwell, Charlie Jones, Jason Rebello, Derek Nash, Innes Sibun, Andy Sheppard, Coati Mundi, Alan Barnes, Roger Cook, Kenny Lynch. In 2018 he recorded tracks at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios for Canadian singer Loreena McKennitt’s new album Lost Souls. Then later that year he started the Lost Souls world tour with Loreena and the band which continued throughout 2019. Also in 2018 Rob recorded again with Laura Pausini for the album Fatti Sentire which went on to become a multi-Platinum selling record. The album also won a Grammy at the Latin Music Awards, Rob’s first Grammy winning album performance. In 2018 he signed his endorsement with the Italian company Vulcan Cymbals and uses them exclusively on all of his recordings, tours and drum clinics. In 2017 he recorded sessions for the band Goldfrapp which ended up being released on their album Silver Eye, one of them became the single Everything is Never Enough. In 2016 he was nominated for a Grammy Award with Italian singer Laura Pausini for her album Simili, which became a triple platinum selling record. The single ‘”Lato destro del cuore” went gold in Italy and became a top 10 single. Throughout 2015 Rob played on sessions in Belgium for French music sensation Michel Polnareff and the single L’Homme en Rouge gets released later that year. The rest of the sessions would appear on the album Enfin! in 2018. In 2013 Rob starts endorsing DW Drums and has an hour long show of drumming & interviews on the online drum teaching site Drum Channel in America. Also in 2013 Rob plays 2 sold out shows with Siouxsie Sioux at Yoko Ono’s Meltdown Festival at The Royal Festival Hall in London. In September 2008, Rob played on the Siouxsie Sioux DVD, Finale: The Last Mantaray and More Show recorded at Club KoKo in London which was released in May 2009. It charted at no. 4 in the BBC Radio 1 Music DVD Chart on the 24 May 2009. He was the live drummer for the Siouxsie Sioux Mantaray world Tour.

Pete Cater “A gifted and versatile drummer, at home in any context”, (Rough Guide To Jazz) Pete Cater ended 2015 by being named in the top 8 jazz drummers in the world today in Rhythm magazine’s annual popularity poll (the other 7 were all from the USA). It was a fitting conclusion to a year including the 20th anniversary concert of the Pete Cater Big Band at London’s Cadogan Hall, artist in residence for the Premier Drum Company at Music China in Shanghai, a mainstage appearance at the 2015 London Drum Show,an appearance alongside Steve Gadd, Ian Palmer and Steve White at the World’s Greatest Drummer show and the launch of Pete’s new band, The Ministry of Jazz. Pete Cater has been involved with drums for his entire life. Movie footage exists of him hand drumming aged barely 12 months and the innate talent cannot be missed. His musical tastes matured similarly early, and courtesy of his Dad’s record collection he was, by age 5, already a devotee of Joe Morello, Buddy Rich and Louie Bellson. Also active in education Pete is a faculty member at the London Centre of Contemporary Music and appears at drum events throughout the UK and beyond as well as being an in demand private teacher.

Ian Matthews is an English musician, best known as the drummer for the rock band Kasabian. Prior to Kasabian, Matthews played with a number of noted local Bristol bands, such as K-Passa, CCQ, and Sissi. He met Kasabian in 2001 before the band were signed when they were recording demos in Bristol. It was from these early sessions Matthews recorded with them came the single “Processed Beats“. He also played on “Butcher Blues” and “Club Foot” from Kasabian’s self-titled debut album. He also overdubbed an extra drum track over the single version of “Cutt Off”, and recorded the drums to the B-side “Beneficial Herbs”. He was asked to tour with them in April 2004 and became a permanent member in April 2005. Matthews started his career as a young club/jazz drummer and when not touring or recording with Kasabian, he often plays small jazz/funk gigs in and around Bristol. He has recorded with Bristol artist James Morton’s Porkchop on Don’t You Worry ‘Bout That album.[1] He cites Mitch Mitchell, Tony Williams and Buddy Rich as his strongest drumming influences.[2] In 2015, Matthews joined with Al Murray, Keith Keough, Stuart Warmington and Al Kitching in founding the British Drum Company.

Gabor Dornyei is one of the most in demand and successful Solo Artists, Session Drummers, and Drum Clinicians/Educators of his generation who emerged out of Europe in recent years. Gabor’s diverse talent led him to perform all around the Globe, including USA, Asia, Africa, all over Europe & UK, Scandinavia, Russia and countless other places. This outstanding drummer performed at the London Jazz Festival, Sziget Festival, Glastonbury Festival, Love Supreme, London Latin Jazz Festival amongst hundreds of others and participated in the London production of MJ Thriller Live World Tour for three consecutive years. The UK resident drummer and band leader has been listed and shared the stage with some of the World’s leading drummers, such as Billy Cobham and Gavin Harrison at Dresdner Drum Festival, Steve Smith and Ian Paice at Adams Drum Show in the Netherlands, with Steve Gadd, Marvin Smitty Smith and Terry Bozzio at Opole Drum Fest in Poland, Peter Erskine, Gregg Bisonette and Thomas Pridgen at London Drum Show, Chris Coleman in Moscow, Jojo Mayer in Hungary and at many-many other major international Drum Shows. As solo recording artist Gabor released three critically acclaimed DVD-s, 1. “Drums, Music and Friends” 2.“Thunder Duo (feat Kornel Horvath) with Dom Famularo” (digitally available from Hudson Music NYC) and 3.“Rhythm Frontier” -featuring world percussionist Pete Lockett- and also released two CDs under his own name. As session player he’s contributed to over 100 albums, including Gold and Platinum selling pop-rock albums and several cartoon and movie soundtracks for Walt Disney amongst other UK/EU sessions. One of Gabor’s real passions is drum education, and he’s achieved a “Master’s Level 7 PG Cert qualification at the University of East London (UEL) and he’s been awarded with FHEA (Fellow of Higher Education Academy in the UK). He’s Head Of Drums at DIME-ONLINE (Detroit Institute of Music Education-Online UK/USA), drum faculty at ICMP-London (The Institute of contemporary Music Performance) and Visiting Professor at the SWISS DRUM Academy (SDA). He’s educating his private students at GABBEY ROAD Studio, London via Skype (from all around the globe) or in person in North West London, UK.. His Drum Clinics and Masterclasses are also hugely in demand, he’s held packed events at the Los Angeles Music Academy (LAMA), University of Southern California(USC), ICMP, BIMM, TECH, ACM, Drumsense, etc in the UK, Berlin Drumtrainer, Hamburg School of Music, Frankfurt Music Academy and Salzgitter Drummer Meeting in Germany, Swiss Drum Academy, Croatia Drum Camp, Slagwerkkrant Drum Fest Netherlands, etc..amongst hundreds of others. His two most recent solo filming “ Moving Around The Kit” on DRUMCHANNEL in Los Angeles, California, USA (with Don Lombardi) and “Percussive Drumming and Independence” on DRUMEO in Vancouver, Canada has brought him worldwide success, but even before that the global drumming media constantly featured him over the last decade as well. He’s been interviewed in Modern Drummer Magazine, Rhythm, Drummer, Drums&Percussion, Batterie, Drum Club, Stick Magazine, Top Drummer, Perkusysta, Slagwerkkrant and lots more. In 2016 Gabor started performing several international jazz festival Headliner Performances with American guitarist-multi instrumentalist Stanley Jordan. At the NAMM Show in Anaheim, California in 2016 TYCOON PERCUSSION (Thailand/USA) has released the “Gabor Dornyei Signature Drum Pack” including drum set add on percussion instruments with great global success. Also since 2016 the “VIC FIRTH Gabor Dornyei Signature Sticks” are in production and available from Gabor’s website. (Shop Menu) In 2017 Gabor’s film at DRUMEO has been listed between the “ Top 10” together with artists such as Peter Erskine, Bernard Purdie and Billy Cobham amongst others. Gabor Dornyei is worldwide endorser of: PEARL Drums, ZILDJIAN Cymbals, REMO Drumheads, VIC FIRTH Drumsticks, TYCOON Percussion, ROLAND V-Drums, HARDCASE, KICKPORT and SKYGEL.