The Band
Eddie Wastnidge (Drums)
“I started playing at 12, right at the peak of the grunge explosion, which was great, but I was always drawn more to the rock bands of the 70s and 80s. I did my first gig at the tender age of 13 in the back room of a pub in my home town of High Wycombe. From that point on, I’ve always played in bands. The biggest early influences on my playing were Steven Adler, Tico Torres, Nicko McBrain and Dave Grohl. All solid drummers. But then I got seriously into the guys that influenced them, and to this day my faves remain Ian Paice, John Bonham, and Mitch Mitchell. Love a bit of Keith Moon too. I love drummers who have energy, groove, and who drive the band.
I’ve played just about every genre there is, from folk to funk to electro-house! But the core of my drumming, and my all time favourite thing to play, is good old classic rock. Learning the 5th Element set list has been ace – I’ve wanted to play so many of these tunes!
I’ve been lucky enough to play gigs in the Middle East, in Iran and Turkey, where my day job as an academic has crossed over with my love of music. One of my musical highlights was playing infront of over 20,000 Turkish metal heads at a free concert in Istanbul with an Iranian fusion prog metal band (Farzad Golpayegani). We feature in the book Heavy Metal Islam, by the awesome Mark Levine.”
– Eddie
