Dave Keech

None more Hamiltons. 836 shows. 680ish on percussion. 26 or so on drums. The rest handled by the heroes below, to whom I am incredibly grateful: @jendrums @chrisnageldrums @phil_steventon @bobcarrdrums You are all maniacs for taking on one of the craziest chairs in the business! Thank you so, so much. What an absolute monster of a gig, with some WILD challenges along the way. And what a lovely band to play in, under the guidance of @zachflis with support from @richbeadle . Super grateful to have played in such a great, supportive band, surrounded by such a nice cast and crew, in such an ambitious and interesting show. I’ve never done a tour this long: it gets under your skin, for sure. Time for a little lie down.

833 down. 3 to go. Merry Christmas!

Final stop! 2 years and 2 months of Hamil-tour is going to end in this rather splendid theatre. Aiming for a few visits to Mother India restaurant while we’re here, of course. Mind very focused on the important stuff.

We meet again, old friend.

Back to school after the holidays! Rejoining Hamilton tour on percussion after a spell away causing havoc with the PlayStation band, a few rogue shows on drums and some much needed time at home. Really enjoyed tonight: it’s just an absolute monster to play. Concentration level 150%, and the most awake I’ll ever be. Last Saturday, Phil Steventon played percussion and I played drums. Owing to the complex network of deps on shows that run this long, tonight Phil & I swapped chairs: he played drums and I played percussion, with just a day off in between: A first for me, at least! It still sounded very much like Hamilton and reminded me how grateful I am to be surrounded by massive nerds (no offence meant). 😂

Okay, this is a big one so feel free to scroll on while I get this out of my system. When I was a kid I was a super obsessed video gamer, racking up many hours in front of the original Prince of Persia or Dungeon Master on the family Atari ST (I still have it somewhere). Music took over my life in the early 2000s and gaming moved out of the picture, although I did blow through Metal Gear Solid back then and have a fine old time on my flatmate’s PlayStation. I still think it’s great. Anyway, turns out that while I was away, gaming became this enormous business where really amazing artists, writers programmers, composers and musicians do unbelievable work for a huge and appreciative audience around the world. I rekindled my relationship with the old LucasArts point & click adventure games during the covid lockdowns and as I looked into gaming again, I started to see the production values of some of these huge, AAA gaming franchises and I was blown away: there are more orchestral recording sessions for video games than pretty much any other medium nowadays. Crazy. So then the call comes: Sony are making a concert celebrating 30 years of PlayStation, would you like to act as Music Director, book us a band, and help us develop the show? Obviously, once I’d picked my jaw up off the floor I said yes. So we just got home from putting out version 1.0 of PlayStation The Concert! Doing this job reminded me of a time, nearly 15 years ago now, when @garylloydme saw something in me that I hadn’t seen in myself, and asked me to MD our production of Hair. Now I’m the one seeing something in my bandmates and asking them to step so far out of their own comfort zones that some of them were in the next postcode. So this is a thankyou to everyone involved in this incredible production, but especially my bandmates, who all went the extra mile for this one, whether they were saving the show with their quick thinking, playing up to 13 instruments, or learning whole new ways of working just to do the gig. I’m very grateful to all of you. I’ll stop being emotional and get back to joking around now. Cheers.

About to go and drop off the score and parts for this 60+ piece orchestral show. Finishing this up while being on tour almost wiped me out, but all the guys in the PlayStation band kept me going when things were rough. Massive thanks to @mikenicholsbass and to my brother Phil for stepping in to help me out in getting this one over the line, and to @audreyddoyle for some super last minute help! Excited to hear it in 3 weeks’ time! But first: bed.

Last weekend’s enormo-gig with Fabio & Grooverider and the Outlook Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall. Happy to have thrown my charts into the mix for what must be the biggest live drum & bass group ever. Footage from the night looks as riotous as you’d expect. Great to see a massive live band sell out a huge gig and leave a room full of people with smiles on their faces. 👍👍👍

Somebody decided to turn right in the ‘straight ahead’ lane today. I finally made it to the matinee in a cab, half an hour into the show, after our MD bravely stepped into the percussion chair so we could go up on time. A miserable day so far. Glad to be in one piece, even if my old faithful will never ride again. What did I learn from this experience? “Don’t play the glock, when you’re in shock!” Also curries are good for people whose blood sugar is all over the place.

Today’s 3 session epic is finally over and we are at last open in Yorkshire. If anyone fancies a curry, I am available 7 days a week for the next 7 weeks.

Turns out that 11 Hamiltons is the most Hamiltons I can do in one week. Everything hurts, and my brain doesn’t work anymore. Recipe for tomorrow’s dinner pictured.

Survived my 1st dress rehearsal on the ‘beats’ chair. Turns out that ‘a spot of cheese on toast’ for breakfast isn’t quite enough fuel for an entire Hamilton. I’ve just eaten my whole dinner in about 1 minute, in a display of gluttony not unlike Cookie Monster at his most ravenous. Not even sorry.