Name: Doug Perkett
Age: Old grey and 48
Origin: Zimbabwe (formally Rhodesia) That’s where I gots me rhythm from
Background.
I have been playing the drums now for 40 years all up and performing in working bands on and off for 30 years. There’s nothing like working with a good bass player that helps stoke the engine room up and keeps the grove cooking so these hotshot front people can shine in the energy we create.
My musical interests in the early days were of the heavy variety, such as Grand Funk Railroad, Black Sabbath, Santana, Canned Heat and Hendrix. I can remember my older brother taking me to see Woodstock; I really enjoy performances by Ten Years After, Joe Cocker, Hendrix and Santana. I was rapped in the whole live performing thing.
So over the years I have been in some really good outfits and some interesting one’s, like “Punk’ bands in the late 70’s early 80’s called WW IV and Last Resort. Then there was a hot Blues-rock outfit playing Johnny Winter, Rick Derringer and ZZ Tops. That was good fun. All this was being played out in Sydney back then.
In 89 I moved to country NSW, a town called Young, to start a new job in the Gas industry working on a 1300Km gas pipeline from the desert of South Australia to the coast of NSW. Here I met up with some top muso’s and after a while I started working on new projects. The first outfit in 92 was call “ The Black & Blues Band” taken from the Chain song Black and Blue, which we did and again a mix of Rock, Blues and Country styles.
This, is also the time I met my partner Lisa who turned out, could hold her own on musical instruments such as saxophone and piano. We ended up putting a band together in the late 90’s called “Li’L Miz Trouble” with Lisa on vocals and keyboards doing what I call “Pub Rock”, Chisel, Bob Seger, Beatles and Elton John with a few Bluey numbers thrown in here and there. We did this for about 4 years but the toll of young kids and late nights was too much.
Before leaving Young to take a position in Launceston Tasmania I was in one final band called, wait for it, “The Young Ones”. This was the most successful outfit as far as number of gigs played Friday and Saturday every weekend. We hit a niche market just at the right time and it seemed a lot of folk were looking for our groove, which was keyboard driven.
In Young I also built up and hired out a PA system doing jobs such as the Battle of the bands and outdoor functions for the Council. This is where I learned my Sound Tech craft. There is nothing like getting a good mix going. As a drummer I felt that a lot of the mixing guys forgot about the rest of the drum kit. There are some magical tones in the Toms on a drum kit, so I used to spend some time getting it right on the kit.
SO here I am in Launceston now where I joined the Launceston Blues club to network and meet other blues playing muso’s. And I have! Like this lot,” The Sofa kings”. Look forward to seeing you around the traps sometime soon. |
