STEVE WHITE

In 1985 Steve was the youngest performer to appear on stage at the legendary Live Aid Concert at Wembley. As well as working with The Style Council, Steve was drumming and playing percussion with various groups on the Respond label, eager to put his Jazz chops to the test Steve went on to play and tour with the Jazz Renegades - his own band co-founded with the amazing saxophonist Alan Barnes. The band toured the UK and Japan as part of the burgeoning Acid Jazz movement and Steve went on to play with such groups as Working Week, Galliano, The Young Disciples, The James Taylor Quartet, and Ian Dury. At the same time Steve began to gain a reputation as a drum set performer appearing in clinics with Simon Phillips, Peter Erskine and many other great performers. After a couple of years of relentless touring Steve found himself taking a break in London and appearing on the final TV show that The Style Council were doing having announced the bands split and it was during this TV show that Paul suggested he would like Steve to play on some demos for some new songs he was working on for his solo career.

Over an Easter weekend in 1991 Paul recorded as the Paul Weller Movement a song called "Into Tomorrow" - a classic piece of band playing with Paul claiming back his mojo and setting the bar for a glittering solo career . Steve has also released two albums with Style Council friend Mick Talbot under the name Talbot / White. With Paul Weller solo Steve contributed to legendary albums Wildwood and Stanley Road and performed with artists as diverse as Kelly Jones (Stereophonic's) Ocean Colour Scene, Ray Davis, Amy Winehouse and Jimmy Page.

Steve has contributed now as course instructor at the "Freddie Gee Drum Academy" now in it's 25th year , and as drum set clinician, broke clinic attendance records in 2000 and 2007 with Red Hot Chilli Peppers drummer Chad Smith .

Steve co designed the "Modern Classic" snare drums for the Premier drum company in 2002 and then found the team working towards the goal of a complete re-launch of Premier's professional range co-designed by Steve and Nick Hudson and better known as the Premier series. In 2005 the modern classic range was given its crowning glory with the ltd edition version in collaboration with the legendary Jonhny Craviotto, Steve also found himself in 2001 filling in for younger brother Alan in the hot seat for Oasis on the band's American tour with the Black Crowes.

After the release of Illumination in 2003 Steve went onto release as drummer and co-producer on much of the album the acclaimed album "Studio 150" with Paul, fulfilling a dream for Paul to produce a covers album this album was received warmly by both the media and by Pauls ever faithful fans and saw the singles “Thinking of you” “The Bottle" and the radio hit "Wishing on a Star", DVDS of Steve with Paul are available in performance at the Royal Albert Hall, at Braehead Arena Glasgow and Hyde Park in London in 2004, 2005 saw the release of Modern Classics on DVD, also a compilation of the best of Paul’s solo work with all promotional videos and the Wildwood live tour of 1994. On July the second Steve took to the stage at Hyde Park with friend and fellow player Damon Minchella to perform at the most watched musical event in History LIVE 8 performing drumming duties with the legendary Who, becoming a very elite member of a group of musicians who performed at Live Aid and Live 8 .

Oct 2005 saw the release of the second album by the Players Steve’s band with Damon Minchella, Mick Talbot and featuring Kelly Dixon on vocals, titled "From the Six Corners" , Steve spent the rest of 2005 working to promote Paul’s news studio album "As is now" which was released in Sept to widespread critical acclaim, Steve spent the rest of 2005 promoting "As is now" with gigs in the US and then Holland, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the Irish republic. A DVD of the recording of "As is now" was released early 2006 and Steve’s "LIVE 8" appearance was released in 2007 .

In April 2008 Steve alongside former Paul Weller band mate Damon Minchella released "The return of the Iron Monkey" and spent part of that year touring with the group called Trio Valore including appearances at the Paris and Milan Jazz Festival. In Dec 2008 Steve appeared in London to pay tribute to the great Ginger Baker alongside Keith Carlock, Simon Phillips and the great man himself.

In 2009 Steve found time to make appearances with the legendary Jon Lord in the UK and Brazil and to stretch his talents in producing UK artist Sam Gray.

In 2014 Steve assumed the role of head of education for Premier drums for one year, Steve is on the much lauded second album from La Roux, he released a new EP with Trio Valore called Liars and Cheaters and features heavily on volume 2 of Paul Weller's second Modern Classics album. Also in 2014 with Co-designer Keith Keough now with British drum company the released the Modern Classic drums that they designed won both the MIA award and the Rhythm Magazine award for best drum set, Steve and Keith both left Premier in early 2015.

November 2015 saw the release of Electric Blend the debut album from The Family Silver featuring Damon Minchella and Matt Deighton. Steve also took part in 9 World’s Greatest Drummer Concert featuring Ian Palmer, Pete Cater and amongst others the legendary Steve Gadd.

In 2016 Steve was appointed drum set teacher at the prestigious Trinity Laban College in Greenwich and also taught for Goldsmiths College in London and has also is visiting faculty at the University of Solent .

In 2018 Steve presented and worked on the award winning TV series The Art of Drumming for Sky Arts which won the prestigious RTS Award and the best documentary at the Venice TV festival.

2019 saw the release of 11th Hour with Sheffield duo Chris Hague and Joel White and as Hague and White the trio contributed to the highly acclaimed TV series Cold Call. Steve co wrote a very successful educational book with Russ Tarley released on Hudson Music called the " Art of Drumming " with a second book due for release in 2024

Steve recently took part in the prestigious Zildjian company 400th anniversary concert in London paying tribute to Charlie Watts and Brian Bennett and alongside writing partner Chris Hague has just completed the featured songs on C5 show "Good Ship Murder" for X factor winner Shayne Ward and has also completed the score and incidental music for C5 hit series "The Madame Blanc Mysteries" A full discography of Steve's recorded career can be found at Whiteydrums.com and under two separate playlists on Spotify "Whitey" and "Weller and Mr White on drums" you can hear the over 600 songs Steve has commercially released.

PETE RILEY

Pete Riley has recorded and toured with a wide variety of artists including Keith Emerson, Republica, Guthrie Govan and Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley. He currently plays for ’60’s icons The Manfreds.

He’s been a familiar face on the UK drumming and education scene for many years thanks to his decades long contributions to Rhythm Magazine and ACM in Guildford; he currently teaches at WaterBear in Brighton.

He also has many drumming books and DVD’s to his credits and you can find his latest ideas, lessons and concepts on his YouTube channel, ‘Pete Riley Drums’.

IAN PALMER

Ian started playing drums at the age of nine.

He comes from a family of drummers where both uncles, Carl and Steve, are professional musicians. Carl found fame with the bands Emerson Lake and Palmer and Asia whilst Steve took a different route in drumming, becoming an accomplished jazz drummer and educator.

Thanks to the support of Ian’s parents, he was fortunate enough to study with a number of fine drummers. Ian‘s first teacher, Malcolm Garrett was highly influential during Ian’s formative years. In his late teens, Ian studied with the legendary drummers Joe Morello and Jim Chapin. Later, he spent time studying with Jeff Hamilton, Peter Erskine, David Garibaldi and someone who became a valued mentor, the late great Dom Famularo.

He was a member of the award-winning Midlands Youth Jazz Orchestra and around this time formed his own Jazz Quintet featuring Guy Barker (Trumpet), Dave O’Higgins (Tenor Saxophone), Dave Newton (Piano) & Alec Dankworth (Bass). It was this band that recorded live at Ronnie Scott’s, London and was featured on BBC daytime TV program Pebble Mill.

In his late teens, Ian was a founder member of the alternative pop band Budapest.

Ian played on saxophonist Alan Skidmore's Quartet 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, the latter featuring Ian on one side and the legendary British drummer Tony Levin on the other. This turned out to be Tony's last ever recording. Very recently, Alan released his anthology album, which featured Ian on four tracks.

As a sideman, Ian has performed in many groups and ensembles. He has had the opportunity to perform with many notable instrumentalists and writers, a diverse list includes Randy Brecker, Martin Taylor, Tal Farlow, Bobby Shew, Don Rader, Mornington Lockett, Pete King, Alan Price, Roy Wood, Jane McDonald, Nigel Kennedy, Salena Jones, Humphrey Lyttleton and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO).

Demonstrating a wide taste in music, Ian tries to push the boundaries in his artistic pursuit. In 2010, he was a founder of the chart-hit group The Ghosts, along with singer/songwriter Alex Starling (formerly of Ou Est Le Swimming Pool). Around this time, Ian played on Norwegian singer/songwriter Thomas Dybdahl’s hit single, “This Love Is Here To Stay” from the album “What’s Left Is Forever”. This track featured Ian alongside bassist Larry Klein and the late guitarist Dean Parks.

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 Ian and his late friend Jon Brookes of British band The Charlatans. Premiering in 2007, these concerts have featured some of the world’s most famous drummers, including Steve Gadd, Steve Smith, Keith Carlock and Benny Greb.

Ian performs regularly with legendary British session guitarist Ray Russell. Along with Ray, Johnny Thirkell (Trumpet), Simon Willescroft (Saxophone), Tom O'Grady(Electric Piano) and George Baldwin (Electric Bass), Ian was a headline artist at The London Drum Show 2017 at Olympia, London, also playing alongside the great drummer Mike Clark (Herbie Hancock).

Ian recently performed with Ray at the memorial concert for their dear friend, the bass player Mo Foster. At this concert, Ian played double drums with drummer, Simon Phillips. The video recording of this concert is due for release later this year.

Ian is regularly hired by LA session arranger Richard Niles, with whom he has recorded a number of albums in the last three years including:

• Bandzilla Rises - Richard’s contemporary 'pop' big band project Bandzilla. The latest release features Randy Brecker, Lamont Dozier Jr, Leo Sayer, Nigel Hitchcock and Steve Hamilton.
• Eric Henderson (guitarist) - Featuring Ian and bassist Mark Egan
• Niles Smiles - Featuring Mark Egan (bass), Jonny Thirkell (Trumpet), Snake Davis (Alto Saxophone)
• Richard Niles and Dennis Karmazyn (cellist) - Featuring Clive Dunstable (piano) and Mark Egan (bass)

Ian also performed on the movie and album soundtrack to Tomb Raider written by Peter Conollyv featuring Tina Guo (cello), Nigel Hitchcock (alto saxophone) Jonny Thirkell (trumpet) and Laurence Cottle (bass). Most recently Ian has collaborated with pianist Steve Hamilton on a new original jazz group featuring Martin Williams (tenor saxophone) and Laurence Cottle (bass). Look out for their debut release later this year. Ian is an endorsee for Yamaha Drums, Zildjian Cymbals, Vic Firth Drumsticks, Remo Drumheads, Protection Racket Cases and Prologix Practice Pads.

Ian recently relocated from London to the historic town of Stratford upon Avon. Aside from music, Ian has another passion, aviation; he is a Senior Training Captain (Airbus A330 Instructor and Examiner) for Virgin Atlantic Airways based at London's Heathrow Airport.