About me...

Name: Gary Walmsley

D.O.B: 02.05.1977

Equipment: Tama Starclassic Maple Custom Drums, Zildjian A-Custom cymbals, Iron Cobra Pedals, Yamaha CS845 Hardware, Vater 5A Sticks, Remo heads, Roland TD20kv Electronic kit, Boss Micro-BR Sampler.

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Born in Blackburn, Lancashire in the summer of '77, my family moved to Birmingham sometime around 1980. Drumming has always been in a part of families history, both my Granddad and Father played drums, so it was only a matter of time before I would start too. However, I started playing drums of my own accord whilst at school, rather than being pushed into it my my family.

During my school years, I played drums the school steel band! which not only got me out of regular lessons! but also gave me valuable experience in live performance from an earliy age. We played so many events around the country of which the pinnacle was playing live on television at the opening ceremony of International Convention Centre in Birmingham infront of the Queen!!

After I left school, I played in various bands, based around the Midlands area for some years and gained valuable experience into 'how' and 'how not!' to perform and be a part of a band, until one day during 2001 I was approached by the founder of the IDS drum school in Birmingham and was asked to train as a teacher.

For the the next three years, I taught at IDS and became the 'UK Manager' for the school which involved the complete running of the business from teaching, through to facilities, payroll, booking all the lessons, developing the business side of the school, organising drum clinics and workshops and a lot more. IDS gave me so much experience and a great insight into the music industry and I decided to concentrate on my playing career, rather than the educational side of drumming once further opportunities arose.

Since IDS, I have carried on playing in bands, playing for solo artistes, doing studio sessions, which has seen me share the stage with bands/artistes such as The Feeling, Editors, Ricky Warwick (Almighty), Richie Kotzen (Poison, Mr Big, Forty Deuce), Andrew WK, Jeff Scott-Soto (Journey), Pete Way (UFO), Stone Gods ex-The Darkness), Stuart Cable (Stereophonics), Gary Stringer (Reef), Tugg (Basement Jaxx) amongst others...

I am currently performing with UK band 'The First Seven', singer/songwriter Gary Nock and Ibanez guitar endorsee 'Steve Smith'. See the recent work page for more info.

Working with Gary Nock, I have recently been lucky enough to record and play live at Abbey Road Studios in London on a few occassions now.

I am also part of the team who organise the annual Drumfest events across the UK. Voted Rhythm poll winners 'best drum event' for four years running, the show is now 'collectively' the largest annual drum show in the World! Over the years we've had the world best drummers performing including Thomas Lang, Mike Portnoy, Simon Phillips, Terry Bozzio, Billy Cobham, Dave Garibaldi, Omar Hakim, Mark Richardson, Steve White, Greg Bissonette, Kenny Aronoff and loads, loads more! Its great being involved and making each year a bigger, better show!

I was recently also heavily involved with the organisation and production of Stick it to MS... the world record breaking attempt for the most drummers playing together in unison. We did it with 582 drummers on one crazy day at the Birmingham National Indoor Arena! and raised over £50,000 for The MS Society in the process.

if you are interested in taking drum lessons, would like more information regarding my drumming services or would just like to say Hi, please use the guest book on the home page or email me via the contact me page.

Many thanks and hope to see you out there someday!