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The Drumdoctors BLOG

Nick Lauro playing drums
Me playing drums with English Thorn, on the bar’s house kit (at least the Bass Drum has the right name on the front!) Photograph by kind permission of Zack Downey of ZED Photography, https://www.facebook.com/zackdowneyphotography/

Welcome to the website of  English drummer and freelance writer, Nick Lauro. Yes…that’s me on the left (or above if you’re on a phone!).

This is primarily an outlet for my writing and general life-commentary on what it’s like to be an ex-professional musician looking in from the fringe, at an industry that has changed much from what it was when I was a lad (as we say oop north).

Now that the time has passed from when it was a necessity for me to play the drums to make a living, this is my platform to comment on my experiences, past and present.

What Do I Write About?

Within this BLOG, you will find posts about my musical experiences – past, present & future, gig reviews, interviews, nerdy IT related stuff (to a minimum), philosophical life stuff, musical influences and being of a certain age, a Grumpy Old Man (GOM for short) section, where I get off my chest what really grinds my gears. Well, it’s my BLOG and I’ll write about what I want!

Why ‘the drumdoctor’?

This goes way back to the late 1980’s when I had a particularly disagreeable drum kit that was difficult to tune (I’ll feature this on a gear page one day!). To cut a long story short, having been to hell and back with this particular kit, trying every different permutation of drum head/tuning known to man at the time, the errant drum set was finally brought to justice. The benefit of this traumatic experience was that I became quite knowledgeable about how to tune drums, being called upon by other drummers who couldn’t get to grips with their problem kits, until one day, somebody suggested that I was like a “drum doctor”. Thus, an alternative moniker was born, long before I knew about the legendary Ross Garfield  in America. Anyway, I doubt I’m anywhere near as good as Garfield so don’t take the name too seriously folks, it’s just a bit of fun!

Nick Lauro at the Placeta Joe Strummer, Granada, Spain
Me at the Placeta Joe Strummer, Granada, Spain, October 2018.