SIRF 2008 finale performing with 'Malaya' stilt walkers - 3rd Aug '08
~ How Rhythm Train started ~
Around Easter time of 2007 leaflets were sent to all the primary schools in the area about a 10 week course called 'Drumming Together', which was being run by Adult Education based in Stockton on Tees. The course tutor Martyn Cresswell had been running this course previously to encourage children and their families to have a go at drumming and then taking part in the Stockton International Riverside Festival (SIRF) in the August of each year if they wanted to. The course was held at the newly built St.Gregory's RC School in Stockton each Monday for 2 hours and was led by the tutor Martyn and his assistant Ian Naisbitt. Ian was a very experienced lifelong drummer, who came along each week and was instrumental in putting together our very first beat - The Train. The train has long been associated with Stockton on Tees and this along with the theme for SIRF 2007 being the about the train, Ian's 'The Train' soon became our signature piece.
The group was mainly made up of parents and their children, nearly all of whom had never touched a drum in their life! Later on in the course we were joined by people who had taken part in previous SIRF's which helped a lot. We mastered 'The Train', 'Beat This', 'Ee-jay-shae' and 'Boogie Voodoo' whilst sat down, but then came the task of learning to drum whilst walking. That was interesting, we marched up and down the school car park and had our first audience of around 4 teenage boys on bikes! Leading up to SIRF we had a weekend of drumming with Kinetica which was fabulous, and from that a piece called 'The Stockton Reggae' was created and shown to us by Chris Maines for Newcastle based Streetbeaters. The idea being that all the drumming groups taking part in SIRF would meet at the end and perform this piece. Chris was great and provided an online tuition with all the parts and came to our practice session on a Monday to show us, very patiently! We finally got it!!
For SIRF 2007 it was decided that we were going to be the signals. Part of the course also involved helping in making our costumes, which consisted of black drum skirts with red, green and yellow tassles dangling down. Black T-shirts with shouder pads imitated the traffic lights. We had red, yellow and green bandanas too, and our faces were to be painted with the same colour stripes.
~ How we got our name and first logo ~
It was at the Kinetica weekend introductory session that we were asked which group we were with - each of our group just said Martyn's drumming group, at which Matt suggested we should get together and give ourselves a name. The following Monday the subject was brought up and many suggestions made, I can't think of the others now but Sheila suggested Rhythm Train and it was almost unanimous that we should be this, given the Stockton connection, the carnival theme and title of our signature beat! From this, Martyn set a little competition up for the kids to create a logo and the prize would be a pair of drumsticks. Dillon's logo was the winner and he received his first ever pair of drum sticks.
~ After the course finished ~
The carnival was in eary August 2007 and the 10 week drumming course was over. We all missed missed our weekly drumming practice sessions and it was discussed that perhaps we should have a meeting to see what we could do next. Martyn contacted people that had taken part in previous drumming courses and festivals and they came along too. It was again a unanimous decision that Rhythm Train shouldn't go into retirement! We decided to form a drumming group and keep the name Rhythm Train. We formed a Committe and elected a Chairman,Vice Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary. We created a bank account and agreed on a constitution. We created a website and in keeping with the 21st Century we also have a Facebook group. Finding a place to
practice that didn't disturb the peace and which we could afford was a bit problematic. We used a church hall for a few weeks which was great but not big enough for our growing number of drummers, until the ARC in Stockton agreed to let us use their fabulous facilites. Martyn agreed to let us use his drums and equipment until such a time that we could apply for available grants and/or earn some money to buy our own. With a lot of help from a lot of people, to which we are very grateful, Rhythm Train had rolled into the platform with whistles blowing!!
~ What has happened since we formed ~
Since forming Rhythm Train almost a year ago we have performed at a few events including SIRF 2008. Photographs from all of these can be seen under the 'Gallery' tab above. We have learnt one new drumming beat which was created for SIRF 2008 finale by Matt from Kinetica called 'Maraka 2', which we haven't quite perfected, but are getting there! We aquired 7 Gope samba drums that were not been used, which belonged to a similar local drumming group which were no longer required. We also now have a fantastic new Rhythm Train logo, which can be seen below. This was created by one of our drummers, Cheryl and is based on the Locomotion No.1, which is the train that is associated with Stockton on Tees, rather than the train we were using previously. It was one of a few sketches that Cheryl drew for us, and although she would have liked to have tweaked, it we think it is absolutely perfect! We have received a small amount of money from events, which has been used toward buying straps to carry the drums, beaters and some T-shirts with our new logo on. We have almost 40 drummers, varying in ages from age 7 to 102 (I'm sure Martyn doesn't mind me disclosing his age on here!!) and welcome anyone that wishes to join us of any age, ability or background. Our aim is just to have a bit of fun with a drum!
~ Our hopes for the forthcoming year ~
We are hoping to apply for grants in the not too distant future to enable us to buy some drums and percussion instruments. New T-shirts and drums skirts for performances would be great, although we currently use our blue carnival outfits from SIRF 2008 and sometimes our own Rhythm Train iron on printed T-shirts at the moment. We will hopefully have a few more tunes to add to our repertoire over the next year or so. We currently play 'The Train', 'Beat This', 'Boogie Voodoo', 'Ee-jay-shae' (also known as the chip shop song), 'The Stockton Reggae' and 'Maraka 2' which is quite a nice variation of samba type beats and others. A few of us have had a go at learning a Taiko beat, which was different from what we normally do, but perhaps might tweak and add a few bits. We have had one or two social events over the last year, but hopefully may have a few more organised do's together - one being a members birthday party shortly. Hopefully we should have a few more bookings for events and festivals too, so we can get out there and do what we love doing, performing!
Message to any potential sponsors reading this:
The T-shirts we have were meant as a temporary measure and were done very quickly for us to use as events this year. They are just very cheap T-shirts with iron on transfers that have all started to peel after just a few washes. We would ideally like to have some vibrant and bright, professionally printed outfits for us and our drums that will last for a long time, so if anyone reading this would like to sponsor us and provide these for us, we would be happy to give you a bit of advertising in return perhaps - contact details are at the bottom of page.
Also if anyone reading is able to help us in any way in providing drums and equipment, or advice on where funding is available we would love to hear from you!
If you would like to contact us, please email Martyn here or Amanda here
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