Last year I made my first visit to the UK Drum Show that takes place in Liverpool. It is a weekend of performances and workshops as well as lots of companies showing off their products. I really enjoyed it and so was back for more. It is a bit of a trek on the train, but I did not really want to drive there. I found a basic hotel that was a short walk from the exhibition centre. The weather on a couple of evenings was a bit wild as some storms swept over the UK.
Last time I met some of the Drumeo online school community who were helping out on the stand. Drumeo are the main show sponsor and run live lessons all weekend. I did a couple of those on one of the electronic kits. This is on the top floor away from the main exhibition hall, but it can still be noisy. On those kits you have headphones so you can hear the drums and the instructor.
I did one session with Glen Sobel who plays with Alice Cooper and The Hollywood Vampires. He's a proper rock guy who played some Led Zeppelin and Van Halen in his main stage set. I did not record that one. The video from my phone will not be the best quality and it a bit loud for the microphone, but some of the performances will be on Youtube.
I wandered around the exhibition spaces between performances. There were loads of nice drums and cymbals as well as accessories like sticks and bags. I know 
In the main hall people were allowed to be noisy for the first quarter of each hour and it was deafening then. I tried to avoid those times, but it could still be noisy at other times as people would be testing cymbals and drums.
Some of the stands ran signing sessions where some of the stars would sign drum heads and other items. The queues for those were long so I did not bother.
I still got some autographs just hanging around the Drumeo stand.
I saw this company last time and I was carrying a Hive bag so I had to chat to them. They were unaware of our Hive. Their drums are made from steel or brass and some were very heavy. I would like a better snare, but these are out of my price range for now.
I chatted to some other Drumeo students I met as well as the instructors who were over from Canada. You could just strike up conversations with anyone as I did whilst having some lunch. It is a very friendly event with people of all ages. There was a stage dedicated to the younger players and they were really good. Although I was there all weekend there is plenty I did not see. There were workshop rooms I did not go in as they were booked up or I was just doing other things.
As I you might expect I did buy some things. I had been looking at snare drums, but did not find what I wanted. Drumeo had an offer where you could buy a membership and get a nice Sabian crash cymbal. I did not need the membership, but it still worked out as a very good price for the cymbal. I am donating the membership to someone in my family. I also bought some carbon fibre 'hotrods' that I can use with the band when I need to be a little quieter. My old wooden ones are wearing out.
I also gained a few other freebies. There were some competitions, but I did not win any of those.
It is a full on weekend and I was tired by the end of it. It is just such good fun though. You need to take opportunities to get good experiences where possible and I will probably be back next year.
Rock on!
Video Chapters
- 0:00 Opening drums by Katumba
- 0:30 Paul Glover jazz
- 1:11 Tim 'Herb' Alexander of Primus
- 1:49 Jay Weinberg of Slipknot and Suicidal Tendencies
- 2:40 The noisy exhibition floor
- 3:26 Ash Soan, top session drummer
- 4:25 Ben Sharp of Yungblud
- 4:52 Brandon Toews of Drumeo
- 5:43 That Swedish Drummer
- 6:14 Carter McClean from The Lion King show
- 6:38 Simon Phillips, drum legend!