Derek Edmond has been playing for more than 40 years, turning professional in the late 60’s. He recorded for MGM and Polydor. At that time he was playing soul, rock and prog rock (in a Nice, Family, Floyd type band).

He supported Jimi Hendrix in Paris, Rory Gallagher, Jeff Beck, Yes, The Faces amongst others and had seasons at the Playboy Club in Park Lane. He performed at the world premiere of ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ at the London Hilton.

He also spent time in Germany at various clubs in Frankfurt, Berlin, Cologne, Munich and Hamburg.

He is now playing all genres, for example rock, blues, soul, disco, jazz and fusion in bands local to the Milton Keynes area, amongst which are Platform Soul, Crush, The Innocents, Cloud 9, Jazbo, Mr Kite, Total Eclipse, Bladerunner as well as many other one off dep jobs.  For a while he was alongside Richard in ‘The Curvy Love Dogz’.

He has also been involved with Musical Shows at the MK theatre, Stantonbury theatre and Chrysalis theatre. One prestigious gig was as the house band drummer at the ceremony for the MK Dons stadium opening by the Queen.

He has been teaching drums for 10 years, guiding students through Trinity Guildhall and Rockschool graded exams as well as teaching people who just want to play for fun.

Among his influences he counts Mitch Mitchell, Bill Bruford, Dennis Chambers and Bill Edwards.

For live playing he uses a DW Collectors kit with Zildjian, UFIP and TRX cymbals. For teaching he also uses a Roland TD10 and a Yamaha Absolute Custom kit.

Derek says : ‘After all these years the one thing that strikes me about playing drums is that it’s not necessarily about the chops and speed you can play – it’s really all about the spaces – let the music breathe.’