Rob Hurst

the backbeat really came in.

In the 50s, the drumming was still driven by a big ride cymbal, and usually the snare was sort of doing complimentary grace notes and things.

But by the late 50s, with rock and roll, the backbeat had become the big thing.

It was from America, and then it went to England, and then it went everywhere, including Australia.

Not initially, no.

I just set up the bar stools at home.

I had a snare drum bar stool and a tom, floor tom and a hi-hat.

And I wore through the fake leather very quickly.

And then eventually, much to the neighbour's chagrin, I got some real drums.

Because when I went to Mossman Primary, I immediately volunteered for the marching band, which would...

sort of march the students up to the oval.

In those days it was calfskins and pigskins before plastic heads on drums.

We learnt how to tune them and detune them and learnt from Mr Prendergast, who was the band teacher, learnt basic kind of military roles.

So I kind of learnt that really early on and then tried to apply that to put my headphones on and then tried to apply that on the barstools listening to all these bands I mentioned before.

Yeah.

Yeah, I guess I've always loved the physical aspect of drumming.

And it's something that I've just actually been able to do.

And I think I've sort of become, you know, like people become what their job is to a certain extent.

And I sort of became this sort of drumming animal, you know, with the right muscles.

Yeah.