After a vague post about a TV appearance a couple of weeks ago, I left it a bit late to fill in the details - it was with the Pico Players Orchestra on BBC's Strictly Come Dancing and it aired a week last Saturday. It was really fun to be involved in. My trio Cygnus Flare had some video footage taken at a gig last month and here's a short video from one of our tunes called Moonflower.. Hope you can check it out.

I was involved with some filming this week with a couple of BBC celebrities, playing for a TV show which should air this Saturday night.. I'll follow up on it after it has aired so as not to ruin any surprises. I've also been enjoying playing timpani with an orchestra I joined a couple of months ago, the Amati Orchestra. The orchestra's mission statement is to become "the finest ‘non-professional symphony orchestra in the UK" and we featured in BBC Music's Get Playing program

I'm excited just now to be working with a new drum book. It's a 1962 Berklee Press publication called A Manual for the Modern Drummer by Alan Dawson and Don DeMicheal and has been out of print for quite a long time. I've been looking for a copy for a while and somebody very generously sent me one over from America - the book is great and has given me a fresh kick for practising! Playing-wise, I had a fun jazz gig last night with some new musicians. They are all in their 50s a