Page 13 - BiTS_04_APRIL_2022

the Oval House and there’s a band that needed a drummer and I think that somebody passed my

house and heard somebody hitting drums. Serious. They needed a drummer because the drummer
didn’t turn up and they were playing a gig at the Oval House, up by the Oval cricket ground. The
person said, there’s a guy down the road that plays drums. They came down. Got me. I went up and
hit drums all night with them, not thinking anything, just hitting them because all I could play
really was what I call beat number one, which is like boom chick, boom boom, chick, boom chick,

boom boom chick. And that’s it. I played that all night for this band.

BiTS: [Laughing] I guess that’s where your education in being the drummer with a band started,
was it?

SK: Exactly. Yes, going out on my first gig and getting paid. I’m thinking, yes, this is good and also
it appealed to me, just being in that situation of creating with these people. Total strangers, but
immediately because we had the music and creating music together, we had that vibe going and on
the strength of that Cymande was formed.

BiTS: Am I right in thinking that this was Caribbean music that you were playing, or was it more
popular music.

SK: No, it wasn’t Caribbean. It was jazz.

BiTS: Oh, really?

SK: Yes, it was a band called Metre. They were a jazz band. The two main guys, the bass player and

the guitarist from Cymande, it was their band. The band was called Metre. I played this thing with
them. I did a gig with them. It’s kind of difficult to explain, but because I was playing so simply and
I didn’t move, I didn’t deviate, they
Steve Scipio could play all these other things
around that pattern. Do you see what I
mean?

BiTS: Yes, absolutely.

SK: There was no rehearsal. It was
just one of those fortunate situations.
When we finished the gig, I did a
couple more gigs with them and then
Cymande emerged from that.

BiTS: You’re known, Sam, as one of the most technically accomplished drummers in the UK.

SK: [Laughing] Thank you.

BiTS: How did you manage to achieve that? Was it just watching other people or just playing?

SK: Thinking back on the years, I think I was just very fortunate to not go through the formality of
learning from a teacher or learning from a book. I learned from listening. The bass player, Steve
Scipio, he’s a marvellous bass player. He played very melodically. He plays some beautiful lines and
so my drumming was tied up around what he was playing. As I say, there was no plan or anything. I

wasn’t listening to reggae. Years before that, I used to go to dances and listen to funk and R&B, old-
style R&B, but there was no plan about playing these things. It just grew from being in that
situation.