In December ’12 I received a call from a Belgian TV company asking to speak to us about a special project they were seeking a British band for. We talked and pretty soon I was hooked on the idea and thought it sounded like a huge amount of fun. The project requires your involvement as well at the filming of part of our gig on Saturday March 2nd 2013 at The Old Ticket Hall, Windsor.

One day there could be no live music venues and/or precious little live music going on. Why is this? What is happening?

Is 20% VAT really to blame? Is it the fact you can’t smoke indoors still? Did Simon Cowell’s empire change the face of real music forever by injecting electro pop music and pompousness into the psyche’s of youngsters? Are One Direction, Nicki Minaj and Justin Bieber really today’s idols in place of instrument playing songwriters? As long as you look good, eh. I wish none of the above any ill, but please… there must be more to music that glamour, sponsorship and celebrity culture.

You may have heard recently about a bill cleared by the House Of Commons relating to live music performances in small venues, and you might be wondering what this actually means and how it affects you, or your local community. In a nutshell, it’s a good thing. Here’s why.

Following the sad announcement from long time !daft! drummer Darren that he is leaving the band, we are bitter sweetly able to announce his replacement.

We are sad to announce that our great friend and drummer, Darren, will be leaving !daft!. His last planned gig with the band is this New Years Eve at Smokey Joes, Maidenhead.

Whilst this may seem short notice we have been aware for past couple of months and have been busy working away in an effort to try and fill the inevitably large hole that Darrens going to be leaving behind.

Darren joined !daft! as good as 10 years ago and in that time has played 600+ gigs with the band and has rightfully become an incredibly valuable and loved member of the group. He has always been known for his hard hitting, power rock drumming style and he has unquestionably contributed to helping !daft! become one of the most well known and popular cover bands on the Thames Valley circuit. And for that we will be forever grateful.

There are no hard feelings at all in this split and it’s all incredibly amicable. Darren has simply decided that the time has come to take a break from the relentless schedule of gigging and live music to instead focus on work, his lovely wife Melissa and some other personal projects.

If the transition to our new drummer is successful then we expect that New Years Eve will be Darren’s last gig with !daft!. If you would like to see him in action one last time and perhaps shake his hand then you need to get along to the Bier Keller, Bracknell on 17th December 2011 or to Smokey Joes Roadhouse on New Years Eve.

Darren will always be in our dep pool and it’s very likely we will get to perform with him again in the future but for now there is nothing I can say on behalf of the band other than a massive, massive “thank you” to Darren for a decade of good, honest, loyal and quality service to !daft!. It’s been absolute pleasure old friend, we will miss you immensely.

Click here to read about !daft! new drummer Phil James.