My name is Alex, based in god's own city of Manchester. the Republic of Swing- www.republicofswing.org.uk - are a percussion and dance group dedicated to playing Rio style samba and have been going since 2004. I went to Rio for the first time last year and played in the carnival with GRES Parque Curicica, a grupo B school. They are a real community school.The Samba Schools in Rio involve everyone from toddlers to teenagers to the elderly and i learned so much and had an amazing time and hope to go again ln 2008.Whenever I can I go to London to play with the Paraiso Samba school, the best samba school in the world outside Brazil-no contest!!
I have loved drumming and music for as long as i can remember. I started off as a kid on a little plastic 'Ringo Star' snare drum (showing the age there folks) and played kit drums in lots of rock bands in the 70's and 80's. I suppose my '15 minutes'(more like 45 seconds) of fame was when I was with the 'Distractions' who were on the Factory label. we did many gigs with Joy Division, Certain Ratio, the Fall etc. We did a single for Factory as well as an album for Island (both rare and worth a bomb now, record collector types!)and some stuff for the Rough Trade label. We giged and toured all over the U.K and Ireland and did some in the States.Before them I played with the legendary Purple Gang (elecric washboard anyone?) and later got into percussion and 'World Music' (hate that phrase). I was, along with many others, introduced to African percussion by the late Nigerian master drummer 'Uncle' Tommy Odusa. Chris Manniss was also a great influence. Whatever happend to the Band On the Wall eh, music fans???
I have also been on drumming trips to Cuba and the Gambia and hope never to stop learning and improving our Bateria.