Alex Toff
Session drummer for Belinda Carlisle, and for ten years for Bonnie Tyler. Alex has built a thirty-year career on turning up, getting on with people, and being the one they ask back. He is unusually frank about what that life costs when the phone stops.
About this episode
Alex talks about a career assembled almost entirely out of showing up. A music shop job, a jam night in Greenford, a drummer who put a hand on his shoulder and passed on his number, and a ski season in Austria where he met the MD who would hire him for Belinda Carlisle.
He is candid about the parts nobody advertises: arthritis in the toe he plays the bass drum with, a heart procedure he went back to work too soon after, and the week a long-standing gig ended and the mortgage did not. His answer to almost all of it is the same, which is that ninety per cent of touring is the hang, and you will not be asked back if you are hard work.
In this episode
Every theme we put to every guest. Jump straight to it in the video.
- 8:27The Road InA music shop in Southgate, a first gig in Arnos Grove his parents had to drive him to, and the rehearsal room where a network started building itself.
- 21:42The CraftReading the room, artist to artist. Why ten per cent of a touring day is playing and the other ninety is the hang, and what that means if you are hard work.
- 30:05The HeadComing home is the hard part. A routine written for you on tour, then a house where nobody has bought any milk and the dog still needs walking.
- 44:03The MoneyA mortgage that went from 1.6% to nearly 4%, a gig that ended, and the arithmetic of being self-employed when the phone goes quiet.
- 45:19The BodyArthritis in the toe he plays the bass drum with, a surgeon who wanted to fuse it, and the heart procedure he went back to work two weeks after instead of three.
- 52:55The GearThe Ludwig snare he was talked into instead of the one he rang up for, and why other musicians ask about it every single time.
- 55:03The MachineDrum machines were going to end him in the eighties and did not. Alex on Suno, on stems that fall apart on their own, and on the posh demo problem.
- 1:01:40The ReckoningYou cannot just be a drummer any more. Get taught properly, never say no, and remember you never know who is going to be in the room.
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