TRENDS IN ALTERNATIVE MUSIC

No. 78
Ginger drummers.



It is often said that if you look hard enough, patterns appear all around us. Arguably, some perhaps only appear where you want them too. But others are simply indisputable.
Something that occurred to me recently is how many bands i like have ginger drummers. Growing up, one was very easily persuaded that having ginger hair was an impairment. Like wearing glasses. Or having a way with computers. All of which slowly morph into distinguishing attributes as one grows older with age, but seem very much like handicaps in the harsh battlefield of the school playground. Being shortsighted had it's advantages as it offered a certain air of intellect - Completing other children's homework was generally a preferable penalty to having the shit kicked out of you during morning break. And knowing your way around the schools' IT network well enough to unsuspectedly download enough hardcore pornography to satisfy your tormentor' s needs had many merits too.
But being Ginger?

Believe it or not, It is common belief that the great red-heads are dying out. According to wikipedia, red hair appears in people with two copies of a recessive gene on chromosome 16 which causes a change in the MC1R protein. And recurrences are on the decrease. But when is science ever right? If i believed everything i read on the internet, i'd be living in a padded cell in an nuclear war underground bunker at the bottom of my mum's garden in deepest darkest Dordogne with only a shotgun for company.

Historically speaking, Red heads were always amongst the most audacious of breeds anyway. From the Barbaric Vikings slaughtering and raping everything in their way, to the ferocious Highlanders, to the Irish settlers fighting it out to the death with the Italians in 'Gangs of New York', gingers have always given us a bang for our buck.
Hell, I was even a ginger drummer myself once upon a time...



x B