The preparations for this show took months of communication on Skype, through mail, phone and (probably) instruments. The result during the first evening of the tour was already overwhelming for the 500 people in the audience.
Drumaffairs turned out to be a paragon in drum shows, drum virtuosity and drum beauty, in which all three drummers played a starring role.

Mike Schäperclaus is one of Holland's finest in percussion, mallets and classical and modern music. He is a well known person on television and was a member of the world wide renowned Metropole Orchestra. But his CV doesn't end with that. Nowadays he runs his own orchestra that does television shows, and that accompanies many big names in music during their stadium-shows.

Josep Vicent is one of a kind. As a composer, a drummer, and multi-prize winning artist, Vicent directed orchestra's like Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, Netherlands Metropole Orkest, Netherlands Symfonia-Noord Holland Philharmonische, Kiev Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta de Barcelona Nacional de Catalunya, ORTVE, Orquesta de Valencia, Orquestra de les Arts, Oviedo Philharmonia, Orquesta del SODRE y Amman Symphony.

In his compositions you can hear all of his influences. Wheter it is Classical or Flamenco, or even from Jazz- if there is any limit in his music, he still hasn't found it.

Simon Phillips
It is doubtful to give Simon Phillips another introduction on a drummer’s website. By now, every drummer following Drummerszone.com should know his name and at least two of his references. Click to his profile for the latest on Simon or just take off to his website and learn about his new project PSP with bass player Pino Palladino and keyboardist Philippe Saisse.

Carol of the Bells
Until now, Phillips has done many different projects. Another recent one is the recording of a Christmas song with engineer Bill Schnee, with Jeff Babko on keyboards, Jimmy Johnson on bass and Gannin Arnold on guitar.
The song is actually a free download on bravurarecords.com. Click here to download Carol of the Bells and be surprised what a Xmas with Simon will give you.

Drumaffairs in short: These three artists connected. They connected with their instruments, and even more with each other. Each one is a personification of his instrument, which makes this show just as unique as the actors that play it. If they had the time, they could run this show for years in many, many countries.

The forth 'third' member of the group was bass player Mark Haanstra. A stabilizing factor and well chosen addition to the group. He must have had a hard job dealing with three drummers in one band!

Supersized Drum Shows
Not only having set a new standard in drum shows, this show gave us much more. In Drumaffairs we saw another side of Simon Phillips, highly inspired by his two friends. Even his drum solo was different from any other time we have watched him perform. His solo was in style of the show, he played carefully chosen phrases that matched the evening's setting, and, at times, showed some even more thrilling pieces of art on his drums. Fireworks of joy and virtuosity.

Mike Schäperclaus and Josep Vicent have been a duo in many settings for years now. Together they have a long history in playing together. The time and form of the pieces they play are extremely intense. With Simon Phillips being the crucial third. Despite of his semi-excuse 'Bear with us... we're getting there,' his performance of Mangala, a song from his band PSP, was just as comfortable as his experience with Steve Reich's master piece Drumming.

Steve Reich's Drumming
Steve Reich’s Drumming has a big degree of freedom in length. Perhaps it even has one of the biggest forms of interaction in drum related works. The length of the piece can vary widely, as the number of repeats taken on any given measure is up to the performers. Originally, Drumming is written in four parts, for nine percussionists. While Drumaffairs was just three persons, these guys gave a beautiful performance of part 1 of Drumming.

For more info on Drumming, please click here. You can also check YouTube for more versions of this incredible piece.

Enough talk for now, time for the five videos we have ready for you.

In video order you find:
1. Mancala (PSP)
2. Insound (written by: Josep Vicent)
3. Mike & Josep (title unknown)
4. Steve Reichs Drumming (with introduction Simon Phillips)
5. Drum solo Simon Phillips
6. Make sure you check out the photo albums of Drumaffairs on the artist pages of:
• Simon Phillips
• Mike Schäperclaus
• Josep Vicent