Steve White was born in Bermondsey, South London and has
lived in the south part of London all his life. He began to
show an interest in drumming through a snare drum that was
given to him by an uncle at the aged of eight.
At the age of ten Steve began to learn simple side drums
parts as a member of the Drum Corp of his local Boys Brigade
Company. Aged 11, Steve attended Eaglesfield School, in
Shooters Hill, Woolwich - a school that in its previous
incarnation as Shooters Hill Grammar had boasted one Peter
"Ginger" Baker as a former pupil.
Steve studied at Eaglesfield with Mr George Scott an
experienced veteran of drum and percussion, Steve worked
hard and progressed quickly and through the influence of Mr
Scott. Steve was exposed to the skill and playing of
drummers such as Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa and at age 11,
Steve was taken to see a drummer play who profoundly
influenced him and still does to this very day; on a Friday
night at Ronnie Scott’s club in Soho London accompanied by
his long suffering and supportive dad, Steve first saw a
truly great drummer play live - the drummer in question was
Louie Bellson and from that point Steve was totally hooked -
practising and playing at every opportunity.
Steve was privileged to spend his time in the education
system when Music was a valued part of the curriculum and he
enjoyed the fantastic support and encouragement of a number
of teachers throughout his time at Eaglesfield. Through
school recommendation, Steve auditioned for the ILEA's
Centre for Young Musicians in Pimlico and was accepted.
Steve found the regimentation a little hard to take although
he fondly remembers the tuition of an excellent drummer
called Michael Skinner (one of the UK's truly great
percussionists) Steve also studied briefly with the great
Bobby Orr . Attending the school at the same time was a Gary
Wallis (of Nik Kershaw & Pink Floyd fame) the two became
close friends and for the rest of their school years
practiced manically together debating till dawn the merits
of Buddy Rich versus Billy Cobham.
Steve, now aged 16, was lucky enough to spend some time with
the incredible Bill Bruford of King Crimson, Genesis and
drummer of the renowned Earthworks. Through Bill's support
Steve was recommended and accepted on a scholarship to the
drum school PIT in Los Angeles. However, the harsh realities
of the Philistine policies of the Thatcher years shot this
dream down and Steve quit school in disgust. At the time,
Steve was a hard worker and worked in many areas to buy new
drums and gigging almost every weekend in the clubs and pubs
of South East London, his Dad now promoted to reluctant
roadie. Steve had his first experience in the pop world as
drummer with a Neo Mod outfit called "Flat 19" supporting
mod faves the "Truth" with his old mate Gary Wallis now a
pro and gigging drummer. Through Gary's commitment to the
"Truth", Steve was offered the chance to join the band of
the musical "Labelled with Love" based on the work of South
London band Squeeze. Steve performed the show for three
months at the Albany Empire in Deptford and was now a
professional drummer 2 weeks after leaving school. He was
constantly aware that his time on the musical was limited
and was frantically grabbing any audition for any band
seeking a drummer. It was through an audition at a Rat Pit
studio in Lewisham that Steve, although completely wrong for
the band in question, was recommended to the bands A & R man
as a possible candidate for another band on the label
(Polydor records)........ the band was the "Style Council".
Dennis Munday of Polydor Records called to ask Steve if he
was interested in going for a play with a band on the label
he would not name. Dennis, a fellow South London Jazz fan
pushed Steve into the audition at Nomis Studio's, aware that
the band had settled on a drummer for a gig at Brockwell
Park that weekend. Steve gave it a go and seemed to strike a
chord with Paul Weller with a dreadful Elvin Jones
impression and was invited to come and play with the Style
Council on a David "Kid" Jensen show on Radio1. A week later
Steve was asked to play another Radio session with various
artists on Paul's label "Respond Records" at the Paris
Theatre in Regents Street. It was Paul's 25th birthday and
for the first time Steve ever played Live with the Style
Council. A few weeks later he found himself driving to Paris
in a transit van to record with the Style Council their new
record the "A Paris" EP which contained the classics Long
Hot Summer and Paris Match and went to No 2 in the UK
charts. The recorded output of the Style Council is well
documented and the work of the Style Council is known to
millions worldwide.
An almost constant stream of hits and worldwide touring
followed, pretty much uninterrupted until 1989. During the
years Steve played with Paul, Mick and Dee as the Style
Council he was never officially told he had the gig!!! In
1985 Steve was the youngest performer to appear on stage at
the legendary Live Aid Concert at Wembley. Age 18 Steve went
back to school enrolling in drum lessons with the teacher he
credits as the "Man who taught me how to play drums" Bob
Armstrong. As well as working with The Style Council, Steve
was drumming and playing percussion with various groups on
the Respond label and pursuing a relentless path of practice
and dedication devouring the knowledge that Bob presented
him like a religion. This period in Steve's life was one of
work - practice and physical training, dedication and
discipline ruled for a number of years. In 1988 things
started to change - the beliefs and causes that the Style
Council championed had affected the bands perception by the
public and the support of political awareness raiser's such
as "Red Wedge" had exposed the group, especially Paul - to
an unfair and uncomfortable degree of criticism that
inevitably had an effect. Steve began to feel less and less
part of the picture as "The cost of Loving" was released and
the band stuck one more defiant finger up with the classic
film Jerusalem - an odyssey of music and black humour. After
accomplishing all the success of an acclaimed actor, Steve
knew that for him the best of the group was in the past and
despite appearing on a concert tour of Japan and playing on
a few tracks on the Groups "Confessions of a Pop Group"
album, Steve moved on . Eager to put his Jazz chops to the
test Steve went on to play and tour with the Jazz Renegades
- his own band co-founded with the amazing saxophonist Alan
Barnes. The band toured the UK and Japan as part of the
burgeoning Acid Jazz movement and Steve went on to play with
such groups as Working Week, Galliano, The Young Disciples,
The James Taylor Quartet, and Ian Dury. At the same time
Steve began to gain a reputation as a drum set performer
appearing in clinics with Simon Phillips, Peter Erskine and
many other great performers. After a couple of years of
relentless touring Steve found himself taking a break in
London and appearing on the final TV show that The Style
Council were doing having announced the bands split and it
was during this TV show that Paul suggested he would like
Steve to play on some demos for some new songs he was
working on.
Over an Easter weekend in 1991 Paul recorded as the Paul
Weller Movement a song called "Into Tomorrow" - a classic
piece of band playing with Paul claiming back his mojo and
setting the bar for a solo career . The first year or so was
not easy - the gigs were sparsely attended the band's not
great sometimes but still Paul played on defying all in the
Music industry who had written him off by storming back to
the top with a doctrine of raw talent, hard work and
relentless touring. Steve has also released two albums with
Style Council friend Mick Talbot under the name Talbot /
White. With Steve at the back, Paul has played and wowed
audiences globally.
In 2001 Paul took a journey acoustically and Steve had
resigned himself to a year of change, devoting more time to
his new career of teaching under the guidance of long-time
friend George Frederick, Steve has now launched a successful
career as an educator, be it as an in demand personal
teacher and motivator, to course instructor at the "Freddie
Gee Drum Academy" now in it's 21st Year, or as a drum set
clinician, breaking all clinic attendance records in 2000
with Red Hot Chilli Peppers drummer Chad Smith during their
legendary "With Attitude" tour promoted by Freddie Gee
Promotions.
In 2001 Steve was asked to consider taking on a role at the
revitalised Premier Drums as a product consultant working as
part of the team in Leicester consisting of Nigel Sims,
George Frederick and design partner Nick Hudson. Steve has
took up this new challenge and co designed the acclaimed
"Modern Classic" snare drums for the company. 2002 found the
team working towards the goal of a complete re-launch of
Premier's professional range co-designed by Steve and Nick
Hudson and better known as the Premier series. In 2005 the
modern classic range was given its crowning glory with the
ltd edition version in collaboration with the legendary
Jonhny Craviotto, Steve also found himself in 2001 filling
in for younger brother Alan in the hot seat for Oasis on the
band's American tour with the Black Crowes. Living up to the
nickname of "Supersub", Steve filled in for drummer Oscar
Harrison as Ocean Colour Scene promoted their greatest hits
album.
After the release of Illumination in 2003 Steve went onto
release as drummer and co-producer on much of the album the
acclaimed album "Studio 150" with Paul, fulfilling a dream
for Paul to produce a covers album this album was received
warmly by both the media and by Pauls ever faithful fans and
saw the singles “Thinking of you” “The Bottle" and the radio
hit "Wishing on a Star", DVDS of Steve with Paul are
available in performance at the Royal Albert Hall, at
Braehead Arena Glasgow and Hyde Park in London in 2004, 2005
saw the release of Modern Classics on DVD, also a
compilation of the best of Paul’s solo work with all
promotional videos and the Wildwood live tour of 1994. On
July the second Steve took to the stage at Hyde Park with
friend and fellow player Damon Minchella to perform at the
most watched musical event in History LIVE 8 performing
drumming duties with the legendary Who, becoming a very
elite member of a group of musicians who performed at Live
Aid and Live 8, Steve Sidelnyk, Steve's old Style Council
buddy being another.
Oct 2005 saw the release of the second album by the Players
Steve’s band with Damon Minchella, Mick Talbot and featuring
Kelly Dixon on vocals, titled "From the Six Corners" the
album also features Ken and Carl Papenfus of the Irish band
Relish. Steve spent the rest of 2005 working to promote
Paul’s news studio album "As is now" which was released in
Sept to widespread critical acclaim, Steve spent the rest of
2005 promoting "As is now" with gigs in the US and then
Holland, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the Irish
republic. A DVD of the recording of "As is now" WAS released
early 2006 and Steve’s "LIVE 8" appearance was released in
Dec 2005.
Steve took time from road duties to pursue more work as a
clinician and educator, he appeared at the third year of the
Picking Up Sticks festival in Oldham, he got to play double
drums at a charity concert with the legendary Ian Paice and
in 2007 took part in the inaugural “World’s Greatest
Drummer” concert paying tribute to Buddy Rich. In September
2008 Steve appeared at the world famous Drummer live concert
and then reunited with the Red Hot Chilli’s Chad Smith for
eight sold out UK dates.
In April 2008 Steve alongside former Paul Weller band mate
Damon Minchella released "The return of the Iron Monkey" and
spent part of that year touring with the group called Trio
Valore including appearances at the Paris and Milan Jazz
Festival. In Dec 2008 Steve appeared in London to pay
tribute to the great Ginger Baker alongside Keith Carlock,
Simon Phillips and the great man himself.
In 2009 Steve found time to make appearances with the
legendary Jon Lord in the UK and Brazil and to stretch his
talents in producing UK artist Sam Gray.
In 2014 Steve assumed the role of head of education for
Premier drums for one year, Steve is on the much lauded
second album from La Roux, he released a new EP with Trio
Valore called Liars and Cheaters and features heavily on
volume 2 of Paul Weller's second Modern Classics album. Also
in 2014 with Co-designer Keith Keough the Modern Classic
drums that they designed won both the MIA award and the
Rhythm magazine award for best drum set, Steve and Keith
both left Premier in early 2015.
November 2015 saw the release of Electric Blend the debut
album from The Family Silver featuring Damon Minchella and
Matt Deighton. Steve also took part in 9 World’s Greatest
Drummer Concert featuring Ian Palmer, Pete Cater and amongst
others the legendary Steve Gadd.
In 2016 Steve was appointed drum set teacher at the
prestigious Trinity Laban College in Greenwich and also
teaches for Goldsmiths College in London.
In 2018 Steve presented and worked on the award winning TV
series The Art of Drumming for Sky Arts which won the
prestigious RTS Award and the best documentary at the Venice
TV festival.
2019 saw the release of 11th Hour with Sheffield duo Chris
Hague and Joel White and as Hague and White the trio
contributed to the highly acclaimed TV series Cold Call.
Also in 2019 Steve took part in the 20th Annual Freddie Gee
drum camp featuring Craig Blundell.
Steve lives in South London with a successful teaching
studio in Hextable Kent. He is married to Sally with
Children Curtis, Kristabel, Vic and Louie and they have a
crazy Hungarian Puli dog called Davey. On the odd day off
Steve can still be found at the Valley watching Charlton
Athletic.
Steve plays: Yamaha drums, Zildjian Cymbals, Vic Firth
Sticks, Porter and Davis monitoring, Remo heads and Keo
Percussion exclusively. Steve wishes to extend a very big
"thank you" to all who have supported him.
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