drums

Bond Street Founding Member

Previous Bands Include:
The Beaver Trail Boys

Current bands include:

Heather Christie Band

EMAIL TOM

For the whole story, as well as photos and some great artwork, check out the History pages.

Tom Peake started playing drums as a ten-year-old, owing his well-respected proficiency with the sticks to his mom. "My mom had a Dave Brubeck Quartet record on which the Great Joe Morello played drums. From the first time I heard it, I knew I wanted to play drums. I never considered playing any other instrument."

Recognizing a budding musician when she saw one, Tom's mom bought him a snare drum and he signed up for Beginning Band. Seeing that Tom's interest held fast, she further encouraged him with the purchase of a drums-only set. Tom got a small bank loan for the cymbals and stands, paying it off with the earnings from his paper route. Tom continued to play in school bands, from junior high up through college.

Early on, his future career plan was given a big push forward -- by going right back to the beginning -- when Tom attended a clinic and concert with Joe Morello and The Dave Brubeck Quartet. He followed up by attending a lot more concerts, by Sergio Mendez, The Temptations... "I was hooked on jazz, soul, and rhythm and blues."

"I got my professional start shortly thereafter, playing in a soul band with a bunch of older guys. They had horns and a Hammond organ and stuff. A lot of those tunes we still play today. After high school I started playing “animal” clubs, the great mainstay of musicians everywhere.

"I was playing in a lot of groups now in college. I had a great instructor who was a pro and stressed the importance of playing as much as you can, with as many different people as you can, to gain a wealth of experience. He got me some gigs with local jazz guys and pretty soon I landed a steady gig. I was on my way, and we decided to go on the road.

"After a couple of years, we disbanded and I took a job with one of the guys up here on the north coast. I met Chris Parker and we started a jazz sextet, playing the Portland scene for several years. We weren't making much money and split up when our trusty VW bus died.

"I managed to free-lance quite a bit and got together with some guys that played country-boogie, western swing and rockabilly. These guys had played all over the place with a lot of good drummers and taught me a lot about the drummer's role in a band. The two main guys (brothers) both had hemophelia and as a result both died of AIDS just as doctors were discovering the disease.

"I pushed my way into The Beaver Trail Boys, another western swing band. They didn’t have or need a drummer, but somehow they took me on. These guys were really good, and managed to get a lot of top local jazz players to be guest artists with the band. We were playing a lot and got to open for some national country acts.

"Since then, I've done a lot of free-lancing and played with people like Hank Thompson, Buddy Allen and Ferlin Husky, right up to the time I met up with the Bond Street guys."

In November of 1990, Tom's fine, fundamentals-rich playing allowed the band to morph from Blues Union to Bond Street.