Bath’s Roseberry Road Studios – the city’s new creative hub for music, art and performance – will welcome one of the UK’s most inventive drummers this November.
Clive Deamer, best known for his work with Portishead, Roni Size Reprazent and Radiohead, will be appearing at the venue on 8 November for a special Q&A and live performance with his band Get The Blessing.
Set within converted riverside warehouses just off Lower Bristol Road, Roseberry Road Studios has quickly become a home for Bath’s growing creative community. Alongside its exhibitions and open studio spaces, it now hosts regular live music, film screenings, yoga sessions and creative workshops – all designed to bring together local residents, artists and performers in a relaxed, welcoming setting.
Deamer has spent decades at the heart of some of the UK’s most adventurous music, combining the raw energy of live drumming with a fascination for technology. Asked how drumming has changed since his early days, he’s characteristically direct. “All musicians are now threatened by technology,” he says. “But a drummer with real skills is more powerful than ever before.
“A machine still can’t do what we can do. Obviously we have to be even better at timekeeping. That hasn’t changed and we’re still the lowest-value member of the band in some eyes, but we still bring something the machines can’t touch.”
Early drum machines were once objects of suspicion for him, though he’s since embraced their creative potential. “I didn’t like them at first,” he admits, “but then I realised they were really cool. I love the 808. Like any tool, what really matters is what you do with it.”
Today, he sometimes gives hour-long demonstrations that blend acoustic and electronic techniques into a single performance.
His curiosity about sound has shaped his outlook on the modern music scene. “A lot of it doesn’t resonate with me,” he says. “What you get now is more hybrid pop-dance. Recycled sounds. In my view, the value of music gets watered down when genres blur too much. A pop beat sped up isn’t true to the rhythmic spirit of, say, classic Jungle or Drum and Bass.”
The conversation inevitably turns to Bristol, where Deamer helped shape the sound that would later be dubbed trip-hop. He recalls those formative years with mixed feelings. “The trip hop label was unhelpful,” he says. “The real action was happening in tucked-away studios and small clubs. When success came, the press created a ‘scene’ around it. Some of us crossed paths, sure, but there wasn’t a shared ethos the way outsiders imagined.”
Could anyone have predicted the lasting legacy that followed? “No way,” he says firmly. “We thought it would be transitory. Geoff Barrow and others really didn’t like the idea of it being a scene. None of us imagined it would still be talked about decades later. That continues to be a surprise.”
For Deamer, drumming is as much about restraint as showmanship. “The bulk of what I did was old-school drumming,” he explains. “Pre-1960s traditional technique. Some drummers get obsessed with technical flourishes, but often that leads to the worst music. For me, it was about what I didn’t do — leaving out fills, parking your ego at the door. It’s like acting: reshaping the role, serving the bigger picture.”
In the end, Deamer believes a good drummer offers more than rhythm. “We’re seen as simplistic, just a set of basic skills,” he says. “But it’s about personality, honesty and embracing the chaos of music. That’s what connects drummers to visual artists. It’s less about showing off and more about leaving space for something unexpected.”
For all his modesty, Clive Deamer’s career is proof that rhythm, handled with both restraint and imagination, can define an era.
Clive Deamer: An Evening of Conversation and Music
Friday 8 November
Roseberry Road Studios, Bath
️ Tickets and details: roseberryroadstudios.com/events/an-evening-with-clive-deamer
Also coming up at Roseberry Road Studios:
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What Remains – new exhibition by artist Crystal D. Evans (18–30 November)
Yoga at Roseberry Road Studios -
Sunday Yoga with Judi Bowers – weekly morning sessions, £7 including tea and coffee
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Life Drawing – small group classes running through November
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Unconditional – free documentary screening and discussion on universal basic income (20 October)
Find the full programme at roseberryroadstudios.com.
