steve roberts
Steve Roberts is the much sought after perfect drummer fot the band. It hardly seems posssible that he has been with the band for 5 years - but it's true. Not that there has been much time for gigs since the tour the band did in 2017/18 what with the pandemic and so on, but he has cut 3 albums with the band since that tour.
The Tangent had met Steve on many occasions at festivals etc, where he would either be playing with Magenta or Godsticks. He's had his number taken some years before the question was popped, so when the band had a tour planned for 2017, ineveitably the dreaded Tangent question rose again..
Steve agreed to do the tour and , pretty well tripping over themselves with enthusiasm, the band offered the permanent position to him around about 1 hour after the first rehearsal - or round about the time it took to have a shower and be on the way to the pub.
Steve has been playing for 3 decades and more now, a real hard working and regualrly gigging musician. Keith Emerson has guested with HIM, he's played with David Cross (King Crimson), John Sloman, (Uriah Heep) Burke Shelley (Budgie) - he's done heavy rock, reggae, jazz, psychedelic, prog, fusion and 'depped' for just about every sick drummer in Wales
His experience as a "stand in" drummer for so many artists gives Steve a real head start when first joining a project. He has an intense procedure for immersing himslef in the material he has to learn and this really showed in the first song he ever played with The Tangent when he nailed "GPS Culture" first time while certain keyboards players who had originally written the piece.. er... did not.
From The Tangent's point of view though, the biggest factor is Steve's total understanding of the music. It soon transpired that Andy's record collection was very similar to Steve's. He wasn't just into "Prog" - he was into the same little corners of it. "On the first album he recorded, - Proxy" says Andy - "I found it so easy and simple to be talking about the kind of thing Pip Pyle might have done at a certain point"
Not only the musical vocabulary and deep knowledge of the genre was important, but the drums themselves. Steve brought fantastic sounding kits to all the recordings, some of the equipment of perfect vintage to be able to get the very close mic'ed dry and detailed sound required by the band. Andy again: "We've had a few who really want to go for the bigger sound but when the music is so complex the big sound tends to turn into a barrage of artillery fire with bass drums that sound like cannons. Steve knows what Billy Cobham would have done. "
Steve was sat in the back of the van on his first tour he did with The Tangent. On the stereo, "Medieval Overture" by Return To Forever was playing. Not realising that the rest of the band were intensely focused on him, Steve played Lenny White's parts on his knees. When he finished there were a lot of knowing glances between the other guys. It had taken 15 years, but they had found their drummer.