Yes born in West Bromwich. I suspect he supports Wolverhampton Wanderers or Wolves (who are actually fierce rivals to West Bromwich Albion) because back in the fifties Wolves were the much more successful team winning the league a couple of times...although there could be another reason. I think his roots are firmly in the West Midlands - Kidderminster (Shropshire) and Stourbridge are both towns not far from his home town. I believe he has a house in Shropshire not far from Kidderminster.

I used to love Rush up until the Moving Pictures album but from that point they seemed to be employing more and more keyboards and lost their rock edge. I believe some of the recent albums have seen them returning to their roots - they were heavily influenced by Zeppelin (particularly when they started out). I love Bonzo and Peart as drummers although their styles were completely different. Peart used a massive kit and also percussion such as timbales, glockenspiels etc and his playing was technically very tight - his timing was near perfect. Bonzo used a smaller kit but he was a power house - his bass drum sound was monstrous and the overall effect was really impressive. I'm sure Bonzo would have known about Peart and I would be surprised if he didn't respect his technical ability - virtually every drummer I come across puts him in their top 10 drummers

What is the story behind Four Sticks? Only recently when I saw a tribute band in the UK the drummer played with 2 sticks in each hand and finally understood the title. Was there a reason for using 4 sticks or was this just a gimmick?