Return of the native

Kosheen drummer Mitchell Glover is back on home turf this weekend. SALLY CHURCHWARD welcomes him home

It’s not everyday you see your teacher on Top Of The Pops, much less playing in a top ten band. But that’s exactly what students of Kosheen drummer Mitchell Glover can do.

Kosheen have enjoyed top ten success with their recent single All In My Head and had two top ten albums Resist and Kokopelli.

But Mitchell who comes from Sarisbury Green Fareham and now lives in Southsea, still finds time to share the benefit f his knowledge with his students, many of who don’t even realise they’re being taught by someone who played a 20,000-strong crowd at Glastonbury festival earlier this year.

"It’s good to pass on what I’ve learnt,” says the 25-year-old drummer. It tides me over when I’m not touring and I do it because I enjoy it- I don’t really need to do it as such. Some of my students don’t even know what I do outside of teaching, but most of them who do quite like it.

Mitchell was invited to join Kosheen by lead singer Sian, who he had met several years earlier when they were both playing in different bands.

“Things took off for us last year with the release of the first album. From there it just escalated, so each single that was released after that got higher and higher in the charts,” he says.

And he is more than happy with the situation he found himself in.

"A drummer is always what I’ve wanted to be. I’ve always been building up to it but it kind of came quicker than I expected, really. I didn’t really do the long apprenticeship of years and years of dodgy gigs.

“We’ve been on Top Of The Pops a few times. It was something that I’d always seen on telly as a youngster and the first few times we did it, it was pretty nerve-racking but we’ve done it a few times now and it seems quite run of the mill.”

Drumming is in Mitchell’s blood. A s a child he used to go to pubs and social clubs to watch his dad, drummer Malcolm “Nobby” Glover perform and he and his brother Ryan, who is in up-and-coming group Kasabian, have followed in his footsteps.

"There has been times when I wished that they all played the piccolo instead,” laughs Jean Glover, Mitchell’s mother.

With his friends and family living in the area, Sunday’s gig at Southampton Guildhall inevitably feels like something of a homecoming for Mitchell. And it’s also special for another reason.

“It will feel like a different sort of gig,” he says, “I can get in my car afterwards and go home!”