I'm banging the drum for a king of skins

Ah, come, give some clues I hear you say. Well, all right then, here's a few pointers.

Average to tall in height, middle-aged with long, faded hippy-esque thatch arrangement. Sports an ever-changing Jason King facial fungus layout, although I imagine he won't thank me for that one.

And no goatee in sight. Not the stereotypical jazzer, then.

So, in a way, he stands out in a crowd. Even a jazz crowd, which can contain any number of varied-looking individuals. Oh yes, and there's one other distinguishing feature - a look of perpetual harassment emblazoned across a fizzog that is a road map to the last 40-odd years on the road as the best drummer this side of the Natchez Trace.

(Why Natchez Trace, I hear you asking. The answer's simple. I just think it's a great-sounding name!)

Yes, we're talking about "Sir" Alan Buckley. But then, I would imagine that quite a number of you out there would have guessed as much by this time.

Now, "Sir" Alan may be the best-known visage at Europe's premier classic jazz event, yet there are even more strings to the bow of this particular gentleman. For he is, as many a punter on Fish Meadow in late June will confirm, also a man who is equally adept on-stage as he is away from the boards.

The Evening News has, down the years, regularly devoted much newsprint to "Sir" Alan's exploits with the famous yearly festival. This is mainly because I never fail to attend and then relentlessly bang on about it on the following day in this paper's esteemed columns. It's a dirty job but someone's got to do it.

There is, however, usually a story behind the story. And like many people whose lives appear one-dimensional to the collective public eye, there is a side to "Sir" Alan that quite possibly remains hidden from many of those who embark on that annual summer Severnside pilgrimage.

Up until now, it has been mainly friends, family, colleagues and fellow musicians who knew the truth about the man whose career spans the 1950s "trad" boom until the present day.

They are only too aware of the dark secret in the unassuming West Midlands abode that he calls home...

...Drums. Yes, we've mentioned them before but this is drums with a capital D. And we know that all drummers venerate their creations of metal, wood and plastic, for in common with musicians everywhere, the means to a living can assume a higher status - where idolatry causes inanimate objects to acquire greater significance.

We're talking love. Only in this case then L-O-V-E spells drums. They're everywhere at "Sir" Alan's place. For his modest home at Walsall, this seemingly unremarkable residence which he shares with his partner Kenya, is packed to the gunwhales with all manner of things pertaining to a percussive nature.

In an attempt at formalising the estimation of hundreds of items crammed into a finite space, we must borrow from the world of science.

And the only way to describe the phenomenon is to take our cue from the Richter Scale, which is used so effectively for measuring earthquakes.

So, if scientists took a reading they would quickly discover the graphs registering a massive Quadruple Sardine Situation, or QSS for short.

There are drums in the living room, in the bedrooms and in the hall. Drums in the lounge and be careful when you go to the loo - you don't want those sticks to start an impromptu paradiddle while you're having a Jimmy Riddle, do you?

I think a picture is starting to form in your head. For "Sir" Alan's pad houses the largest collection of classic kits in the whole wide world. And that means the planet - this is a truly global computation of syncopation.

But every so often, this plethora of percussion - featuring 100 kits, 300 vintage snares, 28 console kits, silent film sound effects, war kits and so on - strikes camp in deepest Walsall and joins their master on a journey across the Atlantic to the great classic jazz mecca of Chicago.

"Sir" Alan has visited the Windy City several times with his awesome array of hardware and is regarded by American officianados as being the leading authority on the genre.

However, for those who cannot manage the 3,500-mile journey to the American Mid-West there is this heartening news.

Next month, on Saturday through to Sunday September 16 and 17, the First Midland Vintage and Custom Drum Show is being held at The Red Barn, Hoar Park near Ansley, Nuneaton, north Warwickshire.

And the interesting, not to say intriguing, aspect to this drum show debut by "Sir" Alan is this. Remember how the Upton festival began. Back in 1986, who would have guessed that the year 2000 would witness the glorious 15th occasion of musical mayhem down by the riverside?

There is most certainly a feeling of deja vu, for "Sir" Alan is one of those people with the Midas touch. Success follows him around, never being far from those size 10 mud-caked trainers that are such a fixture during those three glorious days under the moon in June.

Pilot events such as this - always popular with everyone from the expert to the casual visitor - have a habit of becoming permanent events, finding their way on to the calendars of more and more people every year.

Hoar Park boasts a craft and antique centre, a garden centre and children's farm. There are various routes that can be taken, depending on where you live in the Midlands - call 024 7639 4433 for details - but as drivers approach the venue there will be brown signs to help them on their way so no one should become lost.

This is also the home area of Phillpott, your favourite columnist. So if you wish to see the ancestral home in its picturesque setting deep in the land of the Bear and Ragged Staff, just give me a ring at the Evening News. Only joking.

In any event, the sound of the drums should guide you to a festival that will, in all likelihood, be destined to pass into legend before you can say Louis Armstrong - or should I say Gene Krupa?

Whatever happens next month, you can be sure that just as he has so effectively kept the beat on the snares, bass and high-hat all these years, "Sir" Alan Buckley's timing will be as perfect as ever when it comes to the success of this new venture.

After all, the legacy of the man who brought us Upton's glorious festival should be proof enough.