Musical prodigy, 10, plays his first public gig at Sussex village pub

Little Marshall Lawrence played a 45 minute set with a band called Union at a charity fundraiser at The Plough in Lower Beeding – and is now hoping the gig will be just the first of many.

Mum Stacey, from Tollgate Hill near Pease Pottage, said: “He has so much talent.”

She and husband John bought Marshall his first drum kit after noticing that he was ‘tapping everything’ when he was two years old.

“He clearly had rhythym,” said Stacey. “He obviously has a bit of a gift. He has a natural flair.”

And it could be that he gets it from his parents: John and Stacey are members of the rock band Asylum Affair. John plays guitar and Stacey is a vocalist.

“We’re a musical family,” says Stacey.

Marshall’s debut gig came about by chance when the band’s regular drummer – Michael Horn – couldn’t make the date because he was in America.

"It was suggested, a bit tongue in cheek, that maybe Marshall could play,” said Stacey.

And Marshall jumped at the opportunity. "He practised and practised,” said Stacey.

And it all paid off when Marshall played alongside the experienced Union band of musicians with Derek Bond on bass, his dad John Lawrence on guitar and Dave Piper on keyboard.

“It really has been the talk of the town ever since,” said Stacey. “He had just turned 10 - so very young to be playing a whole 45 minute set of songs from the 60s, 70s and 80s... songs way beyond his years!”

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Marshall goes to The Mill Primary Academy in Ifield, Crawley. “He struggles academically but his passion is music,” said Stacey.

"He has had some complex health needs since birth - he still has daily struggles but he never fails to amaze us.”

And he also amazed the crowds at his debut gig and is now hoping to go on to be a professional drummer “or,” he says, “a pilot.”