Young Horsham rockers back on the road

Young Horsham rockers – brothers Sam and Ben Holder – are delighted to be getting back to the live stage after all the Covid lockdowns and delays.
LightningLightning
Lightning

13-year-old Sam offers lead vocals and lead guitar in Lightning; Ben, aged 12, plays drums and sings; their dad Rob Holder does guitar and vocals; and recently they have been joined by Rob’s schoolfriend Duncan Meadus on bass.

“We’ve been going just over four years really,” explains Rob. “They were seven and nine when they first showed an interest and we bought them their first guitars and first drums. I’ve been in various bands before and they would come along and that’s how their interest started. We just nurtured it and they started to learn a few songs and a few became five or six and we got to the point where we could support my band and other bands in pubs and clubs.

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“It is just so good for them. It is great for hand-eye coordination and it’s good socialising and gives them confidence and it’s always good to learn an instrument and to be able to do that in front of a live audience really is quite something. The great thing is they just don’t seem to have any fear. It’s that fearlessness of youth!

“During Covid we had two years of nothing. We were just gearing up for five or six shows just before lockdown came and they all got cancelled so we had two years but we didn’t waste that time. We were doing new songs and going over old songs and they just honed their skills. I know I’m slightly biased but they are just fantastic now with the songs that they do, really quite technical songs, things like Tie Mother Down by Queen and One Vision. We just spent a lot of time practising and when you hear them doing three-part harmonies now, it just feels immense. They are markedly different now after the lockdowns. Everybody says it. And now we’ve got five or six bookings coming up which is great.

“It’s very difficult to get gigs for them. When you tell people how old they are, they’re not interested but you just have to persuade people to trust their ability and to realise that is actually a big attraction. And the great thing is that once we’ve done a gig, people tend to book us again immediately. I find it quite emotional watching the boys doing it out there. But I have just about mastered it now and I can manage to get through a gig without blubbing!”

Sam says he just loves the reaction from the crowd: “We do a song and I just love watching how the crowd respond. I don’t feel young to be doing this. You look back at the old videos and I was younger then but it just feels normal and it’s great to do. We do a lot of different songs, songs by the Stereophonics and Bryan Adams and Bon Jovi and Steppenwolf and AC/DC and people like that.

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“It would be good to do this for a career but it’s a long shot. I would like to, but you just don’t know.”

Drummer Ben also loves the adrenaline of live performance; “When you finish the song and you hit the cymbals it is just fantastic and you see the crowd and the way they react. They are just shouting in your face.”

The drummer he admires most is Queen’s Roger Taylor: “His technique and his way of drumming is just so inspiring to me that I’d just want to be like him.

“I would also like to do this for a living but like Sam says it’s a long shot. There is nothing guaranteed I would definitely like to give it a go.”

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Gigs coming up include: Saturday, April 2, The Norfolk Arms, Horsham; Saturday, May 21, Broadbridge Heath Village Centre; Saturday, June 4, Storrington Jubilee Festival; and Saturday, June 25, East Grinstead Ex Services Club.

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