As a child of the 80s and 90s Jo’s music taste was alternative but she was also exposed to a lot of mainstream music. She had two older sisters, one was into pop music, the other was into indie and grunge so she heard a lot of different music.

Her favourite band as a teenager was Nirvana who she saw play at Reading Rock Festival. This was the highlight of her teen years and will never be forgotten. She also saw all her other favourite bands at the time including PJ Harvey, Shed 7, Neds Atomic Dustbin to name a few.

She has a broad taste in music due to being surrounded by various genres as a child. Her parents played the organ at home were into big band, all the oldies from the 50s and 60s and also Queen. Her dad was a huge Queen fan so there was no way that she wasn’t going to love all their music.

The first cassette tape Jo bought herself with her own money was “Bad” by Michael Jackson. She was obsessed with this album, played it day and night and learned all the words. It wasn’t until later in life that she learned to appreciate the awesome drumming on this album, she was just in awe of MJ and his vocals and dance moves.

As a teen Jo was in a band with a few friends from school and they would practice at lunchtime playing songs by Metallica. This was because the guitarist loved them and could only play their songs. This has come in handy given quite a few of Jo’s current students have wanted to learn to play “Enter Sandman”.

Jo spent many hours playing along to all sorts of songs through her CD player and headphones, trying to work out what the drummers were playing. There was no Youtube back then, so Jo had to teach herself through drum books and via listening and guessing and occasionally seeing a band live or on TV.

Jo loves performing in bands, playing gigs and festivals and it makes the practice all worth it. She currently plays for several bands and enjoys switching genres from rocking out to disco, funk, soul, RnB, pop and more. She is not too fussy about what she plays as long as she is enjoying herself. One of the styles she is not into is double bass pedal hardcore metal.