S O N N Y F L I N T
Sonny Flint joined Martin Turner's band in August 2022.
There’s drumming heritage in Sonny’s family, as his dad is Hughie Flint (John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, the Blues Band, McGuiness Flint). So unsurprisingly the first time Sonny played the drums they were his Dad’s.
When Sonny was 13, his Dad gave him an old Ajax drum kit as a present and Sonny has been drumming ever since. Sonny is a self-taught drummer and he learned to drum by listening and playing along to Led Zeppelin and Beatles records at home after school. Argus was often on the record player too.
Sonny’s first band at school already incorporated influences from prog and glam rock bands into their music. He then went on to join the psychedelic band The Limbic System from Barnet before being headhunted by anarcho-punksters Omega Tribe in 1984 to go on a UK tour at the age of 17.
Since then Sonny has played and recorded with 13 Frightened Girls, signed to Stephen Street’s record label, the Silverjets, signed to Blanco Y Negro, who toured with Catatonia, played with Russell Senior (Pulp), played and recorded with Me Against Them, who were John Peel favourites, Heidi Jo Hines, Simon Eugene, Emma Wilson’s Monarch Blues Band, and Pete Fender. Most recently he worked with David Knopfler (ex Dire Straits) on his latest album Shooting for the Moon, released in 2021, with some further recording taking place in 2022 for a yet unreleased album.
He’s also a professional sound engineer and has toured with Das Pop, Is Tropical and the Blockheads as their chosen sound engineer, has recorded Seasick Steve, Gary Numan, Emiliana Torrini, and Dhani Harrison, and has had the pleasure to work at the 100 Club as their house engineer when Paul McCartney, Chuck Berry, and James Burton played.
When the 2020 Lock-down put an end to live performances, Sonny used his sound engineering knowledge to kit out a professional home recording studio and invested in a number of high-end Ludwig and British Drum Company drum kits and snare drums, as well as vintage Ajax and Premier drums and vintage Ludwig snare drums, which has allowed him to do remote drum recording and song mixing.
For hsi performances with Martin Turner's band, Sonny uses a 1984 vintage Ludwig drum kit with British Drum Company snare, Cymbal and Gong crashes, ride and second ride, and Istanbul hi-hats as his Martin Turner live kit.
