| February 7-8, 2004
By LAUREN BOBROWICH Anton Fig watch out: Daniel Banks of Pembroke is gunning for your gig as drummer in the Late Show with David Letterman band. Banks, who turned 11 Wednesday, will still be celebrating in about four weeks when he plays with Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra on th eLetterman show. The date of his appearance has not been set. "He's ecstatic about it," said his father Douglas Banks. "We tape the show for him, and he loves the band." A neighbor of the Banks' got a videotape of Daniel playing his drums. The neighbor knew a woman, who has a daughter who works for the Letterman show. Lo and behold, three weeks later, the Banks family received a phone call from the producer of the Late Show asking to speak to Daniel. "He was on the phone talking for 20 minutes with the producer who had the final say whether he would be on the show," his father said. "Within five minutes, they called back saying 'Congratulations,' he made it on the show." "I'm really excited. I like their music, and the drummer is awesome," Daniel said. The Hobomock Elementary School student isn't really after Anton Fig's job, but he is bound to impress anyway. Like most kids, Daniel banged on pots and pans from an early age. The difference was, he had rhythm. Originally from England, Douglas and Christine Banks run the Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Hanover. Christine Banks says her son became interested in music early by hanging around the studio. She says Daniel's favorite music is the blues. "It was so strange. When he was four years old, he was using spoons to bang on the saucepans," his father said. "Normally, kids hit the saucepans with the spoon end, but Daniel turned the spoons around and used them as drumsticks." Soon after, Daniel's parents bought him a snare drum at a yard sale. He got his first drum set in 1998 when he was 5 and began taking lessons with Chris Rivelli who teaches at DiCenso's Drum Shop in Quincy. The young wonder has sat in with bands at several local clubs including the Chicken Bone Saloon in Framingham, the House of Blues in Cambridge, and a not-so-local club, Willie Dixon's Blues Garden in Chicago where he played with B.B. King's daughter, Shirley King and her band. "All the clubs we go to we used to have a hard time getting in," Douglas Banks said. "But now all the clubs know him, and they want to have him play." Daniel says he is not nervous about performing in front of a nationwide television audience and believes the only thing he has to do is practice. "Nothing ever seems to frighten him," his father said. "My wife is more nervous than anyone." Daniel is just finishing up an album with Shirley King, which is coming out this summer.
Lauren Bobrowich may be reached at lbobrowich@ledger.com. Copyright 2004 The Patriot Ledger
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