8-year-old band drummer to join performers at Bay Street

Eight-year-old Robert Spiteri is the drummer of Beatroute, a group which will tomorrow be among the many performers celebrating Bay Street's second anniversary in style.

Robert's father Marvic, who plays lead and classical guitar, said that since he was three, his son used to go down to the garage and stand behind the drummer every time musicians met for jamming sessions.

"When Robert was five, he started saying he wanted to play drums and a year later started music lessons. In no way do we - that is my wife Edel who is a teacher and myself - want music to interfere with his schooling so we have worked out a schedule where we try to manage time as best we can," Mr Spiteri said.

Friday evenings and Sunday mornings are the only times Robert gets to train with the band, which recently issued its first single called Everything. The music video of the single will be shown on TV stations shortly.

Everything, with music and lyrics by Marvic Spiteri, is about friendship.

"The music is pop rock and I wrote this number one evening after a hard day's work when a lot of things went awry for me. The lyrics go something like this: "Sometimes life isn't fair, sometimes nobody seems to care..."

Apart from Robert and Marvic, Beatroute includes Adrian Vella, keyboards, David Caruana-Dingli bass, and Romina Mamo, vocals.

Besides covering popular songs, the band is currently working on a number of original tracks. The band's musical influences range from classical, to jazz and pop to progressive rock.

Beatroute made a guest appearance on a recent edition of Xarabank. The band first performed live at Bay Street in St Julian's earlier this month.

The single Everything will be on sale during the gig.