issue 34 working_Layout 1 8/7/2013 11:46 AM Page 54
OCK EJ TH OCK FR O
Joe Milliken
Hittin it with Jeff Costello
This month’s Jock Of Rock installment is strangely unique for me, due to the fact that local drummer, Jeff Costello, actually spent a few years of his youth growing up in the same North Walpole house that I would just a few years later. I can actually remember my Dad telling me that I was going to love our new house because “it had big rooms, one even big enough to contain a drum set!” I can only surmise that this had to be the drums of a young Jeff, slamming away on his kit with visions of rock-and-roll grandeur vibrating through the walls! And now, ironically, here I am some (gulp) 35 years later, writing a music feature about the same dude who was “up on the hill” in that same house as I and playin’ those drums. It is also good to note that neither of our loves for music has wavered over the years and which has now, ultimately brought us together for this article. But, I digress... Originally from Medford, Ma., Jeff moved to North Walpole, NH in 1973 and attended Fall Mountain Regional High School in Langdon. “I started playing the drums around 1974 or ’75,” Jeff said in a recent Cider interview. “A couple of my friends were playing guitar and bass and I sort of just fell into playing the drums. However, today my house and garage are full of all kinds of instruments… I must look like a hoarder! I play a little guitar and keys as well.” Jeff’s parents were a big influence early on, although they were not musicians themselves. “My parents were musically hip and had a lot of great stuff to listen to ranging from the Beatles, to The