NEW!: Strangeglue launch brand new community forums. Click here to register.

From Autumn To Ashes Lose Drummer

28th January 2008 | by Aidan Williamson

After an unfortunate incident involving FATA sticksman Jeff Gretz, a tourbus and an "inconsistent" pathway. The band found themselves without a drummer after he broke two bones in his foot.

Gretz will be casted up for the next two months after which time it will hopefully be fully healed. Frontman Francis Mark (their former drummer) will take over the drums temporarily until Graham Griffith from the band Flood of Red arrives to fill the void. Mark stated that no shows will be cancelled due to the accident.

In a clearly frustrated statement Gretz detailed the incident and offered his thoughts on the U.K's National Health Service.

"Last night of UK. Show goes great as all of the previous ones have. We've broken even on expenses with 3 weeks of tour left. This is great. Spirits are high. After the set the bus is loaded we're saying goodbye to Hundred Reasons and taking pictures. I'm walking in between the side of the bus and the club -- tight fit, it's dark – and an inconsistency in the sidewalk causes me to lose balance. I can't fall completely over, because I fall into the bus. I land on the ground straight down onto my ankle. I hear and feel a distinct crack. 'Are you okay?'. 'No. No, I'm not'. They help me up and usher me into the lower lounge of the bus. Not much ice in the club. Anthony, our tour manager, gets me some cubes wrapped in a napkin and I try to ice it down. No "visible" damage. Nothing feels out of place with some cursory pokes around the area. Feeling in the extremities, everything is moving. It's sore but not terrible. For now."

"I go to bed, I'm gonna sleep this off. No such luck... Noon. Still up. Now this thing REALLY hurts. I can't even really WALK on it at all, or put weight on it... Hospital time. Let's try out this free health care thing. I take a cab over to the Chelsea Royal Infirmary. I tell them I'm a Yank, they ask my name, my address, my wife's name and phone number. That's it. Not one signature. Nothing. No paperwork. They take me right back to X-ray, immediately sit me down with a doctor who explains I have broken two bones in my foot, will have to wear a cast (and use crutches) for 6-8 weeks and can under no circumstances try to play drums in the cast, which I was already contemplating doing. They charge me 10 pounds for a cd with my X-rays to take back to NY to have my doctor there determine when to actually remove the cast. But other than that, in- out- no questions- no problems. Frighteningly efficient."

"Now the question is what do I do? I'm scared. I haven't held a "real" job in years. And I don't count waiting tables (which I haven't even done in over a year) as a real job, that's like a anthropological circus sideshow of the human psyche... I never counted that as a job, that was a "social experiment". I can't play drums, I can't practice. I can write! But even that is limited to what I have at my disposal in the apartment ( I don't like writing on guitar and all the keyboards are in the space which I can't drag from Brooklyn to Harlem for the obvious reasons. ) On top of all that, we live on the 4th floor. I can't manoeuvre these crutches anyway, let alone up and down our treacherous stairs that I have taken near-miss spills down when I'm HEALTHY. I will probably spend the next 2 months, obsessively journalling ridiculous thoughts, reading, plotting, scheming, and becoming bitter."

Collective "aww" followed by a "get well soon Jeff".