'Choosing sobriety meant walking away from fame'

Richard Jupp spent nearly 30 years of his life in Elbow.

From gigging in the pubs of Bury and Manchester to sell-out tours and winning international accolades, the drummer seemed to have everything a musician could ever want.

But underneath the surface the "myth of rock'n'roll" was not what it seemed.

"From the outside, I had everything you're supposed to want," he explaned.

"I was travelling the world, making records and living a life I'd dreamed about since I was a kid. We were at an extraordinary point in the band's career.

"But I asked myself 'What is any of that worth if I'm heading in a direction that was no longer working for me'?"

Now, after a decade of sobriety, Jupp is using his drumming to help others.

One of Manchester's most loved bands officially formed in Bury in 1990.

For Jupp, though, his ties go back as long as he can remember.

"I have actually known Pete the bass player since I was six months old," he said.

"We lived literally 250 yards from each other."

After growing up with bassist Pete Turner, the pair formed a band with guitarist Mark Potter at school.

They invited lead singer Guy Garvey to join them after meeting him at the former Stand College, just outside Bury, 36 years ago.

The four-piece were named Mr. Soft, later shortened to Soft soon became a five-piece when Mark's brother Craig joined them.

"It was the classic 10-year overnight success," Jupp said of the band which would come to be known in 1997 as Elbow's rise to fame.

"We'd always been hanging out, tinkering with music until it became our main focus.

"We saw everybody go off to uni, get jobs, go travelling. And we thought 'No - we're going to stick to this'."

After years of gigging, the band signed with Island Records after winning a Battle of the Bands competition.

After being dropped, Elbow later signed with V2 and released their debut album Asleep in the Back in 2001.

The album had been six years in the making.

Barely a year later, Elbow were playing at the Glastonbury Festival.

"We went from playing [before] 100 people to hearing 100,000 people clapping and cheering for you and singing along," Jupp said of those meteoric days.

"You're looking at the faces of the crowd and the people that you've created this thing with.

"And you would be like 'Oh My God - this is ridiculous'!"

Despite having made it to the big time, Jupp said he spent his career immersed in a music-industry culture in which drinking and drugs were completely normalised.

"I can only speak for my own experience - but it was kind of de rigueur.

"Less so now, but back in those days it was seen as some kind of rite of passage, it was normalised, and I did personally participate in that culture.

"I've witnessed within the industry, people who are still partaking - outside of the band - people who are still perpetuating that myth of rock'n'roll."

Jupp said he was able to separate the culture from his everyday life, and did not take drugs outside of touring with the band.

"It didn't ever come to point where it was outside of that," he said.

"It was sort of internalised from my point of view."

When he turned 40, Jupp said he decided the lifestyle was no longer working for him.

After about a year touring with the band while sober, Jupp said he made the decision to step down, formally leaving in 2016.

"It was starting to get to a point where I could see that there was a problem," he said.

"It felt detached.

"I just decided 'that's it - I'm done.'

"I've remained sober ever since."

Jupp said his decision had not been made lightly.

"Choosing sobriety and choosing recovery meant being prepared to walk away from a life that had given me fame, success and financial security," he said.

"That was not a small decision.

"It meant stepping away from an identity I'd carried for most of my adult life and accepting that my health, my family and my future had to come first."

Jupp said a big part of his decision to leave the band was wanting to do something different - and to spend more time with his family.

"In 2015 my son was diagnosed with autism - he was 13 or 14 at the time and that was just a paradigm shift for him," he explained.

"I had spent most of his little life here and then away and then here and then away.

"And I was 40.

"I just thought there are other things I want to do.

"I knew it would be a big move and a bold move.

"But it was very definitely the right move."

Since leaving the band, Jupp has been teaching drumming with a focus on the physical, cognitive and emotional benefits of the instrument - and has been sober throughout.

He holds sessions at his Manchester Drum Studio - as well was working at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), teaching at dBs Institute Manchester and mentoring postgraduate students at Tileyard London.

"Since leaving the band, recovery has been one of the defining focuses of my life, and drumming has played a huge role in that," he said.

"Rhythm, repetition, movement and focus help bring me back into the moment.

"It is about sharing something that has genuinely helped me stay grounded and well.

"I know how significant that decision to choose recovery can be.

"Addiction is a disease and it's terrifying.

"And I was lucky enough to be able to make the decision of sobriety and be able to stand by it."

Jupp is taking his drumming workshop to Delamere Health clinic, an addiction rehabilitation centre in Cheshire, where he hopes to share with others the power of drumming, routine and rhythm.

"I know what it is to look at the life you are living and decide that something has to change," Judd said.

"So if I can now stand alongside people who are making that decision for themselves, particularly those just beginning their recovery, and offer something that might help them reconnect with themselves, their families or simply with life again that feels incredibly meaningful to me."

The clinic's founder Martin Preston, from south Manchester, said: "We're so looking forward to Richard coming in.

"What Rich is really passionate about is that recovery becomes quite a personal thing.

"So through drumming, Rich has found ways and means to regulate, to connect with others, to be mindful.

"It's the power of community, the power of the group coming together to share an experience."

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