Stomp, Grand Opera House, York, March 15 to 20

MARC Bolan liked to bang a gong, get it on. In Stomp, eight performers bang everything including the kitchen sink. Outsized boots, garbage, bins, brooms, Zippo lighters and plumbers' plungers are the tools of the trade as they hammer out their percussive symphonies. Banging man Jeremy Dolan introduces Charles Hutchinson to the show that puts the hit into hit show at the Grand Opera House, York, next week.

When and how did you join the Stomp club?

"I've been involved since May 1999, pretty much non-stop since then. I'd played drums in pub rock bands since my teens but I'd not done any theatrical work before Stomp.

"The way Stomp works, because it's such a different show, you don't need to be involved in theatre to do it. The idea is that anyone can pick up a box of matches and make music without training or a score. Luke, the director, says he can teach anyone to play drums but you must have the right attitude to start."

So, what had you been doing before Stomp?

"I was driving a van for a small independent company between Horsham and London, and I was in a rock'n'roll band but that wasn't really working out. I auditioned at Christmas 1998 at an open audition at the Roundhouse in London. There must have been about 800 people in the street outside, and I was in a queue with all these people who'd been auditioning for Les Miserables, and I was thinking 'What am I doing here?'."

What had you trained in?

"I'd been working as a courier since coming out of the University of Birmingham with a degree in geology, because there weren't any jobs going in that field and I didn't want to do it anyway. It was either this show or six months on an oil rig. What would you do?"

Bang an oil drum or stare at oil all day? No contest. You choose the physical thrill, but it does look exhausting, Jeremy

"Absolutely, it is exhausting... until you get show-fit. For each tour, we do five weeks of training, working almost every day, ten until five. It's a gruelling schedule."

With all that banging going on in Stomp, there must be a risk of injury, surely?

"I've had my share of injuries. There's only so much the body can take, and after six months your body is saying 'What, you're not going to give me a break now? You're going to be lucky if you don't get injured'.

"You could be hit by a pole or a bin lid. One of the guys in the show with me, we bumped heads in the dark in a black-out between set pieces, and that was an interesting six weeks off.

"But if we practise and we have the choreography right, we don't have injuries normally."

You are 28, each show lasts 100 minutes without an interval, and it is highly physical work, so will you continue to Stomp around?

"I'd like to keep going in the show, and the great thing is that the directors allow me a lot of freedom, if the body is hurting or I want to do something else for six months. As long as I can get a replacement, they're really accommodating. It's just such an infectious show to do."

Bang on.

Stomp, Grand Opera House, York, March 15 to 20. Performances: Monday to Thursday, 7.30pm; Friday, 6pm, 9.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm, 7.30pm. Box office: 0870 606 3595.

Did you know?

Stomp began 11 years ago; its latest run at the Vaudeville Theatre in London is into its 18 month; eight productions are playing around the world; the show has been performed in 38 countries and featured at the opening ceremony of the Academy Awards in Hollywood in 1995. In the West End alone, its box-office takings stand at £4.5 million. All that money, made from garbage and bins.

Updated: 15:47 Thursday, March 11, 2004