“Watching you is like watching Keith Moon on marsh mallows!” was the comment Chip received from a lighting engineer as he left the stage after a gig in Birmingham.

As the regular drummer/percussionist with Duke Special Chip has toured with and supported the likes of Snow Patrol, Crowded House, Van Morrison, The Beautiful South and The Divine Comedy and in the process played at Wembley, The NEC, The Royal Albert Hall and many other notable venues around the world.

TV credits include Later with Jools Holland, Top of the Pops, Taratata (France), BBC Electric Proms and Sesame Street (with the Muppets!). Also many radio appearances with among others Dermot O'Leary, Janice Long and Stephen Merchant.

Festival appearances include Glastonbury, Bestival, The iTunes Festival, Colors of Ostrava (the largest festival in Central Europe) and South by South West in Austin Texas. He has performed with the Ulster Orchestra, The Dubai Philharmonic, and the RTE Concert Orchestra, and at Last Night of the Proms with the BBC at Hillsborough Castle Northern Ireland. He also appeared in a 68 show run at the National Theatre London in a production of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and her Children.

Endorsed by British drum company Jalapeno Drums and REMO percussion, he is also known for his famed Stump Fiddle (and now the Chipstick) and plays his own signature model cheese grater and whisk!

For over 25 years Chip has been touring/recording/ and generally making a noise and his career has taken him across the globe from Texas to Dubai to Albania and reconciliation work in Rwanda and South Africa with local musicians.

“Original really is the word for Duke Special and no member of the band better illustrated this attribute than the percussionist Chip Bailey. Not only did he play his abnormal drum kit with skill and finesse but he also, at one point, skilfully implemented the percussive attributes of a cheese grater and a whisk. Nor was he disheartened when his whisk broke at which point he pulled out an insane home made staff of noisy delights which consisted of some kind of pan, a spring, a wooden block and a bell. Drumming was given a new meaning.” - EGIGS.CO.UK