CORKY Laing clearly remembers the moment when he realised that he was destined to be a rock drummer for the rest of his life.

As a young Canadian musician his band were chosen to open for The Who at a show in Montreal.

"I just watched Keith Moon on stage I wanted to be like him," said Corky.

"I just saw the sheer joy on his face and the way he just went at it and I knew that was for me. Over 50 years later I'm still doing it."

Corky will be coming to Darwen Library Theatre as part of a UK tour in which he is playing the music of the band with which he is best known, Mountain, one of the pioneers of heavy rock.

Now 68, Corky is a drummer's drummer - a man who has helped shaped the way modern rock music sounds. The likes of Kiss and Black Sabbath owe a lot of their heavy sound to Corky's influence.

"You can't have a great rock band if you haven't got a great drummer," he said.

Corky's powerhouse style was somewhat born out of necessity.

"Man I had to play hard to be heard over those big Marshall stacks we used," he said. "I suppose I was the most powerful drummer around especially when we started to play arenas. You had to cut through all that guitar sound."

Corky's style was totally natural and he remains scornful of click tracks - an electronic beat sounding in the drummer's ear to help keep time.

"We didn't have click tracks back then. The great John Bonham from Led Zeppelin would never use one nor would Keith Moon," he said.

"As a drummer you need that freedom to do what you want within a song without screwing it up.

"I tried to use a click track once, it was terrible."

Corky has recently started to tour performing the music of Mountain almost be public demand.

"Mountain did pretty well in the UK back in the day," he said, "but to go back there as a solo artist was scary. I didn't know if people would remember me. But we toured last year and it went so well we're heading back again.

"For me it is all about the joy of playing. I'm not promoting a hit record, I'm just going out there and playing the songs that people want to hear.

"Some of those fans have been with me for over 40 years and there's a few grey hairs in the audience. But there are also a lot of younger music fans who love our attitude. We don't bother with major production, we just play as hard as we can."

With his band Joe Venti on bass and vocals and Phil Baker on guitar, Corky will be playing from Mountain's back catalogue including their most famous song Nantucket Sleighride - a song which introduced the cow bell into rock music.

"That was almost an accident," said Corky. "When we recorded the song in the studio I used the cowbell to count us in at the start and thought it would get taken out in the mix for the finished version. But it stayed in."

For the UK shows Corky now takes centre stage with his drums up front and centre.

"That's my idea of a drum clinic," he laughed. "The audience get the chance to see what I do.

"I may have played these songs thousands of times over the years but they still surprise me. I was only 21 when I recorded some of them with Mountain and the challenge has been to maintain that same energy.

"You can't fake that passion in front of a live audience and I'm thrilled to say it's still there."

Corky Laing, Darwen Library Theatre, Saturday, May 14. Details from 0844 847 1664.