A Zoom Hang with Neal Wilkinson featuring Spike Wells

Born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, Wells was a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral Choir School. He became interested in jazz after coming across a recording by Dizzy Gillespie, which he found "very exciting".

Spike took up playing drums in his early teens: "I suppose the thing that really knocked me out about jazz was the rhythm, so I thought if I'm going to be in a jazz band I want to be the drummer." He later had lessons from former Miles Davis drummer Philly Joe Jones, who lived in London in 1967–69, and Wells was also very influenced by another of Davis's drummers, Tony Williams.

Wells read Greats at Oxford University, where he put together a quartet with tenor player Pat Crumly and pianist Brian Priestlley that played with visitors including saxophonists Bobby Wellins, Tony Coe and Joe Harriott, and blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon. 

In 1968 Wells began a PhD course…