On July 29th, 1923, James Charles Marshall was born in Kensington, England. Suffering from Tuberculosis of the bones Jim spent much of his young life in hospital and plaster casts. Despite no formal education Jim worked for his father, among many other jobs, during his teenage years – working whenever and wherever he could.

In the 1940s Jim began playing the drums professionally and performed regularly as a big band drummer. This led to him opening his own drum school in 1953, teaching Mitch Mitchell (The Jimi Hendrix Experience), Micky Burt (Chas and Dave), Micky Waller (Little Richard), and Nicky Underwood (Ritchie Blackmore) among many others.