The Hoodoo Gurus have announced the departure of Mark Kingsmill, their drummer for the last 30 years, from the end of March.

In a Facebook post, frontman Dave Faulkner said: “I won't invade Mark's privacy by going into elaborate detail about his reasons other than to say he feels he's had enough of this vagabond rock 'n' roll lifestyle we all lead.

“Though he still enjoys playing drums, Mark has completely lost his appetite for the endless travelling and the many hours of hotel room boredom.

“The physical demands of playing the drums as energetically as he does are also exacting a higher toll on his body than ever before. Really, who can blame him for wanting a change?”

Faulkner says the band members considered breaking up rather than replacing Kingsmill who is only the second drummer in the band’s history (James Baker being the first.) Kingsmill is understood to have made his decision some months ago. 

“Mark, like James Baker before him, has a unique style of drumming and no-one else will ever be able to replicate it. Inevitably our sound will change,” Faulkner said.

“It's up to Brad, Rick and I to make sure that the next person is as inspirational a player as Mark has always been, and that we don't diminish as a band.”

The band is playing the sold-out Red Hot Summer tour in Launceston on January 31and is yet to announce Kingsmill’s final gigs.

Mark Kingsmill sprung out of the thriving Sydney underground scene and joined the Gurus iun 1984 after spells with the Hellcats, Super K, the Rob Younger-fronted Other Side and New Christs, the Hitmen and (briefly) the Screaming Tribesmen.

He’s long been regarded as one of the hardest-hitting and precise hard rock drummers in Australia.