Earplugs were essential at Drummer Live yesterday, a cacophonous celebration of Britain's renewed passion for percussion. For 10 minutes every hour, dozens of players unleashed their loudest licks in a 110-decibel frenzy - a sound equivalent to that of a jet taking off 600 metres away.

Sales of percussion instruments have more than doubled in the last decade, from £15m in 1997 to £35m last year, according to the Musical Instrument Association (MIA), partly thanks to the rise of the middle-aged drummer and the rebirth of rock acts such as Led Zeppelin. Some retailers said the popular Cadbury's advert featuring a gorilla drumming to In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins triggered an uplift in sales.

Yesterday, 50-something men were out in force at the ExCeL centre in east London, confirming suspicions that for some a gleaming lacquered drum kit is now a better antidote to middle age than a sports car or a motorbike.

"I release all my frustrations on the drum kit after work, like hitting a punchbag," said Steve Hughes, from Dartford, who has been playing for 30 years. "My family tend not to listen. I have a little room at the bottom of the garden where I can do what I want."

Dentist Michael White, 55, has played since he was 12: "When I get away from doing my profession I knock myself out wild with my percussion. It's my midlife crisis - I'll enjoy it how I want."

Tom Winch, manager of House of Drums in Southend, said the boom was being fuelled by these "weekend warriors", who buy electronic kits for as much as £3,000. "In the 1960s and 1970s, everyone was in a band, and that is why we are finding the 50-somethings coming back into the market," Winch said.

Half of the money spent on percussion goes on electronic kits, which "have put paid to mums telling their children: 'Not on your life are you having drums'", said Paul McManus, spokesman for the MIA. The boom is likely to continue with the release of a Drum Hero computer game, similar to the bestselling Guitar Hero.

Jason Bonham, son of the late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, who filled in for his father at the band's reunion gig, compared the thrill to an out-of-body experience. "Its me versus the kit when I play, like doing a lap in a Formula One car," he added. "Dad always said you have to groove."

Pete Ray Biggin, 28, who plays for Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson, said it stopped him going off the rails: "I was a problem child and my teachers hated me. At school they couldn't control me so I used to just come home and practise drums and that chilled me out. All my energy went into practising."

But amid all the crashing cymbals, Justin Myers, 48, a freelance bass player from Norfolk, is worried that basic skills are overlooked. "I was doing a Petula Clark gig last weekend and she doesn't want all this flashy stuff - she wants a good groove, four in the bar," he said. "No one wants you to play like a monster when you're playing Downtown."