Roger Taylor’s Drums – and me!

How I got closer to the Queen drummer’s gear

Roger-Taylor-book-cover

The internet’s a funny old thing, a double-edged sword at the best of times. One minute you can be finding all sorts of information about stuff you didn’t know existed, the next arguing with somebody on the other side of the world you have never met. The latter is something I steer clear of these days, aided by my shunning of all things Social Media, but the former can produce the most unexpected and fulfilling experiences and truly enrich your life in the on-line world.

It was sometime in 2015 when I received an email via the contact page on this site, from an Italian calling himself Dario ‘Blues’ Di Nario. It turned out he had stumbled across my page on Roger Taylor where I describe his influence on me during my early teenage years. Dario was keen to communicate with me about all things Taylor because he had a very special project he needed to complete, one of a most highly classified nature. It turned out, he was in the middle of producing a book (the first and only book of its kind) detailing every drum set ever used by Taylor, from the pre-Queen days right up to the present day. With so little information in the public domain about Taylor’s gear, I knew this was going to be a tall order, but I was more than happy to assist in whatever way I could. It just so happened, the timing of Dario’s contact coincided with me commencing night school to learn Italian, so this was definitely a good omen in the alignment of the stars.

The first hurdle for Dario was putting his trust in me so I could see the current status of the project. Seeing as this book would be the first ever written on the subject and with so much information already collected, he had to be very careful about who he shared it with in case I, or anyone else turned out to be plagiarists with designs on making their own book! I had no such intentions and eventually he shared with me what he had achieved, so far. What he sent to me, even in its rough format, I could never have envisaged, not in my wildest dreams…

First of all, the level of detail afforded to the descriptions of the drum set components was nothing short of microscopic. To gather this sort of information with so little of it freely available to draw from, must have been a monumental task and one I certainly would not have had the patience to undertake. As well as being a work of forensic research, this was a dedicated labour of love or as they say in Italy, “un lavorare d’amore”. Secondly, the research Dario had completed on the textual and photographic sides of the story was equally as painstaking in detail. It took me very little time to realise I was dealing with a perfectionist.

Although Dario had asked me not to show or share the book with anyone, I knew I could show it to my boss (Andy Dwyer) who had shared many other secrets with me from the high profile drum world and could be trusted implicitly not to let the cat from out of the bag (I’m sure there is an Italian idiom for that phrase!) Andy was as jaw-dropped as me at the level of detail involved and fully understood the absolute need to keep it confidential.

So where did I fit into all this? My knowledge of Taylor was based upon a brief period as a teenager when I received my first drum kit. Dario had already cultivated positive contacts within the worldwide Queen fan club network as well as Brian May, Roger’s long-time Drum tech, Chris ‘Crystal’ Taylor and eventually, the man himself; so what could I possibly bring to the table?

Although Dario speaks good English and can write enough to communicate extremely well with English speaking people, it would be a tall order for him to write the book’s text to the standard required for general publication. So having graciously put his trust in me not to publicise the project, he asked me to become his Latinesque-English-to-proper-English editor.

Learn a foreign language and improve your English!

Having become involved with this project during my first year learning Italian, it was interesting to discover the differences in the way sentences are constructed between the two languages. Anyone familiar with the Star Wars films will know how the character (Master) Yoda speaks, in jumbled sentences that somehow make sense once the brain has rearranged them. Well, this is a near identical scenario when thinking in English to construct sentences in Italian, which means the translation from Italian to English by an Italian, can often read as ‘Yoda speak’! So much of my work was putting Dario’s words into something more familiar for an English speaking audience. However, I felt strongly about keeping his interpretation as close to the passion he has about his subject matter, so it was important not to over Anglicise his words.

Due to my low-achieving Secondary Modern school education of the late 1970s, English grammar was never taught to students of my level in any great depth. The massive eye opener for me during this experience – whilst continuing to study Italian throughout the project – has been how much I have learned about the grammar in my own language. If you want to learn about English grammar, then learn a foreign language!

The finishing line (‘finire’: to finish)

Working sporadically with Dario via email for many months, involving a seemingly never-ending stream of new information, edits, photographs and copyright headaches, Dario finally got his work to print during the final quarter of 2017.

With a limited run of 1000 copies and all profits being donated to his chosen charities, Dario produced a book with the level of detail in the subject matter I have never seen in any similar publication of its type over the last 30+ years. If a book like this had been available in the 1980s, it would have been like gold dust to a fledgling drummer such as myself. Having idolised Roger Taylor at a pivotal point in my early development, this book would have provided answers to the mystique surrounding the equipment of a personal drumming idol, and the pinnacle of what I dreamed of becoming.

Unveiling, the Italian way (‘svelare’: to unveil)

Having already proved his exceptional determination, ability to jump research hurdles, attention to detail, passion for his work and an unbreakable tenacity, Dario was no less impressive when organising the launch of his book. Somehow, he had managed to secure the ‘Roger Taylor Zildjian Studio’ at the Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM) in Guildford, for 24 January 2018. He was hoping Roger would turn up for the launch, but this was always going to be an extremely long shot. However, he did manage to get Taylor’s tech (Crystal) to attend (and speak) which was a nice gesture of support.

I was also invited speak about my involvement with the book, so I used my early morning train journey from Liverpool to London to write some guiding notes for when the spotlight was on me.

Having manoeuvred myself between the intense volume of humans at Euston and Waterloo stations, it was an almost surreal experience travelling on the near-deserted train to Guildford on a damp afternoon in January. However, my input into Dario’s project had been real enough, securing me the necessary worthiness to be in Surrey for the purposes of public speaking.

Meeting Dario and his wife for the first time was typical of my experiences with most Italians – one of warmth, passion and exuberance. Although we were meeting as strangers, I felt immediately comfortable in their presence, even daring to try out my raw Italian skills. Dario’s speed with conversational English was something I could only dream of with my Italian, as I listened to him easily multitasking between the two tongues. After ‘breaking the ice’, we quickly got to work with the preparations for the presentation, which involved Dario commanding the ‘Director’s chair’ with the same fiery, Italian passion that had propelled him throughout the project.

The cosy ‘Roger Taylor Zildjian Studio’ was decorated with some Taylor paraphernalia and there was a small stage at the bottom end with a PA. As I helped Dario and his wife unpack the books, I noticed three professional looking name cards set out on a table on the stage, printed with the names of Dario, Chris ‘Crystal’ Taylor and myself.

An ominous feeling of stage fright consumed me as I worried about exactly whom I would be speaking my train-scribbled words to…

When people began to arrive, I noticed many were Italians, had they really travelled all this way for a book launch? I wondered. The seating began to fill up and we waited for Crystal Taylor to arrive, being fashionably ‘Rock’n’Roll’ late. Somebody had set up a video camera and my nerve meter went up a notch at the thought of being captured speaking to an audience, rather than my usual stage persona of talking loud on a drum kit and saying nil-by-mouth.

Presentation speeches at the book launch, “unaccustomed as I am to public speaking” etc…

Dario kicked off the proceedings (in excellent spoken English) before handing over to me, finally passing the microphone to Crystal to recount some of the more ‘family friendly’ Queen-on-the-road stories. And with that, it was all over, bar some book selling and signing by the author. As I had two-and-a-half hours to kill before my train back to Waterloo at 19:30, I realised there was a fantastic opportunity to spend some time with my Italian brethren.

Doing it like the Italians do (‘fare’: to do)

Whether by design or otherwise, there happens to be a Wetherspoons immediately next door to the ACM in Guildford, a spacious two-floor affair with a pleasant atmosphere. Due to spending a great deal of my life in bars and pubs behind a drum-set, I have very little experience of the Wetherspoons chain as they don’t seem to have live music as a rule. Apart from the large number of Italians with Dario, it was only myself, Crystal and the drum-tutor from the ACM representing the English – and even then it was vague, as both myself and Crystal have an Italian parent and the drum-tutor was a Scotsman!

The Italians beckoned me over to their table, giving me a chair and clearly welcoming me as a stranger to what was their party (or ‘festa’ as they say in Italy). Despite my paternal heritage, I have only been to Italy twice as a tourist to witness Italians socialising after dark. To sit with Italians in a social situation is entirely different to watching and wondering from afar. They do things a lot differently to my home country, I can confirm, and very much to my liking.

There are many beers available in the UK which are not readily available in Italy, and this was something the Italian men wished to experience. However, the attitude towards the alcohol was refreshingly restrained, preferring to enjoy the flavour of their beverages, rather than use them as a means to becoming shit-faced-drunk.

Another noticeable cultural difference was their propensity to order food (lots of it) and have it on the table to share. In Italy, this is known as ‘stuzzichini’ (which literally translates as ‘to pick at’) and the more familiar Spanish equivalent we know as, ‘Tapas’. The Mediterranean culture seems to have a rule that alcohol should never be taken without eating, so wine and food are enjoyed with the warm nights, vibrant conversation and laughter. A far cry from the average ‘Brits on the piss!’ night out, which usually ends with some/all of vomit, violence, regrettable sexual encounters, memory loss and hangovers.

Maybe I’m being a bit too harsh on my own country’s drinking habits, but we do seem to have cultivated an unfortunate reputation for drinking to excess, compared to other countries. Or maybe it’s the years of personal exposure doing gigs in the UK’s pub/club venues which has cultivated my negative viewpoint. Either way, I believe we have a lot of work to do as a nation to change our reputation in the world as binge-drinkers.

It ain’t big and it ain’t clever.

There is no pressure to drink in the Italian social experience, there is no competition to find out who can drink the most and stay standing and there doesn’t seem to be a focus on alcohol as the single motivator for ‘having a good time’. I noticed the same cultural altitude during a recent visit to Spain, where I spent a week living in a location with very few British tourists.

I can’t deny that I probably wanted to see these other cultures as having a more mature attitude towards alcohol than the country I was born in, and I dare say alcohol abuse exists in other European/Mediterranean locations. However, I stand firm with my experiences in Italy and Spain, which have offered me evidence enough to convince me that the excessive consumption of alcohol is not a priority within social occasions in the same way it is in the UK.

The brief couple of hours with my Italian Fratelli passed all too quickly and I found myself embracing my new friends with hugs, before taking myself off to the cold platform at Guildford station. As I clutched the still-warm cheese & tomato Panini Dario had bought me (I hadn’t been able to share  the meat-based snacks they had ordered) it occurred to me even in a foreign country, the Italians had extended their hospitality so I didn’t feel left out.

Sitting on the train back to Liverpool, I reflected on what had been quite a bizarre day during which I found myself being rapidly blown through a whirlwind of activity, driven by the intense passion generated by an Italian’s dedication to his drumming icon.

Unlike Dario, I have never had the luck to meet Roger Taylor and it is an event I still dream of happening. To be part of this project has certainly been a door-opener in terms of my own personal development, confirming what I suspected the Italian social experience would be and reminding me there are still wonderful connections to be made via the internet, despite the sea of toxicity and division dominating the platform today.

I am pleased to have played a small part in Dario’s book, ‘The Drums of Roger Meadows Taylor’ and urge Queen/Taylor fans to buy it, not only because nothing else like it exists, but also because profits from sales go to charities close to Dario’s very generous heart.

Book Review: ‘Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues’ By Elijah Wald

The Story Of How One Man’s Life Was Reinvented To Create A Mythical Late 20th Century Musical Genre

'Escaping The Delta' book coverTo many British readers, this review is going to be controversial for which I make no apology. However, I must stress that despite how uncomfortable this might be for some, I am only ‘the messenger’ for a story that has surprised me, as much as it may shock and offended others.

Within the pages of this book first published in 2004, Elijah Wald candidly lifts the lid on a musical movement spawned under the illusion of folklore and myth promoted by a later 20th century generation of White Europeans. From a personal perspective as a musician who has played in a band suffering the puzzling indifferences of the British ‘Blues’ scene for some years, I will declare that I do have a justifiably and indisputable axe to grind. None the less, this book has provided answers to my bewildered train of thought, finally giving me the closure and clarity to move on as a musician and listener.

Like most White folks living in England, I was under the impression that ‘Blues’ music was all about Black folks living under hardship, slavery, misery and knowing only their African musical roots. They would gather and listen to mysterious Blues men, hollering out songs of destitution, having fallen on hard times under the influence of liquor and selling their souls to the Devil at some desolate crossroads in the deepest, darkest area of the Mississippi Delta. These Blues men would be dressed in ragged clothes, bare foot, sitting on the porch of some scruffy shack house, playing a battered under-strung guitar, sliding the strings with a broken neck from the top of a whisky bottle, whilst a group of equally impoverished Black peasant workers sat listening intently, feeling their spirits elevate to a joyous state as the Blues shouter shared his stories of woe and misfortune.

If that paints a picture you would like to associate with ‘Blues’ then be prepared for a cold, harsh wake-up call. Elijah Wald pulls no punches as he dispels the myth of a genre that never really existed as a post 1960s Europe reinvented it. He also makes no apologies for drawing on factual information already written elsewhere – but this is absolutely necessary to piece together his case with documented references to real events.

Not an easy read, even for music aficionados; Wald covers a lot of ground with all the necessary details making it more of a dissertation than something you may want to put on your Kindle on a foreign beach vacation. However, if like me you have an intense urge for answers driven by years of frustration from trying but not understanding the British music consumer psyche, then the rewards from persevering through the chapters of this book are pure redemption.

Revelation #1 – There Is No Such Thing As ‘The Blues’

Well, there is – and there isn’t; it depends how you want to see it. Pre Chess Records, the music made by Black American musicians was deemed as ‘Race’ music. Wald’s research covers all the early incarnations of what we deem today as ‘The Blues’ – WC Handy, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey et al (it’s pointless going through the full list, read the book!) He uncovers an entertainment circuit in the Deep South – further afield – where there was a high concentration of Black working people who like White working people, sought entertainment. This circuit consisted of the many ‘legendary’ Juke Joints and more surprisingly, theatres, worked by Black entertainers from the early years of the 20th century up to the 1940s. Like today, working people at the end of their week simply wanted to dance, drink, have fun -maybe get laid – and musical entertainment provided a background to do this to. Theatre shows were pretty much Vaudeville concerns with big bands fronted by equally large, brassy, sassy female singers. These ladies were big on voice and big on stage presence, singing whatever songs were popular of the day and in the regional Black entertainment world, they were considered as much ‘stars’ as we regard the ‘celebrity’ entertainers of today.

It is surprising to learn that there were no male singing ‘stars’ until a bit later on and the ones who did emerge all had to try and imitate the style of Ma Rainey and her like! There was no particular ‘genre’ that these singers worked under; they were simply, entertainers. Shows would feature any number of different styles – they might sing ‘a spiritual’, they might sing ‘a blues’, they might sing Bluegrass folk, they might sing Ragtime and they might even sing a Hillbilly Hoedown tune accompanied by Black musicians playing Fiddles! That was a huge revelation for me, as somebody who always (mistakenly) believed that Black people only ever played music that solely had its roots in African tribal song and rhythm! This I now realise, was a myth perpetuated (in the best intentions) by the White Black music folklorists of the 1940s, in their attempts to bring ‘Race’ music into the consciousness of the White Americans who were already showing a closeted interest in the songs made popular by their fellow countrymen forced to live as second class citizens. These folklorists and archivists for whatever reasons, focused their research to a very limited spectrum of musical styles sung by Black entertainers, in particular, the rural songs sung in ‘a blues’ style recorded in the early 1930s. The researchers seem to have been fixed on recording every field worker slave-song rather than what was being played in the Juke Joints of the time. Hence, we are left with the most documented style of song associated with early Black singers being the ones sung in ‘a blues’ style, which is just the tip of a bigger iceberg of musical styles.

It’s Not About Poverty, It’s About The Money!

Robert Johnson in his scruffs!
So how do you think Robert Johnson would want us to remember him? This ordinary looking guy?

The theatre entertainers Wald talks about were all professional, well paid artists at the top of their game. If you weren’t entertaining in theatres, you were working the Juke Joints, aiming for the big time, hoping for your big break from a visiting talent scout who may just be in the audience. The 1930s Juke Joints seemed to be a lucrative earning ground for the rural style ‘Blues’ entertainers like Leroy Carr, Son House, Kokomo Arnold etc, etc; and of course, Robert Johnson who was greatly influenced by these people. However, like the theatre entertainers, these Juke Joint stars were also highly professional, skilled performers, well paid for their work and perhaps most importantly, singers of every genre and style of song that was popular of the day – not just ‘Blues’ styles.

The remarkable thing (again overlooked by folklorists) about Robert Johnson, was his incredible ability to imitate different styles to please any audience, a requirement of any Juke Joint entertainer whose job depended on keeping people dancing.  Even if you limit a comparison between the different blues styles of say Son House and Leroy Carr – both artists Johnson could skilfully imitate in performance – it is insulting and wholly inaccurate to limit Johnson’s talent just to one genre. Although ARC records chose to record Johnson singing the rural ‘Blues’ style at a time when that style was waning in popularity, Johnson was certainly singing a much wider range of styles in his ‘day job’ than captured on his recording sessions. Wald’s documented research irrefutably supports this, highlighting the modern misconceptions grown around Johnson and the so called ‘birth of the Blues’.

Robert Johnson in dapper looking suit
Or do you think he’d like us to remember him as a flashy entertainer heading for the big time?

Wald testifies that rather than the poor, mysterious Bluesman we are led to believe Johnson to be, he was in reality, an extremely skilful, ambitious artist, wanting top dollar for his work, desiring the finery and riches obtainable through mass popularity and eager for his big break into the theatre circuit. Ironically, this may have happened had he lived to play John Hammond’s New York ‘From Spirituals To Swing’ concert in 1938.

This particular coverage about Johnson’s life in the book left me questioning whether had he lived and achieved the same level of success as say, Louis Jordan, would he have been singled out as the main artist responsible for turning a 1960s European youth movement onto forgotten Black American rural music?

Modern Day Fall-Out

Chapter 14, the final one in the book, is undoubtedly the ‘killer’ chapter. Within these pages, Wald delivers everything that is wrong and bad about the modern, worldwide ‘Blues’ scene, a result of inventing a movement on the back of one particular style of song that wasn’t even over-dominant in the lives of the people who are credited with inventing it. Instead, Wald offers an alternative and sobering viewpoint, explaining how 1960’s Europeans took almost forgotten Black American artists who were still working as entertainers – not playing too many of the songs they played in the 1930s –importing them to Europe and asking them to resurrect the styles found on two Robert Johnson albums that Eric Clapton happened to consider the most important recordings ever made. Wald’s research uncovers these artists questioning why anybody would want to hear that old forgotten stuff again when Black music had vastly moved on with the Civil Rights movement, but seeing a pay cheque and a trip to Europe, they delivered the goods. Well, they delivered a bit more than what the young White hipsters bargained for, in particular, T-Bone Walker’s appearance in Germany in 1962 offers a humorous account of how he was asked to tone down his stage show and lose the stage antics because the audience had come to sit at the artists feet and witness a ‘serious’ performance! That one story alone is enough to reveal how Europeans got the whole history of Black American music so, so wrong, completely disregarding the fact that these people were primarily, entertainers booked in their homeland to give a proper vaudevillian show for their money! Look at the footage of Muddy Waters at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival; what to you see? Do you see a scruffy hobo singing dolefully about getting his ‘mojo’ working, or do you see a sharp suited, professional, business-like entertainer delivering a well-rehearsed on-the-money show? That footage has more in common with Louis Jordan or James Brown than a rural, bare-footed southern peasant.

And this is where it all goes horribly wrong, in musical evolutionary terms at least…

With all the possible styles of music that Robert Johnson, his predecessors and musical ancestors chose to perform to entertain (remember that word folks, lest you forget), why, oh why, have we been left to boil out the bones of just one of those particular styles and moniker it with a modern musical genre of its own? Yes, we still have big names from the post 1940s Chicago Blues world to fall back on – the Kings, Waters, Diddley and such – but their collective styles have little to do with a modern world, intent on ego-centric guitar-slinging to fill time, in comparison to Robert Johnson who would repeat verses or make them up on-the-fly, just to keep an audience dancing.

Wald hits on a superb observation about the dilution of the modern post-60s Blues revivalist genre, what it’s become and who it preaches to or more pertinently, the size and type of audience it seeks to serve. He makes a case for the modern Blues audience now having shifted from Black to White with limited numbers. As a musician himself, he will have seen this first hand in America, as I have in England – though in a much smaller capacity. He suggests that smaller audience sizes can only feed off and support a small talent pool. The smaller the talent pool, the fewer demands the equally small audience will make, giving rise to mediocrity becoming the norm within the genre – even when the musicians are capable of doing better. If the audience aren’t there to demand it in high numbers, then the envelope will never be pushed. He paints a landscape where we are left with post Stevie Ray-Vaughan guitar-slingers substituting guitar histrionics to the detriment of developing new vocal styles and song, with only a handful of artists keeping the latter skills at the forefront of their craft.

As somebody who has been trying to naively plough through the UK Blues scene for over 7 years with my own band playing our diverse range of Black American musical styles, Wald’s observations were a huge personal epiphany, providing an answer for my own disillusionment with an extremely myopic musical clique. Finally, I could now understand why I didn’t fit into the last remaining outpost of the post 1960s British ‘Blues’ revivalist scene, or why my teenage children would never consider buying tickets for a ‘Blues’ festival, let alone downloading any material by the handful of teenage guitar-guns who have been passed the mantle of ‘keeping the Blues alive’ by a sexagenarian fan-base.

On the other hand, consider this. Taking Wald’s research as a guide, what if Robert Johnson’s body had been cryogenically stored and resurrected in 2014 to carry on where he left off? Do you think he would jump back into a declining audience base on the modern post-1960s ‘Blues’ revivalist circuit to enjoy critical acclaim and its extrinsic rewards; or do you think he’d go back to doing what he did when he was alive, entertaining his own demographic, putting feet on dance floors and chasing the money? I would suggest the latter, with a 21st century Johnson more likely to be seen belting out the latest Pharrel Williams or Bruno Mars hit over a minority appreciation of ‘Dust My Broom’.

And What About The Devil?

Yes; that folkloric tale about a Johnson who sold his soul to The Devil at some crossroads…well, in true Wald myth-busting style, it is revealed that there was a Johnson who supposedly sold his soul to the Devil – but his first name wasn’t Robert. I won’t reveal who is named because if you’re still reading this and want to know, you really need to read the book. Besides which, the ‘selling of one’s soul’ to gain greater powers over a particular skill was a widespread hokum anecdote told about any performing artist who excelled at their craft in the Deep South of early 20th century America. Just add Robert Johnson to a cast of many, it wasn’t a unique accolade amongst his peers.

Let The Juke Boxes Tell The Truth

Perhaps the most simplest and revealing part of the whole book is the appendix section, itemising the song lists of Juke boxes for five African-American bars in Clarksdale Mississippi, documented in 1941 by the Fisk University Library of Congress team. If these are anything to go by, the quantity of Black rural style ‘Blues’ is absolutely miniscule in comparison to the popular dancing songs of the day. These Juke boxes do not reflect a local population sitting around sedately, milling over their hard day’s work, crying into their liquor, listening to songs about when they’ll be one day set free. No, this is a collection of songs for jumping, jiving and feeling as good as it gets at the weekend. If you want a modern day comparison, then think ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams as your starting block and go from there.

So Where Did We Get It So Wrong?

It’s just a pity that the European rural folk revivalists chose such a restrictive view of pre-war African-American music to import into the psyche of White music listeners in the early 60s. Had they been able to travel to America and perform their own research, a whole spectrum of musical styles would have been presented to them as a representation of early African-American culture, rather than just a one-trick pony style. Hence, thanks to this narrow cultural vision, we have been left with a recently created musical genre, based on one style of song structure amongst a gamut of others that has long peaked in popularity, to be rehashed into an extremely limited format and consumed by an equally limited music buying demographic.

My review of Elijah Wald’s comprehensively researched work is not intended to denigrate the artists of the early 20th century who have left us with a rich legacy of recordings of just some of the styles of songs they performed throughout their careers – far from it. As an educational book covering the effect a small element of African-American musical history had on post-war Europe, it answers many questions one might begin to ask when trying ascertain why the British ‘Blues’ scene of the 21st century fails to deliver in a diversity of styles and equally fails to capture the imagination and interest of the mainstream music consumer.

As a musician who has struggled to understand the indifference shown by the UK Blues market towards the diverse range of historical African-American music styles,  Elijah Wald has finally unravelled a mystery that has been obfuscating my search for the truth behind the musical genre known as, ‘Blues’. On the other hand, perhaps I have misinterpreted my own experiences? Maybe British audiences really do enjoy sitting and listening to White musicians with guitars and harmonicas, reinventing a singular theme? Whatever ‘the truth’, I’d rather be on my feet to Louis Jordan with the African-Americans of 1941 Clarksdale.

It is certain that not every reader of Wald’s book will draw the same conclusions, no doubt continuing to enjoy the 21st century ‘Blues’ scene for what it is and for how ever long it lasts. But, for me, it has provided the final testimony needed to escape from what has become an uncomfortable coffin and to move on with my journey to discover the rich assortment of musical styles that make up African-American music history.


(This article was originally published on the Blues In The Northwest Website.)

 

‘Wait For The Ricochet’ – The Story Of ‘Deep Purple In Rock’

My Ian Paice Knowledge Finally Comes To Fruition

Wait For The Ricochet book coverIt was back in 2010 that Stephen Clare tracked me down from an article I wrote about an Ian Paice drum clinic I’d helped to promote to ask me if I’d care to write some words about Paice’s playing and general style for a potential book. There was no release date, but it was going to go through the Deep Purple fan club channels and officially sanctioned by the band members and my knowledge would be greatly appreciated on the analysis of his playing on the ‘In Rock’ album.

Well, “Why not?” I thought; it would be nice to get into print again on hard copy (everything is just so digital these days) so set to work with an appraisal of the man’s work on this classic album.

Not my favourite Deep Purple album, but revisiting it once again, revealed how much Ian Paice has been to an extent overlooked, in the 30+ years rippling wake of John Bonham’s death. If you listen to any of Paice’s work, he shows himself as an absolutely astounding, musical drummer, easily on a par with his Midland’s contemporary. The fact is, both guys were cut from the same musical cloth, but it may just be the case that Bonham got a slightly bigger slice of the legend cake when it came to bands. Maybe the line-up changes endured by Deep Purple proved too divisive, whereas Zeppelin managed to keep their fall-outs under the tight wrap of Peter Grant. Either way, my personal opinion is that I don’t think that Ian Paice is lauded enough – and that’s coming from Bonham disciple.

Truth be known, I got into Paice before Bonham, so both men must be accountable for shaping my early drumming physiology.

Ian Paice grew up listening to the same music as John Bonham, due to the limited access to vinyl at the time and both drummers were pretty much self-taught. Both relied heavily on Big-Band licks they’d picked up from Buddy Rich/Gene Krupa recordings (Paice gaining exposure via his father’s dance band), both had big, phat, swinging grooves and both had the ability to solo ferociously like 1940’s showmen.

When John Bonham died and Zeppelin called it a day, Paice was still extremely active on the A-List Rock circuit. Deep Purple had finished in 1975, but Bonham’s premature death seemed to signal the death knell for the classic British Blues-Rock based bands of the 70’s. Although still working, Paice had almost been forgotten by the end of the 1980’s and into the 90’s when the Olympic drum-slingers really started to take hold. The Bonham legend had set a foothold in the psyche of drummers, but in my opinion, there was never enough being talked about Ian Paice. Hence, when the opportunity to share my critical appraisal of the man appeared out of the blue, I didn’t hesitate (much) to offer my contribution.

Initially, with all my Bonham-worshipping, my short-lived reservations were that I may not be able to do Paice justice. Once I got into the job however, it was very easy. The man’s drumming did all the talking and I was reminded what was so good about being an impressionable 14 year old wannabe drum God, back in my schooldays. This was my chance to do the man justice in a book people can actually hold, put on a shelf and be forever in the archives of the British Library.

With a little bit of help from Bill Ludwig III, I was able to obtain the exact drum setup used during the recording of ‘In Rock’ and judging by the rest of the content in the book, the research on other band members instruments has been kept to the same high benchmark. If you are a Deep Purple fan, this is a book you shouldn’t think twice about buying; it really is a gem and a true labour of love from Simon Robinson & Stephen Clare that I am proud to be associated with.

Modern Drummer Published Me Again!

Mark Brzezicki Modern Drummer Magazine Feature

Modern Drummer cover, September 2013
Back in print again, I am…page 96 to be precise.

Funny how the cookie crumbles; one part of your life, you’re listening to a drummer who is currently top of your inspiration list and reading a hard-to-buy leading American drumming magazine, fast-forward 30 years (give or take) and you’re interviewing the aforementioned drummer and writing in the magazine about him!

Six months after meeting up with Mark Brzezicki in the recording studio whilst he was making the ‘The Journey’ album with Big Country, my ‘What Do You Know About?’ article about him was published in the September 2013 issue of Modern Drummer.

At this point, Mark and the Big Country boys were on the back-end of their American jaunt to promote ‘The Journey’, their first time back to America in quite a few years. No doubt, this was like going back to basics for the band, what with no 1980’s style record company budgets to work with, but I hope it was successful enough for them to warrant a return to the other side of the pond.

Mar Brzezicki Article
Two page spread, my name somewhere in lights…

In some ways, it would have been better if my article had been published a couple of months earlier, but that’s how it goes in publishing. You never know when your submissions will (if ever) appear. Anyway, I’m not grumbling, Mark was grateful and I am once again, pleased as Punch (was that crazy seaside puppet ever happy?) to be published again within the pages of an international drumming magazine – nay, the international drumming magazine!

Will I be published again? Who knows? But when the passion to write hits, I’m more than just a little bit confident the produce will be equally worthy of international publication!

What, is that me blowing my own trumpet? Hell yeah! It’s my writing, it’s my BLOG and for once in my life, I’m going to celebrate something I’m actually quite good at!