Phillip David Charles Collins was born on January 30th, 1951 and as it happens I like to think I actually know him reasonably well. We played on an Argent album together back in the seventies, and believe it or not he invited me to join Genesis when Peter Gabriel left. But, to get to the
It’s with profound surprise and deep regret that we have to report the passing of our pal and every drummer of my era’s mentor: the great Jon Hiseman. Jon died at 03.55 on June 12th, 2018. I grew up musically around him and he kindly put a couple of great gigs my way which I
Grady Tate was born in Hayti, North Carolina on January 14th, 1932 and took up singing at four years old and drumming just a year later! Throughout the sixties and seventies when I used to listen to LP’s on the Verve label almost non-stop, he was up there with my favourite drummers mostly because he
James Edward Gadson was born in Kansas City, Missouri on June 17th, 1939. His father Harold was a jazz drummer, originally from Texarcana, who played in local Big Bands with the likes of Jay McShann and Charlie Parker, when Joe Turner would be singing too. Because of the way his own career had turned
Vincent ‘Vinnie’ Colaiuta was born on February 5th, 1956. He was originally from Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and as you’d probably guess from his Christian name and surname was brought up a Catholic. Having started out beating on pots and pans he was given his first (non serious) paper-headed toy drumset when he was seven years old.
Leon Chancler was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on July 1st, 1952 and eventually added the African name ‘Ndugu’ in between the two he’d been given at birth. It’s a Swahili word meaning ‘Earth Brother’ which suited him very well. I first met him when we were both Remo endorsers and, like most drummers, we were
When Hal Blaine was ripping it up on the West Coast, three thousand miles from New York as the Boeing 707 flies, it was physically and geographically difficult for him to make recordings on the East Coast. Plus of course, he’d lose a small fortune in missed session fees while he was getting there and
David ‘Dave‘ Clark was very much part of my North London Music scene in the sixties, to the extent that eventually he lived just a mile or so from me in Southgate N21, in a house called ‘The Drum’. He was born on December 15th, 1942, although if you search you may find that other
Cindy Blackman was born November 18th, 1959 in Yellow Springs, Ohio which is 48 miles from the State Capital, Columbus. Her mother and grandmother were classical musicians with her mother a violinist, and her grandmother a pianist who would take the young Cindy to classical concerts. To add to the eclectic mixture her uncle
Colin Trevor ‘Cozy’ Powell was born in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England on December 29th, 1947. He was adopted and never met his birth parents. When he was 12 he started playing drums in his school’s orchestra. This was not long before he became a teenager and he claims he was thrown out for being too noisy!
