Hal Blaine died on March 11th, 2019 and it’s absolutely the end of an era - there couldn’t possibly be another like him because the World of Music has moved on! I didn’t really know Hal Blaine the man, although I would have loved to have. I did bump into him at American music shows

Donald Douglas Lamond was born in Oklahoma City on August 18th, 1920 but spent his formative years in Washington, DC. It was here that he first saw drum corps playing when he was around 3 years old, whereupon his mother made him a drum out of a tin can. This prompted him to begin learning

Billy Gladstone was born on December 15th, 1892 and began life in Romania as William David Goldstein. His father was English and the supervisor of Romania’s Symphony Orchestra. His musical education and playing career began on the baritone horn in his father’s orchestra but he was more interested in studying percussion - enough to make

'Cozy' Cole was born on October 17th, 1909 in Orange, New Jersey and since his three brothers were jazz musicians it was inevitable he’d become one too - especially since his brother Herbie was also a drummer. After a couple of years at Wilberforce University in Ohio, 1926 saw Cozy move just over a half

William Scott Bruford was born on May 17, 1949 and he and I were without doubt contemporaries. We’ve sat together talking about drums and drumming quite a few times over the years. Argent, Yes and several others were happily beating the same progressive rock path around the world so we were often thrust together at

Avedis Zildjian III was born on December 6th, 1889 in Samatya which was the Armenian area inside the city walls of Constantinople. Avedis' father was an attorney who became a politician and who sent his son to a prestigious French school. Avedis was evidently something of a polyglot who, as a boy spoke Greek, Armenian,

I knew Aynsley Thomas Dunbarwhen he was a ‘face’ around London in the sixties who I bumped into a lot around the drum shops, ‘frothy’ coffee bars and London clubs like 'The Speakeasy' in Margaret Street and of course the Marquee in Wardour Street. We knocked about with him when he moved to California around

Bobbie Clarke may well have been the first proper rock ‘n’ roll drummer I saw at the Imperial Hall, my local dance hall in Waltham Cross, a dormitory town just outside of London. This would have been towards the end of the 1950's. However, he was known by his real name Bobby Woodman at the

Simon Phillips was born in London on February 7th, 1957 which makes him considerably younger than me. However, I’ve known him since he burst onto the music scene at a very precocious age. He went to a school called Winchester House outside of London where they weren’t able to accommodate his desire to be a

I have bumped into Bernard Purdie quite a lot at trade shows over the years. He’s a gregarious guy and we’ve had some pleasant, informative and downright funny conversations together. By the way, just in case you meet him his first name is always pronounced in the American way, with a stress on the last