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
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
