Ronnie Bond has passed into drummers’ folklore - not because of something he played, but because of something he couldn't play. The so-called 'Troggs Tapes' are easy to find on the internet and if you're new to the story perhaps you should start from there. However there’s a lot of necessary ‘Lord Mayoring’ (non UK
Nowadays it's not at all unusual to see female drummers like Crissy Lee, it's almost the ‘new normal’ - but it certainly wasn't always like this when she began. At the very beginning of the sixties, the genre was still very much something of a novelty act in variety theatres, like one wheeled cyclists and
Ian Anderson Paice was born on the 29th June 1948 and is of course best known as the drummer of Deep Purple, where he is the only remaining original member. He was born in Nottingham, but moved away as a young child, and got his first drum kit at 15. He started his professional career
Charles Robert Watts was born at University College in London on June 2nd 1941, three years before Hitler’s ‘doodlebugs’ were doing their best to wipe-out the inhabitants of the capital city. I knew Charlie a bit having interviewed him on camera for a film I was working on. His son also went to school with
I'd interviewed Eric for Dolbear’s 'British Drum Icons' series, but never for ‘Groovers and Shakers’ where he absolutely belongs. So that said, allow me to introduce this month’s subject: Eric Delaney! We actually saw more of Eric in the UK than of his arguably more illustrious American contemporaries like Krupa and Rich. We might see
John Steel is another drummer from the sixties whom I would frequently bump into at TV studios, radio stations, London clubs and theatres, and of course, motorway services up and down the length and breadth of Britain. John was born 4th February 1941, and is well known as being the drummer for ‘The Animals’ from
I first came across Rick when he used to come into my Drum Store in London in the late 1970's, even though he was actually living in Yorkshire at the time. This would have been when he was 15 and not long before he and Def Leppard began to make extremely large waves around the
I knew a great deal about Robert Wayne Colomby’s playing before I had any idea who he was. Bobby was born on 20th December 1944, in New York and was ultimately educated at City College, where he graduated in psychology. He went on to have an unbelievably varied career. He’s not only a great self-taught
Trilok Gurtu was born in Mumbai, India on 30 October, 1951 to Hindu Bramin parents. This was at a time when the city was still called Bombay and it wasn’t until a quarter of a century later, in 1996, that it was changed to its more ethnic, less colonial name. Trilok was born into a
Pete York was born in Middlesbrough on the 15th of August 1942 and came to drumming from a slightly different angle to the rest of us ‘baby boomers’ in the UK. He played jazz first. I interviewed him once for Mike Dolbear when he was ‘snowed in’ in Germany and like all responsible Englishmen of
