David James Mattacks was born in the London suburb of Burnt Oak on the 13th March, 1948 which unfortunately makes him considerably younger than me. Nevertheless I needed a calculator to work out how long we’ve known one another, and it turns out to be 53 years! The Mattacks family moved around a lot although
James Beck ‘Jim’ Gordon was born on July 14th, 1945, grew up in California’s San Fernando Valley and was educated at the same High School as Jeff Porcaro: Ulysses S, Grant. That said, since by my reckoning Jim is nine years older than Jeff, I doubt they could possibly have been there at the same
Irving Cottler was born in Brooklyn, New York on 13th February 1918. You may not know the name, but you certainly will have heard him playing because he was none other than Frank Sinatra’s drummer of choice, whenever, wherever and whatever he was playing. He joined ‘Old Blue Eyes’ in 1962 and stayed with him
I first met Jeff Porcaro at a Music Trade Show in London at Alexandra Palace in London. As far as I can see, it was the first and the only musical instrument show to be held there although gigs still go on there even as we speak. I’m pretty sure I still owned a
I was saving this for May 2018 which would have been Bonzo’s seventieth, but in the end I couldn’t contain myself. So here it is albeit just a year early! I don’t believe I ever met John Bonham although I’ve certainly had several near misses. Since we were contemporaries and both rushing around the world
Daniel Humair was born in Zurich on May 23rd, 1938 and he is famous not simply for being a drummer, composer and arranger, he’s also an exceedingly accomplished painter (he describes his own art as ’Figurative Abstract’) and in the past he’s even been something of an inventor. For the purposes of this edition
John Graham "Mitch" Mitchell was born on 9 July 1946 in Ealing, Middlesex, UK to Phyliss (née Preston) and Thomas J Mitchell. As a teenager, he starred in a children's television programme, which was very much part of the formative years of the Baby Boomers generation of which I was an unknowing member. The TV programme was called ‘Jennings
I decided to write about Jimmie Nicol without realising that I may have made a rod for my own back, since there’s not a great deal of really pertinent information around about him and frankly some of it is confusing and some is unbelievable. So you (and I) will have to rely on my not-quite-so-infallible
Editors Note – its not often that one gets to read and edit an article written about a well known historical figure, let alone a well known historical drumming figure, written by someone who actually knew them well. Such is this Groovers and Shakers article – Bob Henrit was a contemporary of Keith Moon, and
I do know Billy Cobham, having toured with him in 1971 when Argent supported Mahavishnu Orchestra on what was probably their first American tour. This was at a time when they were at their frightening best and nobody really wanted to tour with them(!). Nothing about Mahavishnu was usual, but one of the most unusual
