Today I stole footage from
Youtube of a
gig from the time I was
25............ I was so much younger then, I'm older than that now!
I have a faint recollection of the gig because it was in
the major venue of my home town. If I was 25 I was still in the Army then, so my musical life was crammed in the weekend leaves and other scarce off duty time. I can't remember anymore for this particular gig whether we were the main act or that we were opening for another band. The performances were always over before you knew it and sometimes people asked for an encore. Which we always did but I'm not sure whether we had songs for this occasion or if we just played some songs from the set again.
Always the first to enter the stage in the dark because the others were too nervous (afraid?) to get on stage. They were taking Dutch courage before they entered. I started with a drum beat for a while and then the guitar player and bass man walked casually on plugged in their guitars and fell into the song which was an instrumental. At the end of the song we directly went on so that the singer could make his entrée. Last time I saw this video was, you guessed it, 25 years ago.
As a drummer you're not that much in the spot lights and all you do is keep the show together. Which can be seen clearly here. I remember when we started (1979) that I was one the few musicians of the local punk scene who could actually play his instrument adequately enough. The other colleagues/competition learned their trade on the way. My idol was Tommy Ramone because he was really tight with no frills. I still like that in a drummer. My other idol was Ringo Starr. He's very tight but also very loose. I don't know how to describe this properly but his beats vary a bit every time. I later found out that he achieves this by not hitting down but by stroking with his sticks to the side when he hits. Especially with his right hand on the hi hat. Never mastered that way of playing and admire it every time I see footage of the Beatles.
Other favorites were:
- The drummer on the first albums of Elvis Costello (Pete Thomas?)
- The drummer of the Buzzcocks (John Maher?)
- Tony Meehan of Shadows and Jet Harris fame (Do you remember??)
- Female drummer of Lenny Kravitz in this song
- And others whom I can't remember now
Above mentioned heroes and heroine are tight, straight and reliable for want of a better word. They all also have a single tom tom attached to the bass drum and a standing one. The barest necessities in my personal opinion. John Maher is an exception but he uses all the drums in nearly all the songs.
A blast from the past Ladies and Gentlemen fellow GaragePunk enthusiasts........
