Pretty Shocking

I have a lot  of time for Drumhead magazine and its editor, Jonathan Mover – it's basically the best magazine that I know of for drummers. It has high standards and its content carries a lot of weight.

In its latest issue it carries an interview with the legendary Bernard 'Pretty' Purdie and eventually gets to his legendary claims about the fact that he played on quite a lot of Beatles tracks. Or 'fixed' them, to use his phrase.

But his claims become even more shocking here when he suggests that Ringo Starr's drumming did not appear on a single one of the Beatles' studio tracks. He claims there were three other drummers (including him, and excluding Andy White and Pete Best) who 'fixed' the drumming for the Beatles.

His only concession to Ringo Starr is that Purdie says Ringo played 'live' with the band (which seems beyond debate).

If this remarkable claim about the Beatles recordings is true, isn't it the most shocking revelation? If it is false, why is Drumhead printing it? And why aren't lawyers knocking at Purdie's door?

All sorts of rumours re Beatles drumming continue to circulate. Paul McCartney is said to have played drums on a number of songs (although Purdie claims McCartney wasn't a good enough drummer to do that – or even a good enough bassist) and there have been stories too of ace session drummer Hal Blaine doing some 'fixing' for the Beatles.

Whatever the truth, all of this seems to highlight a grim reality – that many hit records made by bands back in the day (and also today) probably often don't feature the bands themselves, but session musicians who could be relied on to get it right first or second time, rather than 47th time. Those unsung session musicians tend to keep their stories to themselves, but sometimes they play and tell, and maybe sometimes they don't tell it quite like it was but how they hazily recall it.

Life Is... Pembrokeshire

Apparently my grandmother was a gipsy... which could explain why I never seem to have settled anywhere or in any situation for any length of time.

Many places have felt like home to me, however... Bristol, Easter Island, Brighton, Arizona, Varanasi, San Francisco, Texas, the Florida Keys, the Greek islands, London... but the place that draws me back most right now is Pembrokeshire in South Wales.

I think I love it because it is so open and wild and far from England's overcrowded, polluted, stress-filled cities. And because I could walk and walk forever along its amazing coastline...

It is also blessed with an excellent website, Pembrokeshire Life Online, that covers every aspect of the area – and which also has been kind enough to run an article by me on walking the Pembrokeshire Coast Path.

Double Trouble

Virgil Donati has a remarkable mind. If you need proof, just get hold of a copy of his 'Double Bass Drum Freedom' instruction book.

Before you have got too far into his double bass lessons, you will probably start to think that not only is he a very clever drummer – but that he is a fiendishly clever teacher.

He sets some pretty demanding (for me, at least) tasks that will probably drive some players crazy.

But you can see the method in his slightly mad intensity – and you will not want to give up on trying to enter the challenging world that he has created.

What Are Drummers Like?

I've spent quite a bit of time trying to put down a book called 'Born To Drum' by Tony Barrell – and have found that difficult.

Barrell set out to discover what makes a drummer and what makes drummers tick. And he's done a pretty good job, packing in lots of interviews and anecdotes, all pointers to why we might do it.

Are we mad? Addictive? Obsessive? Extrovert? Introvert? He investigates all this and more. And he is particularly good when looking at the history of drumming, the travails of recording sessions and the physical toll taken by a life behind the kit.

My only complaint is that he tends throughout to refer to drummers bashing, whacking and smashing... when most of us have far too much respect for our kit to do that to it, and when most of us know that you get the best sound from drums and cymbals by playing them with at least a little finesse.

If you're a drummer reading 'Born To Drum', you'll find yourself nodding and smiling. If you're a non-drummer, it could be a revelation...

Rhythm Kings

I've said this before but George Recile is a drumming genius... which makes him the perfect percussionist for accompanying the musical genius of Bob Dylan.

I had the privilege of seeing them both – and the rest of Dylan's remarkable band – in Cardiff last night, with the master's voice and songs and piano-playing all in great shape.

Apparently when Dylan aficionado the late John Gibbens gave a talk on Bob's poetry, he used to start off by playing a Dylan instrumental.

That might sound odd but, on reflection, it's not at all odd. Because you can hear the essence of Dylan in every strum of his guitar and every note of his harmonica. And the key to everything he does – the words he chooses, the way he sings them, the way he plays piano or harmonica, the way he moves, even the way he stands – is rhythm.

Dylan is not just rock'n'roll's Nobel laureate... he is also the King of Rhythm.

And it's no wonder that George Recile finds in Dylan's music the most wonderful variety of drum patterns, fills and grooves. With George one side of the stage and Bob the other, it really is difficult to know which to watch. Either way, they're locked in tight... in rhythm.

It Was Fifty Years Ago But Hey...

It was fifty years ago today... but can we please forget it now? Sgt Pepper was an iconoclastic album. But, let's be honest, it wasn't as good as Revolver... or maybe even Rubber Soul... or even the White Album.

Every which way one turns there is Sgt Pepperami. There's an event in Brighton promising to play music from bands influenced by Sgt Pepper.... including Pink Floyd, Cream, the Doors and the Grateful Dead. Pink Floyd? Cream? The Doors? The Grateful Dead? The idea that these bands were influence by Sgt Pepper could only exist in the minds of those who weren't there in the Sixties.

None of these bands showed or needed any influence from Sgt Pepper... unless it was to go way beyond what the Beatles were doing.

Sgt Pepper seems to be being celebrated by people who have no idea what it was like to hear Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds for the first time in 1967. And if they weren't there, they'll never know...

And it's reasonably easy to predict what John Lennon would have said about celebrating Sgt Pepper fifty years on, isn't it?