The Death Of Levon Helm

Strange that I chose to write about the late, great drummer BJ Wilson just a few days ago. For BJ said long ago that his own favourite drummer was Levon Helm. And now Levon has finally passed away, after a long and successful career post-The Band and post-cancer.

Perhaps even more so than BJ Wilson, Levon was a truly musical drummer. And not only that, he could sing and play drums at the same time. That is, really sing and play drums at the same time. He didn't just do a bit of backing vocals, or sing a song while still keeping time. He sang lead vocals with heart and soul while playing full-on in the same fashion. If you need proof, check out his performances on Martin Scorsese's film The Last Waltz. Or see the news clip on Levon's website.

Like many of The Band's members, Levon Helm had his roots in a pre-rock era that stretched back to circus tents, medicine shows and vaudeville, when the power and the mystery of the song and the performance were everything. It's no wonder that Bob Dylan picked Levon's men to back him up through one of his most crazily fruitful and creative periods.

There cannot be another Levon Helm. But any drummer who has watched him play and sing is bound to take something of Levon into their own playing, even if it is subconsciously.

Sympathy For The Devil

A taxi driver explained to me yesterday that there were just three fundamental problems in Britain: one, the fact that we are run by Europe; two, mass immigration; three, the selling off of public utilities to foreign companies.

He reckoned that the "immigrants" would, because of their higher birth rate, take over the country at some point before too long.

And then he added something that shocked me.

He said, "You can see where that Anders Behring Breivik is coming from." The taxi driver did concede that killing 77 people was an extreme act, although he suggested that the media had given the impression that these people were killed at random when, in fact, there were clear political reasons why they had been targeted.

He — the taxi driver — seemed a really nice bloke, and I don't think for one minute that he was advocating violence. But he did — like many, many others, no doubt — feel there was a need for a strong political leader to stand up and tell the truth about the three big issues mentioned above, and for the British to stop moaning and do something.

Will there be a British Breivik?

The Literary Drummer

Question: What do you call someone who spends all their time hanging around with musicans? Answer: A drummer.

Not particularly funny jokes like this reinforce the idea that drummers are not proper musos. Trying to think of the most musical drummer in rock, I reckoned it had to be BJ Wilson.

You might know him for playing on Joe Cocker's With A Little Help From My Friends, or you might know him from the various stories about Jimmy Page asking him to join Led Zeppelin prior to his thinking about a bloke called John Bonham.

But you should know him for his epic work with the classic line-up of Procol Harum. Wilson's style has been described as "literary", so closely did the drama of his percussion follow the drama of Keith Reid's lyrics and Gary Brooker's music.

If you need any persuasion, listen to the drum fills on the song A Salty Dog — a piece for which Brooker said there was no drum part, but Wilson proved emphatically there was. This was totally original drumming, played completely for the song, using space and silence just as much as sound. And always surprises.

Scores of other tracks, such as the similarly cinematic Whaling Stories, illustrated Wilson's musicality. But check out his time-stopping barrage in the climaxes of Repent Walpurgis, from the very first Procol album, if you want to hear him in fullest flow.

Wilson died awfully and tragically young. And no one has ever quite matched him — as a rock drummer and musician.

From Tooting To Tokyo

The wonderful Das Fluff who climaxed last year's Tootstock fest have gone on to even greater things. Dawn Lintern and her hypnotic songs have been wowing audiences in Japan this week (see live video from Tokyo). Dawn and her Fluffers deserve to be big here as well as in Japan. Check out their website to find out why.

The equally talented Hero & Leander will be following in Das Fluff's gigsteps when they close this year's Tootstock on June 30. There is already interest in H&L in Germany.

Today Tooting. Tomorrow the world...

Dying For A Pie

The visual pun is better than the verbal one on this PETA poster. But either way, it seems to have upset a few people. Of course, being a vegetarian or a vegan is supposed to upset people.

I remember once being the only vegetarian at a dinner party and being seated alongside the owner of a meat-products company. "Do you realise that people like you could put me out of business?" he asked me, quite seriously. "Yes. That's why I'm doing it," I answered as politely as I could.

This latest PETA campaign is making the point that meat-eating isn't healthy. Which it isn't; vegetarians tend to live longer and healthier lives than meat-eaters. But if it were proved that vegetarians die earlier and more miserable deaths than carnivores, I wouldn't stop being vegetarian. Better health is a bonus from refusing to eat meat, but not the main reason for it. The main reason for my being vegetarian (and for admiring the principles of vegans) is because the meat industry is cruel, disgusting and unnecessary.

Playing Games

The Olympics. Isn't it a wonderful event? It's sole raison d'etre is the promotion and enjoyment of sport rather than moneymaking and exploitation on a grand scale.

Or did I get that the wrong way round? The Musicians' Union has just announced reports of musicians being asked to perform for no payment at Olympics and Jubilee events. As is so often the case, it seems it's assumed that musicians enjoy what they do so much that they will do it for free.

The MU says: "Our understanding is that all other sectors involved in putting on these events, eg security, staging, equipment hire etc are being paid their usual fees, but not musicians." It is urging its member to refuse to work for nothing, and to report any such offers.

This is nothing new in London. Pubs, clubs and bars there have long exploited bands' desire to play by offering them no-pay gigs, or gigs with convoluted contracts that basically ensure the band only gets paid if it brings in an impossible number of punters. The venues make money on the bar, and sometimes on the door too, and the bands tend to make nothing.

London is supposed to be the hub of the music scene, but it's generally only in the provinces that pubs and clubs pay bands a reasonable fee. That's why the gig list for Russ Payne and the Shark Dentists looks kind of provincial; the reason is that we refuse to play for nothing.

Of course, professional musicians enjoy what they do, but they enjoy it a whole lot more when what they do is recognised as having some value.

Fundamental Problem

Staying on the subject of compassion... or rather its absence. Comments from Joe Public about the deportation of Abu Hamza to the US read like something from Private Eye's From The Message Boards... but really you couldn't make them up: "only another 3.4 million to go" and joky comments about Hamza's suitability for waterboarding and death by firing squad...

Are people really so unaware of what they are saying? Is this real fundamentalism? Fundamental self-unawareness? What exactly is the difference between these fundamentalists of the right and the fundamentalists of the Taliban?

Or perhaps the question is: what is the obvious similarity?