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Jaki Leibezet from Can is no slouch...
+1 for that, that's a great track.
I generally go for less flash, more drive - Ringo, Moon, Charlie Watts, Kenny Jones, Al Jackson Jr. John Densmore, Pip Pyle, Pierre Moerlen (one of the exceptions), Simon King (Hawkwind), Dave Grohl, Patrick Keeler (Raconteurs).
I've always thought Frank Zappa engaged some pretty capable drummers - Aynsley Dunbar, Terry Bozzio and Chad Wackerman in particular. So I was delighted to see lovely Lucy Landimore playing the Black Page drum solo as part of her recital for BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2010.
The worst is definitely whatever waste of space plays on Instant Karma. The only drums that actually annoy me.
That's Alan White, but I think the fault lies with Phil Spector who produced it.
John Stainer formerly of Helmet and now of Batlles should be mentioned if he hasn't been already. One of my favourite drummers currently in a band. Amazing track also.
Top 5
Bernard Purdie
Clyde Stubblefield
John Jabo Starks
Earl Palmer
Mike Clark
Nobody's said Lars Ulrich? Madness. TANGTANGANGTANGTANGTANG
No mention of Jon Hiseman?
Ginger Baker is/was brilliant.
John lennon famously said when asked if Ringo Starr was the best drummer in the world, "He's not even the best drummer in the Beatles"
Dennis Chambers
Thanks Rusty 🙂
JohnDrummer is right, it's not about technique it's about the ability to groove, to know when to play on the front of the beat to drive the band on or when to sit right on the back of the beat to make it sound easy (I'm not a drummer myself so I would say that wouldn't I 🙂 )
very glad to see bernard purdie, Buddy Rich, Elvin Jones already mentioned
I like Billy Martin of Martin Medeski & Wood
Ed Thigpen - Oscar Petersen trio, awesome brushes playing and really motors on uptempo stuff
Manu Katche (listen to Red Rain by Gabriel, one take genius playing)
Steve Gadd (fifty ways to leave your lover, amongst a gazillion other things)
Danny Carey; the man is a genius.
Abe Cunningham from Deftones is a very underrated drummer to.
Good call on Gene Hoglan, the human metronome
Steve Gadd was about to suggest him, for work on Steely Dan as well..
I'm amazed this thread has got this far without any "hangs around with musicians / knocks three times and comes in late / best drummer in Liverpool? He wasn't even the best drummer in the Beatles..." type stuff. I'm certainly not going to start it.
Saw Hot Chip the other night. Incredible band live, and their drummer - Sarah Jones I think - is really one of the best. As a non-drummer I've no idea how easy or hard it is knitting together synthesised beats with live performance and driving it all forward effortlessly and kind of low key, but anyway really really good. If I wasn't at work I'd search for a live version of 'why make sense'.
Also, good backing vocals. I like a drummer who does backing vocals. But not lead. Unless you're the Eagles that's just wrong, and can lead to Phil Collins, and no one wants that.
From the metal world, this guy has to be up there:
Otherwise...
Mike Portnoy
Marco Minnemann (although he does metal too):
Jean-Paul Gaster (Clutch)
Mike Mangini
Neil Peart
etc etc
Cozy Powell
Mick Fleetwood
Stewart Copeland
Phil Collins
Mitch Mitchell has only been mentioned once so far I think... here's a second.
and Gohl in QOTSA
John Tempesta, Tom Hunting (Exodus)
Buddy Rich.
Jimmy Chamberlin
Abe Cunningham
Clem Burke
Steve Shelley
Loz Colbert
Pete De Freitas
Topper
All different, all great.
Mike Musburger
Neil Peart
Regan Hagar
Saw David King live once and he blew me away.
I much prefer drummers who can just drive the band rather than show off.
Spot on John Drummer!
I've never been keen on the whole rock 'double kick drum' style (although Danny Carey and John Dolmayan are exceptions)
It was amusing reading Duff McKagan's book where he recounts the band hiding Steven Adler's drums so he would play a smaller kit and play with more 'swing'!
Rob Heaton - great drummer R.I.P.
Budgie - (don't think anyone else has mentioned him yet - gotta love those floor-toms!)
Dave Grohl - powerhouse punk-rock - esp in QOTSA
Clive Burr - from the first 2 Iron Maiden albums - underated
Doktor Avalanche - helping keep the Sisters on track! nothing but steady! 😉
Stephen Perkins - fantastic tribal percussion
I never get the adoration heaped on Keith Moon. I agree he was talented and great at improvising and clearly the early incarnation of The Who wouldn't have been The Who without him, but he was too 'busy' for me. Footage of early gigs seem to show Keith Moon following Townsend whilst Entwhistle keeps time. (The sum of the parts etc ...). Outside of The Who though I'm not so sure ...
Drive a band yes, just so long as they manage to do it without clouting the snare 80 times a minute all the way through the song.
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Burke not driving me nuts with his snare.[/url]
[url=
Kolinka and an omni-present snare[/url]
I know drummers have to keep time and feel the need to keep their left hand occupied but sometimes wish they'd hit something that doesn't go clack, clack, clack... all through the song.
Ash 'Grandmaster Ash' Sheehan is a beast
if it goes clack it's either badly tuned or (yes I'm talking to you Lars Ulrich) badly recorded 😉
on the subject of Neil Peart - I always admired Rush for their creativity and ploughing their own furrow [often against popular trends] even if much of the music wasn't to my personal taste
- and last year (ironically on an Air Canada flight to Calgary) I watched the Rush documentary "Beyond the Lighted Stage" where Peart starts studying with Freddie Gruber in order to change his technique/try and continue to progress and grow as a musician. It was very interesting and worth watching - even if your not a fan of Rush and/or drum solos ...
Clem Burke - another of the flamboyant 'Keith Moon' school - apparently Clem was notoriously bad at keeping time - much to Debbie and others annoyance!
I didn't read all that, but there are only 2 candidates:
and
Pierre Moerlen (RIP) who played with Gong in the late 70's. He's just incredible. Amazing technically, never overplays, really supportive of other players, really stylish and kicks major ass when needed.
How about Vinnie Colaiuta. Sounds good on some of Zappas albums and even does a Steve Gadd impersonation on A Little Green Rosseta. I saw him playing with Jeff Beck a while ago and was impressed.
Meg White for me. No showing off, just perfect 🙂
Ooh, just remembered. I always enjoyed Steve Upton in Wishbone Ash. Nice little solo at the end of this (4 minutes in if you can't wait).
John lennon famously said when asked if Ringo Starr was the best drummer in the world, "He's not even the best drummer in the Beatles"
Yeah, well, that's Lennon just being an arse, which he had real talent for.
As regards drummers who are the engine that drives the band Sergey of pinkshineyultrablast is one of those; he sits behind the kit, staring straight ahead, only moving his arms, like a human metronome.
I saw Buzzcocks in their heyday, playing Bath Pavilion, and one song stood out, Moving Away From The Pulsebeat, the drumming was like a freight train, one constant unchanging rhythm, and part way through the rest of the band left the stage, leaving Danny Farrant doing the same beat for a couple of minutes or so, then they came back on and carried on with the song. No frills, just driving rhythm.
Of my many 'favourites' I'd suggest, Bill Bruford, Phil Collins, Andy Ward, Steve Peregrine Took, John Bonham and Dave Mattacks.
How have we got this far without mentioning Harry!
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Tubthumping excellence, driving some dirty riffing grooves!
Ooh yes, Dave Mattacks, how could we forget him?
Simon Phillips
Ben Johnston from Biffy Clyro's a lovely drummer, for modern rock stuff... Was driving around basically listening to the beat under the songs and it's just always [i]right[/i], he knows when to do simple when the song requires it, he leads and follows, hammers it or goes soft and lazy... Got to love a player that can smash it like Animal, hold it together like a click track or roll it around, basically knows when less is more or when more is more. But mostly the whole band just work ridiculously well together, each instrument floats to the top and carries exactly its piece and no more or less, lovely. AND he sings.
I always really loved the rhythm section in Yargo - Phil Kirby on drums: [url=
Also Keith York of Dr Phibes
crikey! thought I was one of the few who had heard (& seen)Of Dr Phibes & the House of wax equations!! They were awesome.
Another drummer i like is Mark Brzezicki ,especially on She Sells Sanctuary... 😀
Though in agreement with many above I always thought Andy McCullough of Greenslade (1970's prog rock) was pretty good without being to flashy, to me he seemed so tuned to the rest of the band. Now he's largely forgotten as are Greenslade.
After having seen Killing Joke in Leeds last night I'd also like to nominate
'Big' Paul Ferguson - for those pounding rhythms (I'd forgotten how good he is!)
Which also made me think of another 'post punk' drummer of note - Martin Atkins - whose body of work includes P.I.L. and Murder Inc
I was at Killing Joke last night too! I'd forgotten about Paul Ferguson too, surprising myself as he was a big influence on my own playing early on
I was at Killing Joke last night too!
What did you think?
I enjoyed it. Was surprised at how busy it was. They seem to be a having a bit of a resurgence.
Another drummer i like is Mark Brzezicki ,especially on She Sells Sanctuary..
Now I always thought that Nigel Preston (R.I.P.) played on She Sells Sanctuary - but Mark played on the rest of the Love Album due to Nigel's poor health.
Nigel Preston was another of those great post-punk drummers. He also played on Sex Gang Children's Maurita Mayer
I thought they were excellent. Saw Sisters there a couple of weeks ago, that was even more rammed. They were better than (a) last couple of times I'd seen them and (b) I expected
Iirc Nigel Preston was in Theatre Of Hate with Billy Duffy before The Cult but I could be wrong. I think he was "inside" when Mark Brzezicki stepped in for the Love album but again I could be wrong. Didn't know he'd died 🙁 loved his drum patterns on Resurrection Joe and the Brothers Grimm EP
Not just Mauritia Mayer, he was also on drums for the Song & Legend album
<edit> my memory is hazier than I remember... Yes he did time but not until long after he'd been fired from The Cult
Haha - I was at the Sisters gig a couple of weeks ago as well! 8)
Yep - from memory Nigel Preston was in Theatre of Hate as well.
(Didn't know he played on SGC's 'Song & Legend Album' though - I thought that predated him, but he may well have played on Sebastiene. I'll have to pop in the loft this weekend and see if there are any sleeve notes. In my mind though the drumming style is different from Maurita Mayer)
I remember reading an interview with Kirk Brandon some years ago where he describes how quickly the post punk scene went from being vibrant & energetic to being dominated by heroin really quickly - with Nigel Preston being sadly one of the casualties.
Reading Viv Albertine's autobiography recently she talk about the same thing happening with the original punk scene!
Do you still play live john_drummer?
Jet Black of the Stranglers is very good nothing flashy just on tempo all the time.
Rat Scabies was brilliant, a friend who worked with him as a sound engineer reckoned he couldnt keep time. Maybe he lost it.