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Memories of a Birmingham Musician (Drummer)!

Sospiri, I had a listen on ytube but i have to say it didn`t inspire me. The drumming was ok but the rest of the backing music didn`t work for me. It`s the kind of music that you would enjoy in a club with all that swirling cigar smoke. I guess it`s still rock n roll & rockabilly for me! ( I know, i`m just a peasant ):-}
 
Just arrived home to read a few postings on this thread:

#117. Nico. Roy Castle was a very good all round entertainer, and played drums a bit. I arranged all the percussion instruments for him when he attempted to play as many percussion instruments as possible in one minute, for the Guinness Book of Records, at Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham.

#118. Smudger. Cozy Powell and Gene Krupa played a drum duet in the film 'The Glenn Miller Story', where they 'swapped four and eight bar breaks. This means that one drummer will play for four bars, and then the other drummer plays for four bars, etetera. The appeared to play in unison, but that was for the rhythm part of the solo. Otherwise, the playing is complete as lib.
Is that what you remember?
Drummers DO read music!! When I was with the Midland All Stars, Garry Allcock and I did a drum duet, playing in unison, on St Louis Blues March. I wrote the duet drum parts myself.

#119. Nico: The 'kettle drums' are actually called TIMPANI, and percussion was only added to brass band work in the 1970's.

#121. Smudger: I have just listened to Maurice's posting of Cozy Powell's Topsy. Have not heard it in years. It is very jazz orientated, and listening to it again, I am a bit surprised that it reached the Top 20.

#112. Mickywoo: Ted Heath and Topsy, with my very old friend Ronnie Verrell on drums. After Ted Heath, Ronnie went on to join the TV Studio band of Jack Parnell, who previously had also played with the Heath band.
I am a bit suspicious of the recording. In the film, Ronnie's big fill at the end is heard with Ronnie standing up behind the drums with his sticks in the air!!

It is Ronnie playing drums on the Buddy Rich v. Animal Muppets Show. Ronnie Went on to join the Syd Lawrence Band before his very sad passing. The photos of Ronnie on Premier Drums were courtesy of myself and Premier Drum Company.

Thanks for all the postings, everyone. Much appreciated.

Eddie
 
Nico said:
Thanks Eddie, now I know. I have also seen what looked to be like little black boxing gloves in a fist (to me as a kid) they were roundish with sort of indents/gashes and they sounded like wooden blocks being whacked with the sticks. I think Gordon had 4 drums (snares and sides) I remember the notes going down when he opened up or in the middle of a tune, rubadub rubadub rudadub rubadub or maybe it was only 3. The memory fades. Mum had a go once at the Buff club.
Click to expand...

Nico:

The 'wood blocks' are sometimes called 'wood skulls' because of their shape. The correct name however is KOREAN TEMPLE BLOCKS.

We drummers do change from sticks to brushes quite often, and sometimes it has to be done very quickly!
In the old days we would keep the brushes on top of the bass drum, or I would hang them from a tom-tom. These days it is much more sophisticated. We have 'stick bag' by the side of us, full of sticks, brushes, mallets, and other weird and wonderful things.

Eddie
 
Fascinating Eddie thanks for the answers to all my questions. I know kettle drums are called timpani we had good theory music teacher when I was 10/11 we had to learn all the in instruments from the orchestra. My mum was in a group called The Danes with a one man band guitarist, guitar bass drum harmonica etc, his ltttle cymbals were on the top of the drum.
Is that when Roy Castle did Record Breakers?
I am sure now I have seen a tiny music stand on the drum kit with music on. Gordon had info on a beer mat to help him when he played for concert parties.I remember playing cymbals at school for a musical play ironically called The Turtle Drum in association with a BBC TV music programme. There was a symbol on the music for the cymbal to be reverberated like a long wiggly line but I only had one stick so I couldn't do it, it had a soft end. What does drum music look like?
 
Drum Music Steve Gadd 001.jpgDrum Music Steve Gadd 002.jpg

Nico:

A small piece of drum music for you. It is actually the first two bars of the drum rhythm played by Steve Gadd ( a great American drummer) on the song " 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" by Paul Simon. It was also probably Steve Gadd that you saw, with Paul Simon, who always try to use Steve on his tours.

Yes, the Roy Castle TV show was "Record Breakers"

Eddie
 
Jan Ralfini Band Bournemouth 1961 001.jpg

Summer season, Pavilion Ballroom, Bournemouth 1961.

Self on drums. Bill Boyle, tenor player on right, left to join Ken Moule. When Don Neilson, the singer left, he was replaced by a certain Tony Blackburn!!

I also left at the end of the summer, when Bournemouth once again became a land of blue rinse ladies and poodles.

Eddie
 
Eddie, thanks for the Jan Ralfini pic, though there's no one I know there. I arrived in the January of that year and it took a while to get the gigs established. Ralfini had gone before I ever set foot in the Pavilion.

Maurice
 
I can see now thanks. When a certain tune came on e.g. in a WMC where Gordon might be there socially he would grab 2 pens and drum on the table ashtray and glasses , anything.
 
Instead of writing about my exploits, I thought that, for posterity, I would mention some of the musicians that I worked with, or knew, around the Birmingham area in the late 1940's & early 50's.

Bill Bullock Band was at the Mermaid Hotel, in Sparkbrook, with the wonderful Alex Jewson on tenor sax & clarinet. Alex would also, on occasions, play piano, and when I played at the Mermaid, with the band, Alex would turn to me, with a mischievous look in his eye, and say "Lets jazz it up a bit".

Basil Stuteley, alto sax, was at the Springfield Ball in Sparkhill, and also worked in Yardley's Music Shop, with Trevor Emeny (tenor sax) and Cecil Viles, (trumpet).

Jackie Nunn, the excellent lead trumpet with the Sonny Rose Band, at the West End Ballroom, was, before that, lead trumpet with the Ronnie Hancox Band, who had Susan Maugham (Bobby's Girl), as featured singer. Jackie was fired for telling Ronnie that he did not know how to run a band. Ronnie has his very own band coach, which, like everything else associated with the band, was painted cream & blue, and Ronnie was very well organized.

One night we were returning from a gig, somewhere in the Wolverhampton area, raining 'cats & dogs' and on the Hagley Road, at the traffic lights, there was Jackie, on his bicycle returning from a gig. We pulled him on board, with bike. he looked like a drowned rat, and spent the rest of the journey telling us all that Ronnie had no idea of how to run a band!!! That was Jackie.

In the 1940's Leslie Douglas was at the Tower Ballroom, and like Eric Hill, at the Masque Ballroom on Walford Road, Sparkbrook, they would visit Kay Westworths sheet music department, to buy band orchestrations.

Another big name of the day was the Hedley Ward Band, who had Stan Poole on tenor, with whom I later worked with.

There was also the offshoot of the band, the Hedley Ward Trio (Derek Franklyn (bass), I think he later married Beryl Reid, Bob Carter (piano) & Jack McKechnie (guitar). Jack and I became great friends, and he would tell many funny stories of 'life on the road'. Later in his life, Jack opened a music shop in Dudley, almost opposite the zoo.

Enough for now.

Eddie
 
What about Colin and ME Eddie? You LOOK like you where having a good time.Not sure where Mac was? John Crump Parker. Co USAEddie_4A.jpg
 
Eddie (and John),

This is where our age discrepancy starts to show as whilst I know some of the names, I didn't really start to gig around until I came out of the RAF in May 1957 and the first dozen gigs I did weren't even in the Midlands. Through a vocalist I worked with at BCT, who was also a couple of years older than me, I teamed up with some of his mates from a Blandford Army band and work was either in the Romford area or Dorset. So when I moved towards the Birmingham area, amongst the first people I got to know were Colin Willetts, Johnny Patrick and Johnny Beck.

Maurice
 
I can't believe you played at the Masque Ballroom, in Walford Road, Eddie.. it was only about 300 yards from where you lived! I walked passed it hundreds of times but never actually went it. If I remember correctly there were bullet marks across the front of the building where a rogue German aircraft had flown in low and strafed the area.
I went to the Springfield Ballroom many times and the West End and Tower of course. Where I went regularly, Stoney Lane Barracks, I think the band leader's name was Teddy Taylor. A bit of a rogue, too. I recall once dancing past the bandstand cheek-to-cheek with one of the girls and he dangled his car keys in front of me to offer a more comfortable spot for a snogging session. I didn't accept, but of course...
 
Shawcross said:
I can't believe you played at the Masque Ballroom, in Walford Road, Eddie.. it was only about 300 yards from where you lived! I walked passed it hundreds of times but never actually went it. If I remember correctly there were bullet marks across the front of the building where a rogue German aircraft had flown in low and strafed the area.
I went to the Springfield Ballroom many times and the West End and Tower of course. Where I went regularly, Stoney Lane Barracks, I think the band leader's name was Teddy Taylor. A bit of a rogue, too. I recall once dancing past the bandstand cheek-to-cheek with one of the girls and he dangled his car keys in front of me to offer a more comfortable spot for a snogging session. I didn't accept, but of course...
Click to expand...

Shawcross:

No, I did not play at the Masque Ballroom, but I knew the bandleader. I did not know about the strafing of the Ballroom. A very interesting bit of information for historians. The Tower, I did play, and Stoney Lane Barracks, but with the Alf Bevin Band, also Highgate Road Bus Depot, where we played the Christmas dances for the depot staff.

I remember the days when after chatting up a girl, we often wished we had the proverbial car for the follow through!!.

Eddie
 
Clem Burke at Yardleys Birmingham 001.jpgI came across these two photos of a music dealer visit that I arranged for Clem Burke of Blondie, when they played Birmingham, around 1980.

He is pictured in Yardley's Music Store, in Snow Hill.

Eddie
 
Eddie:

You have to keep the fans happy, but don't the group look young there? Still it was over 30 years ago I suppose.

Maurice
 
Kenny Jones Tarten drum kit 001.jpgDrummer Kenny Jones, previously with The Small Faces, called me when the group became Rod Stewart & The Faces, for suggestions for a new drum kit finish to go with the band. We settled on Royal Stuart Tartan.

I delivered the kit to his home down in Surrey on a Sunday, and seeing Kenny's Rolls Royce outside, suggested that that would be a good place to take some photos. The Rolls & the kit would look really good together. Kenny, as you can see, agreed.

When we made the kit, we made one too many tom toms, and I kept it at home, later making up a drum kit for our grand daughter.
You can just see the tartan tom tom at the side of the drum kitRozina on drums 001.jpg

Eddie
 
Modernaires 1956 001.jpgThe MODERNAIRES. On the back of the photo is says; Schweppes, Castle Bromwich, 1956.

The band was a nice, tight swinging little outfit. We all wanted to play jazz, but had to 'cool it' for dancing. Happy days!!

A. Ashworth (compere). Ron Williams (bass). Good player, gave it up to get married....silly boy!, Colin Willets (piano). Colin went on to become probably the finest piano/vibraphone jazz player in the Midlands. Self on drums.

John Crump (alto). Later John left the band to emigrate to the United States (Oldbrit). John did continue to play in the USA for a while.

Richard (Mac) McGlennon (trumpet). My oldest friend. We grew up together, bought our first musical instruments together, joined our first band together, Best Man at each others wedding, 'roomed' together in Margate, Liverpool, Norwich & Manchester. Later changed his stage name to Rick Lennon, and started the Rick Lennon Band, in Birmingham. Rick and his family would come to Norfolk, and we would often meet up in Birmingham. Later, Rick & Jill opened a bar on the Greek island of Zakynthos, (however one spells it), where he died. I gave the Eulogy at his funeral in Birmingham.

Eddie
 
My cousin is a drummer and has been since the late 60's. He lives in Sutton and does many of the new open mike venues introducing young and old musicians. He does a regular one at the Royal Hotel on Sunday nights. He also re vamps snare drums they are amazing he has them re brassed, chromed, etc at the Jewellery Quarter. He has even done a glass drum he told me how it was done at a glass works. I never knew there was so much involved in drums!
 
Wendy,

Nice to hear about your drummer cousin. You did not mention his name. Also delighted to read that he is taking time to help both young and old musicians. We need all the help we can get!

I have to tell you that, renovating old snare drums, is a very profitable business these days, especially if the drum is of good quality, and a well known name.

It would be nice to see a photo of the glass drum. For decoration only, I hope!!

Eddie
 
Happy days Eddie!(TED) We got them dancing for sure, How many times did we play 'When the Saints go marching in' and 'Rock around the clock?' Thanks for the memories Eddie made me a very happy OldBrt. John
 
Nico said:
There was a spooky film with Peter Cushing Christopher Lee and Roy Castle. In three sections. In Roy Castle's section his character hears a voodoo drum rythym/tune which he subsequently writes down and though he is told not to play it, he does, to music, in a club and the club gets destroyed, literall blown away, it's a good beat. I am also thinking of bongoes to give mood ina James Bond film. My partner has an LP called Curried Jazz which had the Indian drums on.
Billy Don't be a Hero by Paper Lace, and Distant Drums. Don't know what position they were at. I went to see Paul Simon in Concert at the NEC and he broke his nail badly and the drum section and backing singers sang and played for half an hour till he taped it up and came back. He had a big African drum section then.
I have been to a French music festival where they had drummers rehearsing in the woods. It was awesome, (as they say nowadays), it reverberated but it sounded natural. I hate artificial drums! Cliff Richard's Congratulations has some mighty booms of the base drum. Guess that's not what you meant though?
Click to expand...

Just reading through the interesting tales and noticed your comment about the film with Roy Castle - I remember seeing it when it came out, it was called Dr Terror's House of Horrors!
 
Nice photo there, Eddie, though the only one I recognise is Colin, mainly because I used to see him every Saturday lunchtime down at the Chapel Tavern. As for jazz, that's generally been the case of playing it whenever you could get away with it, unless you were lucky enough to work in a jazz club, and then the money generally wasn't that good.

Maurice
 
My cousin is Gary Caldecott he was and is semi professional as he has a day job. I have been to the open mike events and loved them. The highlight recently was a drum solo by his friend Irwin who is in his 60's now, he certainly gave the kids a run for their money. He was in a 70's group and I can't remember them they did appear on Top Of The Pops though. Gary's snare drums are really beautiful, that's from someone who knows nothing about drums. The glass one has an amazing sound as it rings because of the glass.
 
John Lennon 001.jpgI forgot that I still had this photo.
In 1965, the Beatles contacted Vox Amplifiers requesting larger and more powerful amplifiers for their live concerts. Their old Vox AC30 amps were not able to complete with the wild screams and shouting of the audience, and the Beatles could hardly hear what they were actually playing!! Vox made the new AC 100 amps just before the Beatles were due to fly off to the USA for their Shea Stadium gig.

They only had one 'live' gig before they flew out, and that was in Blackpool. I think it was around the August time, and I made a dash
up there, with a photographer, in order to try and get some photos with the group using the new amplifiers. When we arrived I saw Mal Evans, the Beatles manager, and because of their close association with Vox, I had no problems getting back stage, before the show started. I remember seeing Mike & Bernie Winters and Lionel Blair. We had to make some very quick arrangements for the photos, and we just managed to get them taken before the group began their performance. I sent a set of photos to Vox, and had a set for myself. However, over the years, they have got lost, and I gave two or three away. This is the only one that I still have, and it is very poignant that it is of John Lennon.

Eddie
 
Eddie, if only you got those Beatles photos signed they could have been worth a fortune. You could have bought a villa in Spain (with heated pool) & invited all the forum members over for a how-dee-do-dee, or for our posh members, a soiree.
 
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