by martcaster » 21 Jul 2014, 19:14
I'm pretty sure Tony had a 'grounding' in military-style snare drumming (Boys Brigade rings a bell) The breaks in Shadoogie, The Savage and the rudiments played through the See You In My Drums solo seem to bear this out. Brian's early influences were the Big Bands of the day (and earlier) and his heroes have always been from the world of Jazz and bands (that's not to say, of course, that Tony's weren't). Brian's style fortuitously (??) seemed to meld with The Shads' drift away from Rock 'n' Roll type numbers and was more jazz influenced style. As a young guy without access to formal lessons, the best I could do was try to emulate what I heard on the records of the day. This included the work of Keith Moon (and a teenager couldn't help being impressed by this uninhibited approach..... the neighbours were less impressed!!) but hey! we had Bobby Elliott, Chris Curtis, Mike Hugg et al. And, of course, The Guv'nor. It's hard to imagine another 'teacher' who would give examples of how to play Bossa, Samba, Tango, Jazz Waltz, brushes, great drum breaks, rhythms such as Fandango, Brazil, Naughty Nippon Nights, Zambesi etc, etc; BEFORE saying "Right, you've learned all that, NOW this is how you do Modern Jazz. Up pops Change Of Direction and it's back to the kit to learn all those, which gave me a taste for a new style of music. And when he'd done that, he comes up with Slaughter On Tenth Avenue; an introduction to the works of the great American composers; Rodgers, Gershwin, Copeland, Ives etc. And when he'd done THAT, it was on to the delights of Disco with Voyage. The guy has never stopped going forward and never stopped 'teaching' and influencing. And, as lucky as the guitarists amongst us are, in having Hank, Bruce, Jet, John and Jonesy to show them how it should be done, for a young drummer starting out and wanting a comprehensive grounding in what is required of drummer (NOT show, NOT flash, NOT loud) one man stands out above the crowd. Listen, emulate, practise. continually. He may not teach you all you need to know; but by 'eck you'll have a head start over anyone else. Thanks, Brian.
Oh 'eck. The tea's ready. And I'd just got going.
Courgettes with Bolognese sauce, if you were wonderin'.
Ta-ra.