Andy White

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Andy White

Postby RayL » Sat Nov 14, 2015 9:15 am

No Shadows connection, but Andy White (born 27th July 1930, died 9th November 2015) achieved a footnote in history by being the drummer called in by George Martin to play on Love Me Do. As a session drummer in the 1960s he played on many other records (he was the drummer on the Billy Fury Sound Of Fury LP and on Tom Jones' It's Not Unusual, for example) but, thanks to that one session in 1962, his place in the history of pop music is assured.
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Re: Andy White

Postby Tab » Sat Nov 14, 2015 10:59 am

I believe he was paid £5 for the session and an extra few shillings for bringing his own kit - never had to work again!
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Re: Andy White

Postby Iain Purdon » Sat Nov 14, 2015 11:02 am

I knew Andy White slightly. To me he was the drummer with Brian Fahey and the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra in mid-70s Glasgow, and good company in the BBC club bar. Like many session musos he was both professional and modest, a safe pair of hands who could be relied on to get it right first time. It was a good while before I discovered that he had done that Beatles session. That’s because he didn't dine out on it. Just got on with the next session, then stood his round.

My colleague Dave Treadway was the SRO's senior producer and worked with him directly. He writes:
Andy was a brilliant but modest musician and a superb drummer and percussionist. In the BBC Glasgow Club I once asked him about his session work with the Beatles - he was paid the standard Musician's Union rate for playing drums on Love Me Do, the Beatles first hit - and he said with typical modesty "Och, it was just a session, Davey. They were nice lads". I believe he was paid a flat fee of about £7 for a three hour session at Abbey Road during which at least two other Beatles tracks were recorded.

RIP, Andy.
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Re: Andy White

Postby JimN » Sat Nov 14, 2015 2:12 pm

Just for clarity (on a topic legendary for the amount of misinformation about it), the three (3) issued takes of Love Me Do were released in this order and with these gentlemen in the drum chair:

(a) Love Me Do / P.S. I Love You - Parlophone "red label" single 45-R 4949, released October 1962.

It has Ringo Starr on drums. Absolutely not Andy White. There is no tambourine on the recording.

But... the master tape was mislaid or destroyed quite early on (possibly as early as March 1963, according to George Martin's autobiography) and releases of the single in other territories, as well as some 45rpm re-pressings for the UK market, feature a different take of the song (see b below). I understand that the correct master has never been found and that consequently, when the song was included on the "Past Masters vol 1" LP/CD, it was dubbed from a clean copy of the original 1962 single. The "Past Masters" compilation is thus the easiest place to locate this original version.

(b) "Please Please Me" LP - Parlophone PMC 1202, released March 1963.

Although it is widely supposed that the LP was recorded in a single day (11th February 1963), only ten of its fourteen tracks were cut that day. The others - Love Me Do, P.S. I Love You, Please Please Me and Ask Me Why - were all recorded in 1962.

Possibly because the master tape for the original single version of Love Me Do was already lost, the version selected was the alternative take with Andy White. It feels different from the version on the red label single and is easily-distinguished by the presence of a tambourine (played by Ringo).

(c) "The Beatles Anthology Volume 1" - CDx2 - EMI/Apple 8 34445 2, released November 1995 (can it really be twenty years already?). Track 22 on Disc 1 contains the June 1962 "audition" recording of the song with Pete Best on drums.
Last edited by JimN on Sun Nov 15, 2015 1:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Andy White

Postby George Geddes » Sun Nov 15, 2015 12:50 pm

Despite Ray's opening remarks, there is a Shadows connection!

In 1961, Andy was the drummer in the West End show, "Stop the world, I want to get off" and when he decided to leave, a young drummer named Brian Bennett - who had grown tired of touring after spells with the Wilde Cats and Krew kats - was in line to replace him. While he was in the theatre pit, looking at the parts, his wife phoned to say Bruce Welch was looking for him. The rest, as they say, is history...

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Re: Andy White

Postby GoldenStreet » Wed Nov 18, 2015 3:59 pm

I was interested to read that Andy also featured on a 1960 Lita Roza album supposedly recorded live at the Prospect of Whitby pub in Wapping!

JimN wrote:(b) "Please Please Me" LP - Parlophone PMC 1202, released March 1963.

Possibly because the master tape for the original single version of Love Me Do was already lost, the version selected was the alternative take with Andy White. It feels different from the version on the red label single and is easily-distinguished by the presence of a tambourine (played by Ringo).

Listening again, particularly through headphones, makes me appreciate the extent of the differences between the two takes. Lennon's harmonica playing seems more 'flowery' on the original, with a distinct fluff towards the end of the middle solo passage.

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