drummers-from-england

"Bonzo had it all... somehow walking the fine line between power ad finesse, between simple and complex. And he always made the song groove above all."

"Bill Ward's incredible work in Black Sabbath features the best mixture of jazz and rock drumming out there. He has been defined as the mastermind behind the unholy birth of heavy metal drumming."

"Once Rick started to get heavily involved, he said he wanted to try a different drummer, someone who wasn't 'straight-up rock', in his words. He kept suggesting Ginger Baker, who'd obviously been in Cream and in Hawkwind for a while with my great friend Lemmy Kilmister, God rest his soul. But Baker was crazier than me. I mean, there was a documentary about him, Beware of Mr. Baker, where he broke the director’s nose with a metal cane at his house in South Africa. And that was after the guy had been thrown out of every other country. Not that he would have taken the job anyway. He was nuts. He’d have been a liability on tour."

"What would Led Zeppelin be without John Bonham? He was a pioneer, a gifted drummer and a genius. Play "Kashmir" for a roomful of drummers and watch every one of them air drum to it, including me. That’s a testament."

"Bill is The Godfather of Prog… the Progfather!! His resume speaks for itself: Yes, King Crimson, UK, Genesis… He was an essential part of the development of drumming in progressive music in the '70s and '80s."

"The Groove. Nobody grooved better than Bonzo. His ability to push and pull the tempo could make you wanna jump up and down or almost fall over backwards while listening! I, like so many of my peers, consider him my best teacher when it comes to laying down a fat beat."

"He was a jazz-trained drummer, but also got into other styles such as playing African rhythms, which worked brilliantly. No doubt a big influence on many rock and metal drummers over the years, and one of the most creative and entertaining drummers of all time."

"Ever since a young Pete Townshend asked Jim Marshall to place two 4x12 cabinets on top of each other, the Marshall stack has been much imitated, especially after a certain guitarist named Jimi Hendrix also adopted the trend."

"After , Keith Moon was one of the first drummers that I heard play where I was left gobsmacked. He had so much freedom in his performing, every time he played you felt like he was right on the edge."

"When Keith played, he had a mix of pure rock ’n’ roll with a bit of American surf music thrown in, and when he played with the Who you were left feeling like there could be a train disaster at any time. Who records were a really exciting listening experience. … I started to look into Keith Moon, and realised that he was totally unique when it came to the way he set his drums up. And then I saw The Kids Are Alright, and [I] could see his drums close up and hear the way he played, and I had to go and buy a bunch of Who records. It occurred to me that, simply, no one else played like him. And I was left with the idea that he never liked to play the same way twice. Which is really how a lot of jazz musicians think and play, with their constant improvisation. Keith had that sort of spirit, too, and at that time it was unique in rock music."

"I think it’s fairly safe to say that Keith was the first man to ever say he loved me, in his last days sadly, but I believed him, and I think he might have been the first man I was able to sincerely tell I felt the same way."

"During the last year of Keith's life, he was attempting to dry out quite a lot, and I was drying out with him. We were, in fact, involved in a mutual project. … I went to his hospital bedside on a couple of occasions just after he'd had a little ... epileptic fit of some description, following withdrawal of alcohol. ... The tragic thing was seeing Keith go back to drinking. You see, he … had never really decided to quit."

"Keith Moon flew by the seat of his pants. His skill and imagination allowed him to unconsciously play whatever he felt at the time. The freedom and passion he displayed is one of the most beautiful things I have ever witnessed. This inspires me probably more than any other skill a drummer can, or should, possess."

"I seem to have met quite a few dangerous people in my time, in one way or another, and one sticks in my mind: a dear, old friend named Keith Moon, drummer for The Who. And I first met Keith at a ... charity soccer match in which Monty Python was playing the rest of the world, and Keith was playing for the rest of the world. And I was rather annoyed at the way that the players in this charity match were taking the game rather too seriously. And I come along dressed as the colonel figure from the series, and just generally strolled around making a nuisance of myself: ordering people about, standing in the goal … and that kind of thing. And Keith must have felt similarly bored with the way things were going that afternoon, ... [for he] left the field himself and drove back on in someone's car, and scored several goals before anyone could catch him. That cemented the relationship between us, I think, and the two of us went off to the bar afterwards and drank very, very, very, very, very, very, very many drinks, and I taught him there a game which I'd like to show this evening because I'm trying to popularise it around the world."

"Some time ago one of my daughters persuaded me to do an online Pink Floyd quiz. I scored 56%."

"I knew I couldn't play 'Comfortably Numb' better than David or Roger, or indeed even the Australian Pink Floyd [tribute band]""

"Four pails of water and a bagful of salts. That is all we are, that is all a man comprises, chemicals alone, with no spirit, soul or ghost - nothing so bizarre. No amount of faith disguises what is true is what we fear the most"

"Been alone so long that I've forgotten what to do how to make the whole thing right and how to help if she's uptight and when to run and when to fight... how to make her stay the night - that's if I ever knew."

"Within the context of revolutionary discourse, ideas which do not truly challenge consensual conceits become commodified within the consensual. ... Anything that can be removed from radical discourse will become incorporated and thereby nullified within the consensual narrative. Revolution and its leaders can all too easily become commodity: Che the poster, Sartre ‘le maitre de’. It is in this manner that revolutionary ideas are consumed as product within a construct of moderation calculatedly designed to render them impotent."

"A man can never dream these kinds of things Especially when she came and spread her wings Whispered in my ear the things I'd like Then she flew away into the night."

"If I'm to fall, would you be there to applaud, or would you hide behind them all? 'Cause if I have to go, in my heart you'd grow, and that's where you belong."

"The Beatles could shit in my hand bag I’d still hide my polo mints in there"

"I wanna love you I wanna be a better man I don't wanna hurt you I just wanna see what's in your hand."

"Born on a different cloud from the ones that have burst round town It's no surprise to me that yer classless, clever and free."

"I'm singing this song for you and your mum that's all, And it won't be long before everyone is gone."

"Lie down baby now don't say a word There there baby your vision is blurred Your head is so sore from all of that thinking I don't want to hurt you now But I think you're shrinking."

"They say you better listen to the voice of reason But they don't give you any choice 'cause they think that it's treason. So you had better do as you are told. You better listen to the radio."

"Turn up the TV. No one listening will suspect, even your mother won't detect it, no your father won't know. they think that I've got no respect but everything means less than zero."

"She said that's that. I don't wanna chitter-chat. Turn it down a little bit or turn it down flat. Pump it up when you don't really need it. Pump it up until you can feel it."

"There's always something that's smoldering somewhere I know it don't make a difference to you But oh! It sure made a difference to me You'll see me off in the distance, I hope At the other end At the other end of the telescope."

"Now Im dead, now Im dead, and you're all Going on to meet your reward. Are you scared? Are you scared? Are you scared? Are you scared? You might have never heard, but God's comic."

"The boy said 'Dad they're going to take me to task But I'll be back by Christmas' It's just a rumour that was spread around town Somebody said that someone got filled in For saying that people get killed in The result of this shipbuilding With all the will in the world Diving for dear life When we could be diving for pearls."

"Alison, I know this world is killing you. Oh, Alison, my aim is true. My aim is true."

"Is it all in that pretty little head of yours? What goes on in that place in the dark? Well I used to know a girl and I would have sworn that her name was Veronica Well she used to have a carefree mind of her own and a delicate look in her eye These days I'm afraid she's not even sure if her name is Veronica."

"Oh I used to be disgusted and now I try to be amused. But since their wings have got rusted, you know, the angels wanna wear my red shoes."

"The people with the most resources are the federal government. If you can invade a country halfway across the world in a matter of days, you can surely come to the aid of your own citizens in a shorter order of time."

"Nice girls, not one with a defect, Cellophane shrink-wrapped, so correct. Red dogs under illegal legs, She looks so good that he gets down and begs.She is watching the detectives. "Ooh, it's so cute." She's watching the detectives. When they shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot. They beat him up until the teardrops start, But he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart."

"I wanna bite the hand that feeds me. I wanna bite that hand so badly. I want to make them wish they'd never seen me."

"While you lie in the dark, afraid to breathe and you beg and you promise And you bargain and you plead Sometimes you confuse me with Santa Claus It's the big white beard I suppose. Im going up to the pole, where you folks die of cold I might be gone for a while if you need me."

"So beautiful and fortunate You're the one who hates to love But he's the one who loves to hate."

"I can't actually play any instrument properly. I can't read music. And here's the New York Times calling me the new George Gershwin. It was so ridiculous, really embarrassing. It was embarrassing to watch these people fall into the trap of their own critical conceits."

"WARNING: This album contains country & western music and may cause offence to narrow minded listeners."

"These are the sort of things that push you on in music — the curiosity, a passion for new ideas. It's important to keep restoring that, and at the same time, hold on to the core things about music that whenever you pick the simplest form of instrument; guitar or piano, you can find a song that's worthwhile."

"Clowntime is over Time to take over While others just talk and talk Somebody's watching where the others don't walk."

"Then I became an altar boy because of the solemn face, but I got thrown out at fourteen for laughing, because the priest used to mumble everything except the church plate takings."

"When the media attention switches away from this story onto the next thing that happens in the world, the circumstances will still be there."

"My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant, someone who disrupts the daily drag of life just enough to leave the victim thinking there's maybe more to it all than the mere hum-drum quality of existence."

"I had a lot of problems with my name … my first name Declan is really not very well known outside of Ireland, MacManus is a name they could never spell ... if you think about the names of '76, '77 … I got off kind of lightly — with a name you could live with, you know, in time. … I kind of liked the dare of it. Of course we weren't to know that within a month of my first album actually being issued Elvis Presley would die, and it would actually be a talking point. … Let me put it this way — people don't forget you with that name. It's sort of receded as — and this may sound terribly disrespectful and heretical — but as Elvis Presley has receded as a musical force, people make much less of a case about it. Elvis is a sort of cultural figure but there is no direct line between the music of Elvis Presley and the music of today. There is none whatsoever, he's no influence whatsoever, that I can detect, on music made today. Other than people who consciously retro in styling themselves after his ideas. There is no direct impact in the way that you can hear the influence of The Beatles or Stevie Wonder or numerous other people."

"Obviously the people that I admired, like the Beatles, were really into rock'n'roll, but it was already a little past rock'n'roll when I started listening and making my own choices about music. I've been lucky to listen to lots of different types of music."

"I've had a lot of different experiences in music over the years. And not everything you do can satisfy everybody's idealised version of you."