<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When drummers get together, what do you think they talk about?\u00a0 Equipment?\u00a0 Technique?\u00a0 Cooking tips?\u00a0 Nah.\u00a0 Drummers like to talk about (wait for it\u2026.) other drummers!\u00a0 I am not casting false rumors here because I am as guilty of it as well.\u00a0 It turns out that talking about drummers with other drummers is easier than actually talking to drummers, at least for me.\u00a0 Early on, when I found myself in the company of professional drummers (ie:\u00a0 those who were making a living in touring bands), I was never one to walk up to them and strike up a conversation.\u00a0 The turning point for me was talking to Bill Gordon, the drummer with Al Jaquez\u2019s band Measured Chaos.\u00a0 They spent two days setting up and rehearsing at the Ontonagon Theater of Performing Arts back in the early 2000s and during breaks in the action, Bill and I got to have an extended series of discussions about many topics, including drummers.\u00a0 The lesson that finally sunk through my thick skull was a simple one:\u00a0 \u201cDrummers are people, too.\u201d\u00a0 Having previously discussed the drummers I got to know in my time growing up in Marquette through my time living in Ontonagon, it makes sense to take one more look.\u00a0 This time it is all about the professional drummers I got to see even if I didn\u2019t manage to talk to all of them.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The first big name touring drummer I got to see in concert came to Northern Michigan University in the back up band for The Lettermen.\u00a0 Paul Bush and I were pressed into service standing guard in our band uniforms at the bottom of the staircase his sister\u2019s class had built for their Junior Prom.\u00a0 It stretched from the high school sports deck to the gym floor and all we had to do was stand at attention at the bottom looking like a couple of characters from Tchaikovsky\u2019s <\/span>The Nutcracker <\/span><\/i>ballet.\u00a0 For our efforts, Paul\u2019s sister gifted us two tickets for the concert which was taking place the same night (though it seems she may have bought the tickets before the prom night was scheduled).\u00a0 As soon as we were done with our Nutcracker Honor Guard duties, we hustled the four blocks over to NMU\u2019s Hedgecock Fieldhouse.\u00a0 If there was an opening act, we missed it as we found our seats just as The Lettermen were introduced.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It was either a three or four piece band (I can\u2019t remember) but three years into learning my way around my Ludwig drum kit, I was totally focused on what the drummer was doing.\u00a0 He was very good, seemed to lean in a jazzier direction, and did a solo that was so good, I almost quit practicing.\u00a0 This was also my first experience watching a flashy \u2018show\u2019 drummer.\u00a0 Part way through his solo, the lights went down and blacklights illuminated the stage.\u00a0 These in turn lit up his dayglo painted sticks.\u00a0 This was impressive, to be sure, but then he began flipping them up to the rafters of the large gymnasium they were playing in.\u00a0 He repeated this trick many times without dropping one stick or missing a beat.\u00a0 Paul looked at me to see my reaction and all I could say was \u2018Wow\u2019!\u00a0 It was an unexpected turn of events as I was not expecting a trio of folky singers like The Lettermen to have such a dynamic band backing them.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The only thing I knew about Vanilla Fudge came from hearing their reworked version of <\/span>You Keep Me Hanging On<\/span><\/i> on the radio.\u00a0 I can\u2019t recall seeing them on the <\/span>Ed Sullivan<\/span><\/i> show back in the day.\u00a0 Their first appearance on <\/span>Ed Sullivan<\/span><\/i> was January 14, 1968 performing their take on the Supreme\u2019s hit. The second time they were on <\/span>Sullivan <\/span><\/i>on February 2, 1969<\/span>, <\/span><\/i>they did a spirited rendition of <\/span>Shotgun<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 These dates are important because between those nationally broadcast appearances, they performed in the same double wide gym at NMU\u2019s Hedgecock Fieldhouse where I had seen The Letterman.\u00a0 The occasion was NMU\u2019s Fall Homecoming celebration and the concert was held on <\/span>Tuesday, October 15, 1968<\/span>.\u00a0 I<\/span> have seen footage of their first Sullivan appearance where\u00a0 drummer Carmine Appice (\u2018Ah – piece\u2019 if you are wondering) played a red sparkle kit.\u00a0 <\/span>Between the two Sullivan dates, Appice had traded in a standard red drum kit for a double bass drum, maple shelled Ludwig kit – this was the set he played when I saw them at Northern.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My dad retired from the Michigan State Police in the summer of 1967 and then went to work for NMU Security for a couple of years.\u00a0 Nick Gorski and I both had tickets for Vanilla Fudge and my dad was working security at that concert.\u00a0 He let us in the back door of Hedgecock before the gates opened.\u00a0 We had tickets to prove we weren\u2019t gate crashing, but nobody gave the two of us a second look as we stood in the gym watching the roadies set up.\u00a0 I had never seen a giant PA stack or a double bass drum set before so it was fascinating to watch all of the gear being set up.\u00a0 About the time I asked Nick where we should sit, the drum tech started doing mic checks around the drum kit.\u00a0 It was so loud, I had to read Nick\u2019s lips when he said, \u201cIn the back!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Comments I have read about this show always mention it was \u2018hot\u2019 and \u2018loud\u2019.\u00a0 Even though we were in the top row of the bleachers on the back wall (heat rises, right?), the sight line we had to the stage made the heat bearable.\u00a0 Carmine attacked his drums as much as he played them.\u00a0 When he choked a cymbal crash (hitting the cymbal and then grabbing it to stop it from\u00a0 ringing), he would lay his entire forearm across the cymbal.\u00a0 His playing was wild, but not out of control.\u00a0 Appice managed to throw in stick twirls and a lot of dramatic arm motions without missing a beat.\u00a0 At some point keyboardist Mark Stein left the stage saying, \u201cMan, it is too hot to keep playing,\u201d but apparently a threat to not get their paycheck brought them back.\u00a0 Had I never seen another concert, I could say the first two featured the best drummers on the planet even though they didn\u2019t play the same style of music.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Through a fortunate set of circumstances, I got to see a lot of drummers and a lot of great bands during my high school and college years.\u00a0 First, I lived in sight of Hedgecock as our house was right across the street from the NMU campus. \u00a0 Second, a promoter saw a chance to get a lot of bands additional gigs in the midwest when they came through Detroit, Chicago, and Milwaukee.\u00a0 It took some effort, but Marquette would have been too far off the beaten path if this promotional group had not seized the opportunity.\u00a0 Following is a list of the drummers I got to see with a few take-aways that I remember.\u00a0 I apologize for not being able to put accurate dates on all of them (I should have kept a diary) or the names for some of the drummers.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The first year I attended an annual event at NMU known as \u2018Greek Week\u2019, they held a concert \/ dance.\u00a0 The opening act was Marquette\u2019s own The French Church (with classmate Warren MacDonald on drums).\u00a0 The featured act was The McCoys – yes, the <\/span>Hang On Sloopy<\/span><\/i> McCoys.\u00a0 Guitarist Rick Derringer\u2019s brother Randy Z was on the drums (he still went by their given name of Zherenger).\u00a0 He had great footspeed and a thunderous playing style that shook the stage.\u00a0 This was just a couple of years before they hooked up with Johnny Winter.\u00a0 The McCoys shared the same manager as Winter and thus became his backing band when he recorded the live album <\/span>Johnny Winter And<\/span><\/i> (the McCoys being the \u2018<\/span>And<\/span><\/i>\u2019).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The second GW I attended featured a well known former NMU student named Cub Koda.\u00a0 This first version of Brownsville Station featured drummer T.J. Conley and bassist Tony Driggens.\u00a0 The second time I saw Brownsville, they had a new drummer in Henry \u2018H-Bomb\u2019 Weck and second guitarist Mike Lutz had moved over to bass in their new trio format.\u00a0 Both Conley and Weck were powerful drummers who kept it simple.\u00a0 A third GW brought Bob Seger to town as a solo acoustic act who then joined up with a drum \/ organ duo called Teegarden & Van Winkle.\u00a0 Dave Teegarden was a vocalist and drummer in the duo.\u00a0 Together with organist \/ vocalist Van Winkle, they played some serviceable rock.\u00a0 They played their last set as a trio with Seger playing a Gibson Les Paul.\u00a0 While he was playing with this outfit, Seger wrote many songs that would lay the foundation of the Silver Bullet Band phase of his prolific career<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The double headliner show of Savoy Brown and Fleetwood Mac provided me with an opportunity to see two drummers with contrasting styles.\u00a0 Savoy Brown\u2019s stickman at that time was Dave Bidwell.\u00a0 He had departed Chicken Shack not long after Christine Perfect had left that band to join Fleetwood Mac.\u00a0 Bidwill was anything but flashy – he was a solid time keeper who used few fills and even fewer facial expressions.\u00a0 I saw this Savoy Brown line up in 1972 before Bidwell left the band.\u00a0 He did return to the band in 1974-1976 but sadly died in 1977, reportedly of a heroin overdose.\u00a0 Mick Fleetwood (with Bidwell\u2019s old Chicken Shack bandmate Christine Perfect – McVay in the band) was much more emotive than Bidwell.\u00a0 The show was good but I was disappointed in Mick\u2019s drum solo.\u00a0 Apparently he had gotten into electronic triggers and had rigged what looked like a fisherman\u2019s vest (the kind with\u00a0 many pockets) with pads.\u00a0 It looked rather odd when he left the back of the stage part way into his solo slot and began slapping the various pockets on his vest to continue his (now electronic) drum solo.\u00a0 He smiled broadly throughout, but it seemed a bit too gimmicky to me.\u00a0 Then again, if one is on the road doing many shows, maybe it was another way to distract him from the touring routine.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nobody printed programs about bands in those days so you will forgive me if I can\u2019t put a name on all of them.\u00a0 Some were very good like the drummers from Little Anthony and the Imperials and BB King\u2019s band.\u00a0 Some were passable like Dennis Thompson from the MC5, Ted Nugent Band\u2019s Cliff Davies, and SCR\u2019s E.G. Clawson (real name Scott Williamson).\u00a0 John Siomos from the <\/span>Frampton Comes Alive<\/span><\/i> era of Peter Frampton\u2019s career was not flashy but he provided a solid backing when they played at Hedgecock.\u00a0 Second guitarist and keyboard player Bob Mayo was not at that gig (no explanation given) so there was room to fill as they played as a trio.\u00a0 Siomos was the first drummer I ever saw that had a full PA set up of his own behind his kit.\u00a0 These were not just floor wedge monitors, but PA columns and a mixing board – apparently he mixed the band\u2019s sound he heard to his own liking.\u00a0 I thought he was \u2018another British drummer\u2019 until I recently learned he was from Chicago, got out of the music business after touring with Frampton and became an EMT.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Another outstanding concert held at Hedgecock that featured a great drummer was Chicago.\u00a0 It seems everybody remembers Robert Lamm taking a hatchet to a poorly tuned piano (which they did pay for) but I remember Danny Seraphine\u2019s chrome shell kit and what great chops he had.\u00a0 He was so good I am pretty sure I totally ignored my date for that show.\u00a0 Billy Hinds from Pure Prairie League was one of those players who played just the right stuff for their countrified rock.\u00a0 Seraphine and Hinds may have come from different directions but their playing styles fit perfectly in their respectful genres.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Steven Jo Bladd from the J. Geils Band was an excellent vocalist and drummer but the highlight of his drum solo was the duet he did with keyboard player Seth Justman.\u00a0 During the solo spot, Bladd came forward and played two concert toms next to Justman\u2019s tymbalies.\u00a0 They were a fine tuned rhythm machine and at times matched each other\u2019s beats and crossed over to play each other\u2019s drums flawlessly.\u00a0 They must have liked the response they got because a few months later, the band appeared on <\/span>The Johnny Carson Show<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 When Carson asked if they had any memorable gigs recently, it was either guitarist J.Geils or singer Peter Wolf who said, \u201cYeah, we played at a college in Marquette, Michigan a while ago and we can\u2019t wait to go back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Bachman Turner Overdrive was first topping the charts, they visited Marquette with a new guitar player.\u00a0 Blair Thornton had recently replaced Tim Bachman but brother Robbie Bachman was still drumming behind his big brother Randy.\u00a0 His thundering style really matched B.T.O.\u2019s heavy sound.\u00a0 B.T.O. is touring again but Robbie passed away in 2023 at the age of 69. Before this reunion, he was leading his own version of B.T.O. in which he was the only original member.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After I graduated from college in 1975, s hows at Lakeview Arena brought even more great drummers to the great white north.\u00a0 Roger Earl from Foghat (who are still recording and touring to this day with Earl being the sole remaining member) was great.\u00a0 I read a comment from a local who said he talked to Roger years later at a show in Florida.\u00a0 Earl remembered fishing on Lake Superior when they were in Marquette.\u00a0 Blue Oyster Cult appeared at Lakeview twice, both times with original drummer Albert Bouchard.\u00a0 He was front and center playing guitar when BOC did their \u2018guitar army\u2019 thing (when the whole band lined up across the stage while trading guitar licks).\u00a0 The second show featured his drum solo wearing a large Godzilla head as he bobbed and weaved in the strobe lights – a real \u2018horror movie\u2019 like experience.\u00a0 The solo came in the middle of <\/span>Godzilla<\/span><\/i> (naturally) and I can still see it in my mind when I hear the song.\u00a0 It was a solo that was as much fun to watch as to hear.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Harold Ray Brown from War was perhaps the funkiest drummer I got to see live.\u00a0 When my wife and I saw them as The Low Rider Band at the Calumet Theater a few years back (they were prohibited from using the name War for a number of years), he was still the heartbeat of the band.\u00a0 Drummer Gil Moore from Triumph is a good singer and time keeper, but I was a little disappointed in his reliance on electronics for his drum solo the second time I saw them.\u00a0 He did a series of tom rolls that were filtered through a flanger and the effect turned it into a mush of swooshing sounds.\u00a0 I love Triumph and they are a great band (and they are also on tour again) but I won\u2019t let one wonky solo ruin the memories of their live shows.\u00a0 REO Speedwagon came through Marquette a couple of times.\u00a0 Once when Terry Luttrell was the lead singer and again after Kevin Cronin had returned to the band.\u00a0 Drummer Alan Gratzer really added a lot to their sound and I remember thinking, \u201cHis roady must polish his cymbals for every show – they really gleamed in the spotlights.\u201d\u00a0 Gratzer was the first drummer I saw who wore what looked like golf gloves on both hands when he played.\u00a0 I had my share of blisters and dropped sticks due to sweaty palms, so there is nothing wrong with him finding a solution to both problems.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Have I exhausted my list of professional drummers yet?\u00a0 Not by a long shot.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have room here to get to Savage Grace, Measured Chaos, The Turtles, and a bunch of other bands. \u00a0 I will have to revisit the topic in the future but let me depart with one final thought.\u00a0 For all the famous and not so famous professional drummers I have had the pleasure to see live, Don Kuhli from Marquette\u2019s own Walrus rates up there with the best.\u00a0 Don\u2019s foot speed, quick hands, and overall technique puts him in good company – there isn\u2019t one band out there that would not have been better if he had joined their ranks.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Carmine Appice doesn’t get the credit he deserves for inspiring a lot of heavy rock drummers and pioneering double bass drum work – here they are on the Ed Sullivan Show around the time they appeared at Northern Michigan University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When drummers get together, what do you think they talk about?\u00a0 Equipment?\u00a0 Technique?\u00a0 Cooking tips?\u00a0 Nah.\u00a0 Drummers like to talk about (wait for it\u2026.) other drummers!\u00a0 I am not casting false rumors here because I am as guilty of it as well.\u00a0 It turns out that talking about drummers with other drummers is easier 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