Teaching Elvis Presley the Rules of Scrabble, and Other Tall Stories

Somebody in my class at primary school once alleged that the actor Tony Curtis was his uncle. Such absolute whoppers are part and parcel of the over active imagination of small children and in almost every case entirely harmless at the time, albeit utterly cringe-inducing if someone with a long memory reminds you of your childhood exaggeration at a smart dinner party in middle age.

Far stranger is the incidence of this sort of behaviour in adults. More than once I have heard a noted figure in the British entertainment industry rattle off a yarn about Elvis Presley making a secret visit to London in the late 50's and that our show business friend was charged with the responsibility of showing the King the sights of Town.

There's only one word for this, well, actually it's two words, the first beginning with B and the second with S.

Similarly many moons ago there lived in Coventry a guitarist who would, at the drop of a hat, regale you until the cows came home about how he had accompanied Sinatra in Vegas on countless occasions, and how in after hours jam sessions had constantly got the upper hand of George Benson in good natured guitar battles. As his name was Ford that rapidly became corrupted by all to 'Fraud'.

Some of these storytellers become minor legends and can gather a small crowd of those in the know, eager to hear what the next outrageously implausible anecdote will be; very much in the manner of Craggy Island milkman Pat Mustard, who "taught Elvis Presley how to play karate".

That's twice in a fairly short space I've mentioned Elvis already, I wonder if he will crop up again?

In our internet savvy, social media fixated times it only takes a few clicks to ascertain whether or not these types of tall tales have any basis on fact and it is likely the case that as a result of availability of information the great tradition of yarn spinning may be in sharp decline. Apart from one area. Musicians' CVs.

Before I go any further I think it's important to stress that as of the time of writing I have never played on a hit record nor have I toured with any chart topping, stadium filling artists. If you know anything about my utter distaste for arena shows (doing to live performance what Amazon is doing to your high street but I'll come back to that when in a less light hearted frame of mind) you won't find that particularly surprising. That's not to say that I haven't played festivals to thousands of people jumping up and down in a field somewhere in Europe, I have, but in the best tradition of Airplane, "that's not important right now".

Similarly I have had the (mostly) good fortune to work with some legendary jazz artists, plus a good many personalities from the then more connected worlds of pop music and light entertainment from many decades ago. One of the reasons for not mentioning their names (especially the latter category) is that to anyone younger than about 45 they would mean little or nothing.

We used to call it 'getting a break', sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. I was lucky to come through at a time when if you could play do a decent standard, read a chart and cover a range of styles reasonably well it was relatively easy to get a regular, paying gig. To what extent one's career would advance was largely down to the axis of preparation and opportunity, or 'right place, right time' coupled with 'who you know', all a long time before the word 'networking' had established its presence in the music industry lexicon.

Frequently our work as musicians is evaluated by a series of random associations with different people, all deemed to be more important than we are. I remember being about 20 and in Jones & Crossland music store in Birmingham when the guy who ran the drum department gestured towards a stranger in a leather jacket, and said to me with an awestruck, hushed tone of voice,
"That's the drummer with the Nolan sisters".

This to me is the key point. I know all manner of great musicians who have worked away for years; always busy, freelancing, playing, recording, teaching, often doing the sort of gigs where no one actually cares who's in the band. Players of the highest quality but never having been associated with a big name artist or a succession of hit records. I feel a strong kinship with these players as were it not for my activities as a big band leader and my work in the drum industry this would be the regiment to which I would belong. A lot of these musicians are some of the busiest players anywhere, even if their names are not known other than to the industry inner circle. Many times I have seen somewhat 'confected' credits where the most tenuous connections have been stretched to near breaking point and artists names have been used slightly dishonestly. Don't do it. People know and it looks daft, in the tradition of the quote usually attributed to Mark Twain about being thought a fool. It's not just an ill-informed attempt at career advancement either. There was once a legendary session musician right at the top of the tree who used to overegg his achievements and I couldn't help wondering why. Those who really know and really have influence will evaluate your playing based upon what you can do rather than with whom you may or may not have done it.

So anyway, I get this gig teaching Elvis how to play Scrabble. Turns out the only word he could spell was 'Uhhuhhuh' and as there are only two H tiles in a standard Scrabble set we were off to a bad start. Also he didn't really grasp the idea of each letter having a points value and would look at his tiles and repeat
"Well it's a 1 for an E, 2 for a D" and so on.

For details of current musical projects my website is here or you can email me at this address

Thank You, Roy Burns (1935-2018)

It's been a bit hot lately hasn't it? As a result with spectacular predictability everybody is making comparisons to the legendary Summer of 76 and how we all baked. Interestingly no one has anything to say about the Summer of 1977, which as I recall was for the entire duration of the school holidays, overcast, dull and frequently wet. The summer of '77 was, however, far more significant for me, and the poor weather was a major contributory factor.

Having managed to get by as a drummer almost entirely on what natural talent I had been blessed with, (and it was in this same Summer that I did my first grown up gig with grown up musicians for grown up money) being largely confined to indoors prompted me to renew my acquaintance (these days more an obsession or ritual) with the practice pad.


Up to this point I had spent very little time with drum books, and such time as had been spent had consisted of dipping in and out of the pages of William F Ludwig's erroneously titled 'Modern Jazz Drumming'. Much of this consisted of rhythmic patterns that my young eyes simply could not comprehend and was not particularly heavy on rudimental or sticking-based materials, nor was it full of the kind of cool beats that would appeal to a late baby boomer such as I.

Many, many years earlier my Dad had walked in when I was messing around with the sticks and told me that if I wanted to play properly I would have to learn a 'proper' stick grip. From a cupboard he got a copy of the Gene Krupa Drum Method and opened it at this page,

told me to get on with it and went back into the other room to watch Z Cars.
I remember his utter astonishment when I went and found him about ten minutes later to show him that I had 'got it'. (I hadn't, and still haven't but you know what I mean).

Anyway so back to 1977 and the miserable Summer climate. Simultaneously at a loss for something to fill the dull summer days and feeling the pull of what would grow into a professional career before very much longer, I took a look in the cupboard from which my Dad had got the Krupa Drum Method all those years previously and I found this....

It scarcely bears repeating that if you are even slightly serious about developing any sort of genuine prowess on the instrument this book is an essential. Some students mistakenly view Stick Control as a little akin to "Eat your vegetables and then you can have some ice cream". It really isn't. Approached correctly not only will it sharpen up your hands (the benefits of the Summer of 77 have been an everlasting foundation that set me on the road to technical fluency) but the myriad ways in which it can be adapted and interpreted will help you to develop the habits of creative thinking, to look (and listen) between the lines.
Forty one years later it's looking a little the worse for wear which is not all that surprising as it is arguably the most used of all the drum books in my collection, and although there are many dozens of books in that collection there is only one that I have played from cover to cover.

It's this.

Sometime in the late 70s the drum department at Yardley's in Birmingham got hold of two or three copies of this book and by a stroke of sheer luck one of them came into my posession. I had admired Roy Burns for several years as he had been the first 'big name' American drummer I had seen in the flesh. Why was this book so important? Within its pages Roy sets out some core principles of technique in a way that none of the drum books I had seen up to that point made any congruent attempt to do. Bear in mind that this was late 1970s Birmingham with no internet and limited availability of information and resources. Also he takes the most important and often played permutations from Stick Control and presents them in different rhythmic subdivisions. This is a key point. How much time do you spend practising endless triplets or sixteenths? Too much, that's how much. Certainly an amount disproportionate to the musical necessity of playing constant note rates. Shifting between different layers of time is a far more important skill that you will use every time you sit down to make music. Otherwise it's a bit like learning to drive in an automatic car on a completely flat, straight road. The ability to articulate constantly changing sticking permutations (and don't be daunted, there are only twelve of them) over changing rhythmic patterns will set your technique free and liberate your playing. Thanks to the initial inspiration and tangible benefits, after a spell working with this material my hands would demonstrably improve, I have subsequently taken this underlying core skill and extrapolated it in my own methods.

Some years later I ran into Roy at a Summer NAMM show in New Orleans and had the opportunity to thank him. Far more recently I managed to source a spare copy of the book, you know, just in case.

If it is the case that you only know of Roy Burns on account of Aquarian drum heads then have a listen to this.......

For full details of my current music projects, instructional DVD, guest appearances, master classes or private tuition visit the website or you can contact me via email here. 

Big Band Drumming Revisited

Just in the past few days I have been on the receiving end of some very complimentary feedback from the four part series I did for Rhythm magazine in 2015 on the subject of big band drumming.

For newer friends, those who may have missed it first time, and those who would like to give it another look here are the links to all four parts, together with my solo on Bugle Call Rag from the 2017 WGD concert in Northampton.

For details of bands, guest appearances, master classes and individual tuition click here.

For more information about projects and upcoming appearances, my DVD and big band recordings, click here.

In other news following on from the DVD released in April I have a book in the works that will explore many of personal concepts and techniques in greater detail, so stay tuned.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

And finally a solo incorporating many of the concepts in part 4