Me, too, that's the way I play. The vocals are where the tempo comes from in pop music so I'm glued to them. That whole thing of locking in with the bass player comes from both the bass player and drummer locking in with the vocals, or whatever else is the lead instrument. The most amateur thing is the bass player and the drummer grooving with each other and ignoring the vocalist.

So no way is that a Keith Moon exclusive.

Hi,

A week drumming for John Lee Hooker would probably be the highest profile.

Nice guy to work for. Travelled alone. Stayed in the hotel room unless one of us guys in the band could encourage him out. Wasn't able to read the captions under the pictures in a book our guitarist brought in, so only recognized those he "recognized". All night long people would put drinks by his feet which he never touched. "Don't know what's in them," he told me.

Tough gig because of his idiosyncratic approach to form. At the time what he liked best was a rock and roll approach to the shuffle--more Canned Heat than Fred Below.

Patrick

I was also a "Blues Brother" for one song. I was in a house band out in Page, AZ. Dan Akroyd was in town filming the movie 'Evolution' with Ivan Reitman. Long story short, he got up and did 'Soul Man' with us.... I also got to be in the movie with him...

I have also made snares for some well known drummers including a Canadien that has a "mean mean stride"...

Amen! I mean you don't have to be a background solo, but you need to help! Working with the vocals is the only way to play. My claim is playing with some Blues guys in the late 80's and early 90's. They were all fairly along in years by that time, but most were professionals to the end. As long as the bourbon held out, anyway...Yes Sir

:Santa:MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!:Santa:

Page Arizona? Was it at Joe's Old West Steakhouse? They, at least they used to, have bands play there. I have worked at the Navajo plant there about six or seven times and really like this area. The drive from Sky Harbor up through Flagstaff is totally awesome too!!Cool1

have a wonderful evening

drumhack x-mas3x-mas1:Santa::Santa:

My "Claim to Fame": Back in the early 60's (1963-64?) I was with a rock group (The Reactions) that played locally around the Southern California Inland Empire area (suburbs of Los Angeles). We were primarily an instrumental group covering The Ventures, Duane Eddy, Lonny Mack, etc...eventually we did some Beatles vocals. We decided to "cut a record" so we booked time at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood. We lucked out when the engineer assigned to us was Larry Levine (Phil Specter's engineer). So, there we were "laying down some tracks" when....Phil Specter walks into the control room! He must have liked what he heard because he took over the session, rearranged and remixed our whole number...gave it his "Wall-of-Sound" touch. (The record was never released, but it's really fun to play our Phil Specter production now!)

A couple of weeks later Phil asked us to play on a demo he was doing of a song he had written...again, nothing came of it. Sonny Bono played tambourine and Nino Tempo (Deep Purple, April Stevens & Nino Tempo) played sax on that session...Cher was practically invisible asleep on the bench behind the upright piano. At that time Sonny and Cher were just "future stars". Our relationship with Phil didn't go much further; we didn't pursue it and he soon lost interest in us. We probably (obviously!) blew it big time by letting our "day jobs" take priority over the opportunities presented by getting to know Phil Specter (long before he started playing with guns!!).

Yep, Page, AZ. I was part of the house band at the Gunsmoke Saloon. I could see the plant out of my back window! The drive was very cool! Small world...

Beers!!

Back in the 70's I played backup for The Belmonts (sans Dion) and,The Regents (Barbara Ann). Around 8 years later,I was in 2 bands that recorded.The first,Radio City was produced by Kenny Laguna who is Joan Jetts long time musical partner and producer.He has produced and played with MANY big acts.He played keys on Little Runaway which can be heard @ myspace.com/radiocity79. I also did an album produced by "More Cowbell" Don Roeser AKA Buck Dharma,guitarist from Blue Oyster Cult.The band was The Alan Milman Sect and,he plays the Pipeline riff on California Dumb (which can be heard on Amazon.com).

Two years back,My band did a fund raiser for local Dems. We backed (now congressman) John Hall from the band Orleans.There's a You Tube vid of us playing Dance With Me,search OTR with John hall.

This past September I played at Central Park Summer Stage in Manhattan the day after Oprah did her show from there with a band Alpine Squeeze.We are also going to be in the movie Morning Glory with Harrison Ford,Diane keaton,Jeff Goldblum and Rachel McAdams coming out sometime around May/June 2010.Oh yes,I also played for 7 years with the Governators cousins Karl and Arnold Schwartzenegger but,never met THEEE Arnold but did meet "The Donald" and his newest (model) wife backstage at the Taj in A.C. In fact we played him up to the stage before his speech.