WHY Bonham Still Rules!
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ROCK ROYALTY ISSUE WHY BONHAM STILL RULES! FANATICS DRUMMING FOR TOMMY LEE RETURN OF THE DRUMMER KING BECOME A GRIP MASTER! THOMAS LANG SHOWS YOU HOW ISSUE 172 10 PLUGGED IN: HOW TO 20 GET THAT ’70s ROCK DRUM SOUND October JAY WEINBERG JOINS MADBALL MIKE WENGREN’S LATEST DISTURBED DRUM PARTS CAN $5.99 US $5.99 Bonham performing with Led Zeppelin in Los Angeles, June 1973. STILL ThE ONJohn Bonham definedE rock drumming like no one Before or Since. on the 30th anniverSary of hiS paSSing, Bonzo’S friendS and fanS pay triBute. onzo’s gone. Zeppelin is finished.” It’s been 30 years since the tragic news broke from Jimmy Page’s Mill House, in Pangbourne, Berkshire. The memory “B of John Bonham, fuelled by fact and fantasy, has since grown to become legend. But the reality is, Bonham was every bit as good as they say. He was the man with the golden groove, the sensational chops, and that great, big sound. Friends and fans remember the loud but loveable bloke from Birmingham with gratitude and respect. By wayne Blanchard Photo: JEFFREY MAYER/WIREImaGE/GETTY ImaGES 44 DRUM! October 2010 drummagazine.com drummagazine.com October 2010 DRUM! 45 John Bonham To them, he defined and dignified rock drumming. And This wasn’t about redefining something old. Bonham was Rich, Joe Morello, Davey Tough — the American jazz rudiments and healthy in the music of the day.” But Ward all these years later he remains The One. Yes, there have about defining something new. Rock drumming had never greats — were their heroes, so the “ting-ting-a-ting” swing has an admission. “In 1964/’65, I didn’t understand what been faster, louder, and more technical players, but in the sounded so good. Some may argue, it never has again. ride pattern ruled, drum tunings were high, and tone and John was doing. Often, on the many occasions I watched end, they all bow to Bonham. touch were among the prerequisites. him play, I thought he was ruining the song, like maybe From the slam-down intro of “Good Times, Bad Times,” By 1964, session king Bobby Graham and The Beatles’ he’d lost his 1. Uncannily, however, after several bars, he’d Led Zeppelin’s debut album kicked rock and roll square in Ringo Starr were two of the most rocking players on the bring his beats into alignment with whomever he was play- the face. With funky fills, groove-pushing cowbell, triplet putting it all in context radio, with Graham’s slamming beats on Dave Clark Five kick work, and sheer attitude, its drumming was stun- Let’s first step back to the early ’60s to see how Bonham stompers “Glad All Over” and “Do You Love Me,” as well ningly fresh and devastatingly powerful. Thanks to Jimmy survived a decade of musical transition to become the right as The Kinks hits “You Really Got Me” and “All Day And Page’s arrangements, the drums were showcased in spa- drummer in the right place at the right time. 1950s Britain All Of The Night,” signaling an increasingly aggressive ap- cious yet intense settings. So when that wide-open ride saw traditional jazz and dance bands give way to Ameri- proach. More importantly, these hits highlighted the shift “hiS grooveS were roared in “Communication Breakdown,” or those through- can rock and roll and rhythm and blues, with skiffle and from swing-style ride playing to straight eighths while also the-bar fills pulled you deeper into “Dazed And Confused,” the instrumental hits of The Shadows setting the stage for pushing aside the obligatory “boom -ta ta – boom ta” pop alwayS in the Sweet there was a palpable sense of drama. It was no longer “rock Beatlemania and the Swinging ’60s. beat of the day. But Bonham? “I’m not sure John was a fan and roll.” This was rock. Hard rock. Heavy metal, even. Tony Meehan and Brian Bennett, both of The Shadows, of British drummers, though he must have been influenced And before Zeppelin’s debut even left the turntable, the were the British drum heroes, while Charlie Watts, Keef by Tony Meehan and Brian Bennett, and Clem Cattini’s Spot, and he filled hottest new band on the planet was back with Led Zeppelin Hartley, Jon Hiseman, Tony Newman, Mickey Waller, session work,” says Bev Bevan, drummer with legendary II, featuring tunes that veered from the storming groove Ginger Baker, Aynsley Dunbar, and Mitch Mitchell were ’60s chart toppers The Move, then ELO, and for a while, of “Whole Lotta Love” to the show-stopping drum solo of young “jazzers” who would move into the blues and — in Black Sabbath. “John and I generally shared musical tastes, the emptineSS Between “Moby Dick,” and that raucous riff-o-rama “Ramble On.” some cases — on to rock. Gene Krupa, Elvin Jones, Buddy all of them American.” Any jazz? “I don’t recall him being a jazzer, though I’d do a 5/4 drum solo in an adaptation of Dave Brubeck’s ‘Take 5,’ and he liked that.” the fourS of the Snare According to Jon Hiseman — who replaced Ginger Baker when he quit the Graham Bond Organization for Cream, took Mitch Mitchell’s spot with Georgie with tripletS and DRUMS:* Ludwig Fame when Mitchell joined Hendrix, and then put jazz into John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers before launching his 1 26" x 14" Bass Drum – Bill ward Bonzo’S viStalite kit 2 14" x 6.5" Supra-Phonic 402 Alloy Snare Drum groundbreaking jazz-rock unit, Colosseum — many jazz- polyrhythmS” 3 14" x 10" Tom ers weren’t so generous with Zeppelin or Bonham. “The 4 16" x 16" Floor Tom diehards just didn’t get it, and to a certain extent never ing with. At last, I realized what he’d done. He was always B 5 18" x 16" Floor Tom did. But the blues-rock musos I knew were all great fans in his 1, even when it sounded like he wasn’t.” 6 29" Machine Timpani of Led Zeppelin and John’s big, open sound. As for me, The recollections of Trapeze and Deep Purple bassist/ 7 30" Universal Timpani I always felt the problem with the jazz beat was that it vocalist Glenn Hughes, whose new project, Black Coun- 3 was bound up in a kind of convention, and jazz musicians try Communion, has John’s son Jason Bonham drum- CYMBALS: Paiste E judged you on how well you ‘re-created’ the feels of the ming, are also heartfelt. “I first saw John play in 1968. He A 15" Sound Edge Hi-Hat C established masters. As I began to explore the eighth-note jumped on stage with my baby band, Finders Keepers, at B 16" Medium Crash feel, I felt free. I felt I was in unexplored territory.” the Rum Runner in Birmingham, and pretty much de- A F D C 24" Ride (bass drum–mounted) molished the drum kit. I’d heard stories of the big bloke 2 D 18" Ride (played as a crash) 1 from Redditch with the big ’ands. A couple years later he 7 4 PERCUSSION joined me and Trapeze on many shows. He was the dog’s E Ralph Kester Ching-Ring Birmingham BeginningS bollocks … amazing!” F Ludwig Gold Tone Cow Bell Black Sabbath’s Bill Ward speaks fondly of his friend. “My Ward recalls that while often loud, and at times seem- G Paiste 36" Symphonic Gong earliest recollection of meeting John Bonham was at The ing to almost maul his drums, Bonham’s talent lay in that 5 *The configuration of Bonham’s Ludwig drum set Wharf Pub in Ombersley, Worcestershire, about 1964. He he was a natural and a very learned student. “Behind his remained remarkably consistent throughout Zep- was with The Crawling King Snakes, playing popular songs almost brutish and chaotic appearance he was an endear- pelin’s 10-year recording career, with the exception of that era, plus blues and R&B. His rhythms were immacu- ing man, studious, and a hopelessly caught-up-in-drums- of his shell finishes. Circa 1969–’70, the drummer late, making each song his own, turning it into something and-drummers man. His knowledge of drumming was 6 sported a Natural Maple (Blonde) kit. In 1970–’73 superb. A great example was “Morning Dew.” Of all the ver- overflowing. This was the Bonham I knew.” he switched to Sparkle Green. Sometime in 1973 he unveiled the VistaLite Amber acrylic kit (shown) sions I heard, including the original, none compared to the which remains the most iconic. In 1975 the kit wore King Snakes’, with John Bonham leading the pack.” G a Sparkle Silver finish. From 1977 until his death in Ward recalls that, “Sometimes on trips to Drum City, 1980 the drums were Stainless Steel. the Birmingham city-center shop owned by BBC Light BlueSBuSting In 1969, Bonham experimented with two congas Jazz Orchestra drummer Mike Evans, I’d bump into Bon- By ’66/’67, the Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page–driven psy- to the left of his hats but these were replaced per- manently by two timpani shortly after 1970. Some- ham, along with other fine drummers — offshoots of the chedelia of The Yardbirds’ single “Happenings Ten Years time between 1970 and 1973 he used both Ludwig cosmopolitan hordes who’d chosen Birmingham as home. Time Ago,” The Beatles’ mind-expanding Revolver, and the and Remo heads instead of just Ludwig heads. Some visits turned into mini-clinics. I’d watch Mike do his success of Cream and Hendrix highlighted the real poten- OV Another small but significant change in 1973 was the Suk ‘Purdie.’ I think he turned everyone on to Bernard Purdie, tial for power in British pop and rock.