Underrated Drummers

After rising to international stardom with the Police, Stewart Copeland largely rejected his pop music past to pursue a career as a composer, authoring a prolific series of film scores, operas, and ballets. Born July 16, 1952 in Alexandria, Egypt, Copeland - the son of a CIA agent - spent his formative years in the Middle East but attended college in California before settling in England in 1975 and playing drums with the progressive rock unit Curved Air. Following the group’s dissolution, he founded the Police with singer/bassist Sting and guitarist Henri Padovani (the latter soon replaced by Andy Summers). Beginning with their first hit, 1979’s “Roxanne,” the trio emerged as one of the most popular and innovative bands of the post-punk era, drawing upon reggae, funk, and world music to create a uniquely infectious yet cerebral brand of pop which generated a series of smash singles including “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” “Every Breath You Take,” and “King of Pain.”
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Myles Heskett, the drummer with the band Wolfmother was born November 21, 1977. Growing up in Sydney, Heskett attended Barrenjoy High School was always surrounded by creativeness. His father was an artist and his sister studied costume at NIDA.

Its not surprising that prior to Wolfmother, Myles was a graphic artist and even came up with the design for the band’s first album.

Myles endorses Ludwig drums and Zildjian cymbals.

Style of playing:

“Heskett’s playing seems to directly follow, and at some times improvise upon, the rhythm laid out by Ross & Stockdale. Often in Wolfmother songs, Heskett will switch from a triplet orientation, to a typical quarter note or eighth note pattern, depending on what Ross and Stockdale are playing. This can be seen particularly well in the song ‘Joker & the Thief’, in which a triplet oriented intro leads the quarter note oriented first verse, allowing for Heskett to switch between triplet fills,
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Stephen Morris was born 28 October, 195 in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England. Morris first made his name as the drummer with the highly influential post-punk rock group Joy Division. The band consisted of Ian Curtis on vocals, Bernard Sumner on guitar, Peter Hook on bass, and of course Stephen Morris on drums. With their dark sound, use of distorted guitars, throbbing bass lines, and electronics, they pioneered the post-punk sound of the late 1970s.

Stephen Morris used what could be described as quite extensive drum kit set up to achieve a great range of rolls, rhythm shifts and beats. Morris was an active drummer, especially on the tracks “She’s Lost Control” and “Transmission” where the pounding insistent beat fuelled Curtis’ gyrations. Morris also used Simmonds and Synare electronic drumpads and a BOSS DR-55 drum machine on the songs “Insight,” “She’s Lost Control,” “Isolation,” and “Decades”, in combination with conventional drums to broaden the tonal palette.
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Anthony “Tony” McCarroll was one of the founding members of English rock group Oasis, as their drummer from 1991 to May 1995.

Born in Levenshulme, Manchester, England, McCarroll joined pre-Oasis incarnation The Rain in 1990, replacing their drum machine, and linking up with rhythm guitarist Paul Arthurs, bassist Paul McGuigan and singer Chris Hutton. Hutton was later sacked, and replaced by Liam Gallagher. Liam’s brother Noel soon joined with a bag full of songs that were to make Oasis famous.

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Larry Mullen Jr. was born 31st of October 1961 in Artane, Dublin, Ireland and is best known as the drummer for the Irish rock outfit known as U2.

Raised in Artane, a suburb of Dublin City located on the north side of the city, Larry was the only son of three children fo Larry Mullen Snr. and Maureen Mullen who was killed in a car accident in 1978.
As a child, Larry’s parents decided it would be a good idea for their only son to take up a musical instrument and thus began his first foray into music which began with pain lessons, however it did not take very long for Larry to realise he preferred being behind a drum kit than a piano. So, at the age of 9, Larry received his first drum kit.

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Alan John Wren born on 10 April 1964, in Manchester, England better known as Reni, was the drummer of the ever influential rock band The Stone Roses from 1984 to 1995.

Reni is considered by many to be one of the best drummers of his generation, and quite possibly the “single most important drummer in UK indie circles” according to Rhythm magazine in 2004, he is also credited as being a “genius drummer” on John Squire’s official Web site, and according to former Hacienda General Manager Howard Jones he, “played the drums like Hendrix played the guitar.” His laid-back style of off-beat rhythms was influential in bringing about the blend of indie and dance music that formed much of the Manchester or Madchester (as it would become known) sound of the day.

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“I play the drums,” says John Densmore, with tangible pride.

He may be be laboring the obvious, considering that, as the rhythmic engine of The Doors, he’s responsible for some of the most famous beats in rock history. But Densmore still bristles at what he calls the “dumb drummer” stereotype.

“The drum was the first fucking instrument,” he declares. “The reason people move and dance is that they’re trying to get back to that heartbeat. It’s the heartbeat you hear in the womb that started the whole deal. An orchestra, a four-piece rock band, whatever it is, they’re trying to get back to that heartbeat.”

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Philip “Phil” James Selway (born May 23, 1967 in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England) is the drummer of Radiohead. His precise timing and varied drumming helps to give the band its distinct sound. He is a year older than the other members in the band and people think he’s unkind because he’s bald. Of course it’s not true, but that’s why the other members of the band call him Bald Member (~bandmember). He joined Radiohead because their primitive drum computer broke down and they couldn’t afford a new one. Before Radiohead became succesful, Phil studied English and history at Liverpool Polytechnic. He had worked for various touring musicians and worked as an English teacher as well. Phil has a wife, Kate, and three sons: Leo, Jamie, and Patrick (to whom Kid A, Amnesiac, and Hail to the Thief were dedicated, respectively).

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Brian Downey (born 27 January 1951, in Dublin, Ireland), is an Irish drummer.

He is best known for co-founding the rock band Thin Lizzy; along with bassist-singer Phil Lynott, he was the only constant member of the pioneering hard rock group. Downey also co-wrote many Thin Lizzy songs. Critic Ed Rivadavia argues that Downey was “certainly one of the most underrated [rock drummers] of his generation.”

Brian Downey - Before Thin Lizzy.

Before forming Thin Lizzy, Downey and Lynott were in numerous bands together, including The Black Eagles and Orphanage. Upon meeting guitarist Eric Bell, the trio formed Thin Lizzy. For the next thirteen years Downey was the band’s permanent drummer, as well as drumming on Lynott’s solo albums. He was originally to play drums for Grand Slam, Lynott’s band after Lizzy, but opted out due to personal problems with the band’s music and the people Lynott became associated with.

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