Ian Palmer

Ian Palmer – ‘The World’s Greatest Drummer’ Event

For the past 3 years ‘The World’s Greatest Drummer’ event has been possible because of the hard work and determination of Ian Palmer and like minded drummers around him. This annual event is held in the Midlands and the draws a host of drummers, intent on paying tribute to yesteryear drumset heroes such as Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa and Louie Bellson. All in all, they celebrate music that inspires and shapes their own careers. Ian has had a bumpy ride through his career, taking on one or two personal challenges in order to rekindle his own flame of belief. This ultimately has driven his passion for the art form.

Ian took time out to talk about ‘The World’s Greatest Drummer’ and his own developing drumming career.

At what age did you start and what turn you on to drumming?

It was around 1986 at the age of ten. My first memory of getting into drumming was a video I saw of my uncle, Carl Palmer (drummer for bands Emerson Lake & Palmer and Asia) playing with ELP at the Montreal Olympic Stadium in 1977. It was one of those defining moments where I thought, “This is what I want to do”. My other main reason for playing is Steve (Palmer) my other uncle. He is a fantastic teacher and most notably was Karl Brazil’s teacher. He was the resident drummer at Ronnie Scott’s club in Birmingham for many years too and was a huge source of inspiration on me. So, I had very good and strong family influences while I was growing up.

Who was your teacher?

Originally I studied with Malcolm Garrett who I believe possesses one of the finest drumset hand techniques in this country. He was very close to the late Jim Chapin and to me, a fantastic influence and friend. At the age of seventeen I went to America to study with Joe Morello, Peter Erskine and later with Jeff Hamilton in Los Angeles. Peter and Jeff both work with the fantastic American Jazz vocalist and pianist Diana Krall. My attitude has always been to seek the best teachers I can find and learn from each. Another great teacher and inspiration was Dom Famularo. I was fortunate enough to support Dom on tour in my formative years and in fact, Pete Ray Biggin and I both supported Dom as kids on that tour! That was so much fun! He was a great influence on a number of levels and the first person who made me realise, “Hey, there’s more to life than drums”. He was so right - “it’s important to be happy in doing what you’re doing”. That’s a lesson that has always stuck with me ever since.

Every teacher I’ve had has been very diverse in style. I hope I’ve taken this, put my experiences and their influences into a melting pot and come up with something unique and identifiable as my own. I find many drummers fall into the trap of holding their influences on their sleeve and consequently, all end up sounding the same. I am continually searching for something - my personal calling card. This can get quite deep but it’s vital to my playing and development. I need to progress and never look back. I continually discover and attempt to evaluate and explore new ideas and concepts. I’m continually evaluating my own playing. It’s my musical DNA, it’s honest importantly it’s me. There is a startling connection on many levels between human personality and musical personality.

How did your drumming career develop from the formative years to where it is right now?

I started out with a total jazz background. In my early years I played with youth jazz orchestras, specifically the Midlands Youth Jazz Orchestra. The name I always felt belied their true ability. Coincidentally, drummers Chris Dagley, Pete Cater and Neil Bullock also cut their teeth with this Orchestra. Dr John Ruddick who led the Orchestra is a great leader and  trumpet player and got every drummer that played with this Orchestra to play for the music. “Ego left outside and music first!” 

I’ve always had a love for jazz and recently performed alongside Steve Smith at a drum event. He spoke many truths and is so perceptive. One thing he said which struck a chord with me was that a lot of today’s great drummers have a jazz background. Vinnie Colaiuta, Steve Gadd, Gary Novak, Keith Carlock all have a jazz background but also reside well in contemporary genres too. So originally, my background was mainly jazz but then finances dictated that I became more involved with gigs and sessions in all genres. This created a lot of pressure and things got a little dark when I was confronted with a few personal nightmares and my career nose-dived in the process. Through a further twist of fate, I was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2000. This was the final act in an otherwise messy chapter! It knocked me for six and drained me. I remember lying there after surgery thinking ‘I’ve had enough’. This was so sad having used all my energy trying to succeed in my career.

I decided to have a total change of career and for a couple of years learned how to fly aeroplanes. I had always loved the idea of flying and was fascinated by aeroplanes. Strangely this was great therapy. As they say, a change really was as good as a rest. I recovered from the brain tumour and was getting back to sorting my life out. However, post 9/11 proved difficult to secure a job as a pilot. There were no jobs for so I ended up slowly getting back into music, it was and is always in the blood.

One of the drummers who helped me to get back on track was Jon Brookes (The Charlatans). Jon is my drumming buddy, a close friend who lives about a mile away from me. Jon told me that he remembered me from an interview in Rhythm magazine years ago there were also some lessons that where published in the magazine around that time. This was around 1992 and I was the spotty kid! They kind of over did it with the reporting of my career around this time, slightly embarrassing looking back. Jon is such a positive influence and he is a real inspirational – down to earth. He is the only person I know who once put doing his laundry before going to the Rolling Stones after-show at Twickenham having just supported them! He is so humble and understated, I love this about him. He felt he could not let any modicum of talent I possess go to waste. He started throwing a few ideas and gigs my way to entice me back in music. Bit by bit, over eight years, I started my career all over again but it’s heart warming to know people remember me from before my illness. I feel I’ve almost had two music careers and I’m now back playing full on. I feel blessed that I was able to survive and can now press ahead with my life work.

The lesson I discovered is that I’m not focussed on success in terms of fame and fortune. I’m happy to be alive and I love my work, drums, my family and as a consequence, I feel more successful as a musician. My focus is on higher things; just loving what I do is enough. I have a lot of people around me now who enable me to strike a balance – Liz (Stanley), Roy (Adams), Jon (Brookes), Whitey, Pete (Cater), Carl (Palmer), Steve (Palmer), Karl (Brazil), Chris and Nicole (Payne) from the Birmingham Drum Centre, Malcolm (Garrett) have all been a great source of support – this is the big stuff in life! My Mum and Dad have always been there for me and are totally supportive. All my family are a great source of strength and this enhances my career. We have the biggest family get-togethers and when Carl, Steve and I get together you’d think the topic is music. It’s really not! It’s 95% family and 5% music. It’s been a huge life lesson, which taught me to concentrate on being a better human being, this allows things to fall into place, I do believe in karma! I’m not as desperate to succeed now. I focus on just two things now, being a good person and being a good artist!

Your passion for drumming is very evident and you’ve formulated different projects to promote the art of drumming in all its forms, one being The World’s Greatest Drummer. Tell me more about that?

The World’s Greatest Drummer concerts started out as a chat between Jon Brookes and myself. We used to go to a pub, have a couple of beers (and sometimes more!) and talk about drums, drums and err crap also... in fact we still do mainly! We both got into drumming for drumming sake! Geeky? I know! As time went on those evenings expanded into what we call ‘Drummer’s Night’ and my local community of drummers and in fact a number Birmingham based musician friends would come over and hang out and watch music DVD’s with our tongues hanging out which was a great vibe. Just loving music and drums, well for the reasons we love it!

We came up with a cunning plan and decided it would be a great idea to get together and do a concert playing the big band music that we heard, mainly because we never get the opportunity to play it now. It’s obviously not a new idea, Cathy Rich initiated the Buddy Rich Memorial Concerts years ago and this is thoroughly documented on DVD. The World’s Greatest Drummer is effectively a glorified drummer’s hang and after 25 years of playing drums, the music world gets to be a whole lot smaller. It might not be the biggest drum event in the world but it is a very classy ‘boutique’ like affair with a really warm atmosphere! It’s amazing who comes along to these concerts. Not just drummers but lots of diverse friends in the music industry. There is always a stack of food and drink backstage! It’s not just a concert but people come and hang out for the whole day. It’s really sociable! It’s gone from “Drummer’s night at Palmer’s” to a drummer’s day with an Orchestra and audience. You should get to know your audience demographic but we really don’t! Drummers, fans of this music, fans of this style of music, literally every comes along, it’s really diverse. It obviously works - but why? I’m grateful but I’m sure not going to analyse it! People come along to enjoy the music and pay their respects to drumming legends and experience something different.

With the passing of Louie recently, a huge influence on us all and now 100 years since the birth of Gene Krupa, this year we’re incorporating not just Buddy Rich but also Louie Bellson and Gene Krupa’s influence too. It will be a retro yet modern event. This year features my old chums Neal Wilkinson (James Morrison), Jeremy Stacey (Sheryl Crow), my close friend and WGD mainstay Steve White, my old friend from home Karl Brazil (Robbie Williams), another old friend originally from the Midlands, Pete Cater and Roy Adams, my close friend who plays with Roy Wood and the Climax Blues Band. He was also the drummer with Ruby Turner. It’s really great that drummers are up for doing this, it’s not a financial thing but it’s good for our profiles... not that these drummers need it! It’s fun and we have the un-written rules of - no competition, no billing and a complete level playing field in every sense... oh, and no hole in the front bass drum head! It’s all happening on the Sunday 4th October at the Garrick Theatre, Lichfield.

I have to mention Liz Stanley again, my partner in crime. She helps me put this whole thing together, I wouldn’t have been able to put it together without someone else helping as there is so much going on. She’s helped over the past 3 years and knows all of the drummers. I call her the “World’s Greatest Drummer pin up”, ha, ha! She speaks drums more than me now and knows all the latest gossip, even before me! She picks up the pieces and keeps everything on an even footing in every way. Through the event we all support a charity, Teenage Cancer Trust. I saw their DVD promoting the charity and I was so touched – it really affected me. It brought me to tears. These kids are suffering and many are dying. The video showed a boy and a girl going through treatment – you could see TCT in action. In the end they died but at least their final journey was more comfortable than it might otherwise have been. I know all about hospitals and treatment having suffered a brain tumour combined with chemical meningitis myself – I know what it is like to feel that you might die. I was 23 and not much older. TCT’s aim is to make life as comfortable as possible under the stress of treatment, which can last for years. Though being a teenager is such a small part of our life span, it’s one of the most important and impressionable times; it’s where we really start to learn life lessons. TCT build units that are just for teenagers to support them through their cancer treatment and aid their recovery. Importantly they research this disease and lobby and I personally think make a difference. I have chosen this charity - I believe in it. Every drummer that has played in the World’s Greatest Drummer concert over the last few years has been blessed with their talent and success; I really feel we should all be thankful and use that to give something back. We are all so lucky, I’m grateful and I realise this every day.

How long has this been running?

This year is the 3rd year the concert has been running. It started at The Lichfield Garrick Theatre, and then went to Town Hall, Birmingham last year. Both years saw audiences come from all over the UK. The first year sold out and featured Steve White, Ian Paice (Deep Purple), Jon Brookes (The Charlatans), Garry Allcock, Neil Bullock, Pete Cater and myself. Last year featured Gary Husband (John McLauglin, Level 42), Steve White, Darrin Mooney (Primal Scream), Karl Brazil, Pete Cater and myself.  Additionally, I recently recorded a DVD with Gary Husband playing electric piano and Laurence Cottle playing electric bass. They are two amazingly talented musicians. The DVD is available on Lick Library and is called ‘Drumset, Freedom and Creation’. It’s part tutorial and part performance. The DVD covers various aspects that make up the modern drumset musician.

I know that you’re also taking the role as a producer on different projects and technology today has played a primary role in music today. What importance would you place on technology as part of a drummer’s learning curve?

Anything you have as ammunition that can find you extra sources of work is a benefit. I’ve been working as a drummer and producer for a while now but I didn’t know Pro Tools from Logic from Cubase for years! I found that actually being a drummer is almost not enough. My uncle, Carl is fortunate in that most of the time he’s paddled his own canoe and it’s largely been his project. Very few musicians are as fortunate; it’s competitive being the hired hand! Anything extra you bring to a project is a bonus. I love playing jazz in small clubs but there’s no money in it. It would be a struggle for a drummer to sustain a living doing that. It’s become evident that musicians have other strings to their bow these days but I guess that’s true for many occupations. It’s competitive, especially the way the economy is. I’ve gone from playing drums with Georgie Fame and Alan Skidmore to recent projects like producing The Christians and a movie soundtrack with Geoff Gascoyne. I can run a studio and produce and that’s really fun. I’m really into the technology side of it, but technology serves a purpose, which is to bring out something creative and musical. The focus has to be with creating art, whether it’s a demo for a young band or a full-blown album. This is a great example I can share with you.

I started working with a young band recently called The Tantrums, doing some development and production work. The drummer with that band not only played drums to a fantastic level but suited the band perfectly. The point that blew me away was the technology they utilised and how they used it. From the sequencing software, there were various sounds going on and the drummer was controlling all of this. If you can imagine the drumset were oils and the cymbals are crayons, he had other things like magic markers and spray paint to draw a big sonic picture. The whole bag, using drums, the voice together with the electronics was beautiful. He was able to control and trigger from the drumset, I was really impressed. You have to get the balance right with production on every level. As Peter Erskine once said, “Sometimes it can be like bad wallpaper. You look at it for 2 seconds and you think that looks interesting, the detail the colour BUT after a while it annoys you!” You have to be selective and not go out with your biggest guns all the time. You can end up leaving the impression of ‘look at me, look at what I can do!’ That’s a bunch of old crap! Serve the music, serve the music, music is first every time! After all that tech stuff it’s great to come back to something organic like The World’s Greatest Drummer.

Based on your experience, what would be the advice you could share with an upcoming drummer?

I’ve gained experience through messing up... I’ve probably made more mistakes than anyone! I’ve learnt that to project yourself through this business, focus on people skills and focus on being yourself as an artist and as a person. Try and find your own thing. I quite often turn things down only because I find it’s not quite me. I’ve got quite a clear focus on who I am and where I want to go as a musician. A young drummer said to me recently, “When do you know when you’ve made it?” I’m thinking “What?” I don’t consider that I’ve made it but I know I don’t really care, that’s not my focus. Realistically, a musician’s profile can go up and down over the course of their career. The only answer to this question in truly ‘making it’ is being able to earn a living doing what you enjoy doing and being happy about it! A well rounded person, who plays great, avoids abuse in all its forms, is enthusiastic, easy going and fun and who push themselves. They should realise the importance of reliability. Always shows up on time, return the calls and emails, have time for people. It looks professional and it’s a healthy approach, making you immediately employable. You then need a good dose of luck! That said, I don’t know of anyone that has really, really wanted to succeed as a professional musician and hasn’t.

What’s on the horizon and where do you go from here?

Well, currently my live output is about 10% and my studio output is about 90%. I would like to redress the balance in the future though. I love the spontaneity of live but I have something to show for my effort in the studio. I have an album coming out with an Australian singer/songwriter, Tahnee McKay. She’s an immensely talented all rounder – a surfer, a model for Rip Curl, a regional Australian tennis champion and importantly for me a great person and artist. I’m working with singer/songwriter Ben Drummond, Universal artist Peter Grant on his forthcoming release and soundtrack, the promotion of my DVD with Gary Husband and The Christians latest offering. I recently performed with award winning pianist Liam Noble and New York bassist Michael Janisch. I have been working on a movie soundtrack with Jamie Cullum’s bassist Geoff Gascoyne and I have a live album in the pipeline recorded earlier in year with Georgie Fame and Alan Skidmore in Berlin at the Philharmonic Hall. In addition, I also do a small amount of private tuition. I’m the Senior First Officer on the Airbus 320 and 321 for Monarch Airlines and there is the small issue of organising 2010’s The World’s Greatest Drummer. There is definitely enough to be going on with, trust me!

Equipment:

Cymbals: Zildjian
Sticks: Vic Firth
Heads: Remo
Cases: Protection Racket

For more information: www.ianpalmer.com and www.palmerlive.co.uk

Interview Jerome Marcus