Nicko McBrain's Drum Tech

[niacin]

Без коментар (от DVD History of Iron Maiden)

[TONY]

Up THE IRONS!

(За мен) IRON MAIDEN СА НАЙ-ВЕЛИКАТА РОК ГРУПА ЗА ВСИЧКИ ВРЕМЕНА.

 

NICKO McBRAIN за разлика от много барабанисти( вкл и много/до ултра технически развити), не просто държи верният ритъм, А МУЗИЦИРА. (и то по начин, по който не много барабанисти го могат, независимо в какъв стил свирят)

 

По принцип нищо в живота не е случайно, а факта че Стив Гад е дръм теч на Нико,

подкрепя това което казвам. Вероятно Стив вече да е стар за активна музикантска дейстност и е избрал,

да помага на този, който най- много заслужава.

[Sasho_Crasho]

Тони, много се надявам този ти пост да е провокиран от съществуването на понятието "петък вечер" в ежедневието на българина и съпътстващите го ритуали (да се чете "пиене на ракийца"), но си написал много голяма глупост.

Или някой хакер ти бърника в акаунта?

[Telerig]

Тони се е пообъркал ...стават такива работи...

[blr]

A drum tech-a на Steve Gadd се казва Yard Gavrilovich. Айде иди сега и разбери какво става в тази тема .

[niacin]

Ха,ха... Много забавно става. Я да сложа един disclaimer както се казва (поне за защита на младото поколение): този Стив Гад от снимката, не е Ония Стив Гад - дето като него втори няма и да се роди. Както казва Томи Айго - "If you don't know who Steve Gadd is... Immediately find out!"

 

Ама все пак - егати съвпадението.

 

Иначе Нико много го харесвам. Много. И според мен като Тони е недооценен. Да не говорим, че неговия десен крак е светкавица...

[TONY]

Хубаво, ниацина ме хвана за ейприл фул 15 дни по-рано.

От друга страна, дори и по-известният барабанист Сит Гад да бе станал на стари години теч на Нико, пак би било в реда на нещата. Май онзи синдром " комплексарски бг поглед върху света" не е преминал въпреки 22-те години.

Рано или късно трябва да разберете, че тези неща на запад са нормални.

Музиката е едно цяло, а стиловете са различен начин на изразяване.

Джаза не е привилигирована музика и билет за превъзходство.

Просто във всеки стил си има хора стигнали максимума, а някой са толкова уникални, че просто няма друг на тази планета, който да може да ги замести.

 

 

Ето как точно седят нещата

(вероятно съм знаел за английски адаш, ама съм забравил, толкова много инфо ни залива)

An Interview with Gaddsy

 

Posted by The Saint on December 29, 2004 @ 16:06

Krechetalo (Кречетало), a TV show on Sofia Music Enterprises in Blugaria ran an interview with Steve Gadd, the famous Iron Maiden road manager known under the nick Gaddsy, on November 30, during the current W.A.S.P. tour:

 

Interviewer: Steve, how long have you benn working with W. A. S. P.?

Steve Gadd: This is my first tour with W. A. S. P. as their tour manager. I’ve worked with them when they were supporting Iron Maiden in the 80s, because I work mainly for Iron Maiden and this is my first tour with W. A. S. P., it began 5-6 weeks ago.

 

I: And how is it going, up to now?

SG: It’s very hectic. We began the tour in Milan with a bus, and we used to pack everyone in it, but then, as it was impossible to go on with a bus, because we were travelling very far, we went back home and then started to travel by plane. In November, for exaple, we had three gigs one after another, in Estonia, Sankt Peterburg, Warsaw and Frankfurt – four actually. It’s very tough. People often think we live a glamorous life but people who actually work in the business know that this is not true.

 

I: Did you choose W. A. S. P. or they chose you?

SG: I was proposed by Sanctuary Music, because Blackie’s was Rod Smalwood. And then Sanctuary called me and asked would I like to go on tour with W. A. S. P., or would I talk to Blackie and Blackie phoned me to ask… do I wanna do it, so, they chose me.

 

I: How old are you?

SG: (Laughs.) I’m not commenting on that now.

 

I: OK, so, we asked you this because the next question is: what part of your life have you spent on tour?

SG: I’ve been on the road since I was a musician myself in 1970 and made seven albums. But that band split in 1981 and I started as a technician in Iron Maiden in 1984, and worked on the Powerslave album. Namely I was a Nicko McBrain’s drum technic for 12 years. Anyway, Sanctuary Music sent me off to work with Iron Maiden. They were good friends of mine, but that had nothing to do with the job, if I’d been just a friend I wouldn’t have got the job. They called me in 1996 to make the Virtual XI tour with them. So I’ve been on the road since, let me think, 25 to 30 years.

 

I: Steve, you’re somehow very… English.

SG: Yeah, I’m from London.

 

I: So which is your favourite sport – rugby or football?

SG: Football. I don’t play very well myself, but I like watching any football on TV.

 

I: Which is your favourite team?

SG: Arsenal. I used to go and see their games but actually I haven’t seen them for years. The last game I saw, Arsenal played Everton, home. Arsenal had just sold two of their best players, I don’t remember their names, Leam Brady and someone else. And we drew 0-0 at home versus Everton and then I thought “I’ll never go to see foolball games anymore” and I really haven’t, since then.

 

I: We asked you about football because it’s interesting whether you find any similarities between being a football team manager and a rock band manager.

SG: It’s interesting that you ask this because I was the manager of the Iron Maiden football team, and both somehow look like a… massive military operation. In the same way a football team manager makes sure that everything is all right with his team. You, from the spectators’ viewpoint, can’t quite feel this. But I must say that Iron Maiden has fantastic audience, everywhere in the world, and we’ve never had problems with the audience of Iron Maiden. The ordinary guys are a bit scared when they see leather jackets and see that everything is very… heavy metal, you know. I think, the most… unruly fans. But a great audience. Because I don’t work only with metal bands, as a tour manager. I do hip-hop tours, for example. Still not as much as metal tours, but still that gives me the opportunity to see that metal fans are great.

 

I: And which is the next big tour for you?

SG: Iron Maiden.

 

I: Do you still play the drums?

SG: […] Playing drums is like riding a bike, yes, it’s like riding a bike – it can’t be forgotten. Yeah, I do find time but sometimes this happens once in two years. Sometimes I do, I go with Nicko sometimes and do drum clinics, which I was doing seriously in the past. But now, as I’m getting older, it’s in the past, I do it only for fun.

 

I: Have you met the other Steve Gadd?

SG: You know, this is a very good question. I’ll tell you one story, a true story. Quite a time ago I was playing in a bang called Charlie, and we were staying at the Sunset Marquee hotel in Los Angeles. We were on tour, I think, with Dooby Brothers. 1978, there’s a pool in the middle of the hotel and small speakers around. We’re sitting around the pool and suddenly a voice says “There’s a phone call for Steve Gadd.” And there were the two of us who went to the phone. I didn’t know Steve Gadd then, I got to know him later, when we were working with Steely Dan. But then both of us went to the phone. And later there was a small article in the American magazine “Billboard,” which said “The American Steve Gadd keeps getting phone calls from girls, while the English Steve Gadd,” me, “is called only for recording.” That’s a true story.

 

I: And who was that call for?

SG: It was for me, and it was a girl. I met his brother once in New York, years later. But it’s fun that I nearly got to work for him as a drum technician while he was a drummer with Eric Clapton. That would be really interesting

 

drum tech Yard Gavrilovic

 

We pick up sticks with leading drum tech Yard Gavrilovic, who's been working closely with Steve Gadd, one of America's greatest living drummers, for the past 12 years.

Matt Frost

 

Photo: Andrew Lepley/Redferns

If you choose to raise the subject of truly great drummers with any serious sticksman, it's not long before the name Steve Gadd will pop into the conversation. The session legend, who first rose to fame towards the end of the '70s, has graced the records and concerts of artistes as diverse as Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, BB King, James Brown, Steely Dan, Eric Clapton, Dr John and George Benson. And for the last 12 years, Gadd has been counting on the drum teching expertise of Yard Gavrilovic, a man who's had a life as colourful and fascinating as Steve himself.

Between the ages of 15 and 24, Yard played in various small London outfits, working hard to try and break it through to the big time. But with a young family to feed and clothe, he opted out of his dreams of stardom and instead carried on as a carpenter and joiner, eventually setting up his own building company at the age of 23 and playing when he could. All the while, he continued both his love for the instrument and his associations with his London muso mates, and in the mid-'80s Yard was handed his first teching job for the rock band FM, whom his brother-in-law, Andy Barnett, played guitar with.

After staying with FM for five or six years, Yard began working for various heavy rock acts on the Sanctuary Music roster through Iron Maiden's Adrian Smith, before getting a rather nice call in the mid-'90s from old friend Zak Starkey, who'd just been handed the drum stool for the Who. "Zak called me up when he got the Who gig," remembers Yard. "That was the catalyst of when it took off really, to the bigger arenas. It was that simple break through knowing Zak and him taking me along for the ride."

 

Vintage build

Until just a few years ago, Yard Gavrilovic was still running the balance between teching for a slew of top drummers including Simon Kirke, Ginger Baker, Zak Starkey and Steve Gadd, while also falling back on his building business. In tandem with all this, Yard had built up a rather tasty collection of vintage drums, leading him to a bit of a brainwave.

"I decided a few years ago that I didn't really want to do building anymore, even though two of my sons are still in it and my workshop is fully operational," says Yard. "I thought if I did a nice little drum store where you deal in vintage gear and have it as a boutique, rather than a general drum shop where people drop in wanting to buy modern gear, I could specialise through my knowledge and collection of drums. And that's what we've done with Vintage Drum Yard. We cater more for the individual, rather than drummers off the street. We supply a lot of the world's best drummers, and for film and TV we specialise in recreating authentic kits for different periods, because you can't have a '90s kit with a '60s act. We have to recreate everything — the stands, the whole kit, the colours.

We specialise in drum re-covering and restoration, and we hire drums more than we do sales. We can provide original parts and so restore kits back to their original form. As a joiner, there's nothing I can't do really as regards to repairing any wood items. It is generally being practically minded and having a deep love of drums. It's not about the money; it's about the satisfaction when you turn a kit around!"

And with the kind of legendary clientele Vintage Drum Yard so regularly attract, Yard Gavrilovic certainly manages to turn around some truly legendary kits. "I just did one of Ginger Baker's for Steve Winwood," he enthuses. "It's actually on Ginger's Ginger Baker In Africa DVD and it's an old brushed silver Hayman early '70s kit. It was Ginger's kit and he gave it to Steve Winwood as a present, and Steve had it in his barn down at his property in Gloucestershire. When we toured last year, he said, 'Oh, I've got a kit I might get you to do. Ginger gave it to me, but it's got lots of missing parts!' So he dropped it off to me and I restored it, replacing all the parts that were missing, and tuned it up for him. I saw Winwood the other night at Shepherd's Bush Empire. He said he loves it and it's gonna be his studio kit. I managed to put it back exactly as it was and it's nice. It's a piece of history!"

 

Steve's setup

 

Steve Gadd has used the same core drum kit for both live and studio work for many years.

Steve Gadd has used the same core drum kit for both live and studio work for many years.

As well as running Vintage Drum Yard and currently teching for various drummers including Abe Laboriel Jr, Ginger Baker and, of course, Steve Gadd (Martin, one of Yard's sons, now techs for Zak Starkey), Yard also enjoys a spot of production management, counting Annie Lennox and Will Young amongst his clients in this alternative touring capacity. "When I'm doing production, I love doing drums, and when I'm doing drums, I love doing production," laughs Yard. "It just depends really what comes up, so I flip between the two. Generally with the bigger acts, you know six months to a year before you're due out, so you can duck and dive!"

Yard's most recent drum teching work for Steve Gadd came during the early part of this year when they did the Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton US tour together. As has been the case for a very long time, Gadd still uses the same core kit for both live and in the studio. In fact, Yard holds one of Gadd's kits at Vintage Drum Yard for whenever he flies over for any UK session work, and again this is exactly the same setup. "Steve's one of these classic drummers who never changes anything unless there's a reason for it," says Yard. "He uses the same setup apart from just switching the toms depending on what music he's playing. It's the same Yamaha black kit he's used for years. He has a 22-inch bass drum, which is maple. Then he has a 10-inch and a 12-inch rack tom, and a 14-inch and a 16-inch. They're all in birch ply for more attack. His snare is the Yamaha Steve Gadd Custom 14 x 5.5-inch with wood hoops."

The occasional change to the kit will come with the toms. "He's got a 10-inch and a 12-inch tom, and also a 13-inch, so he can switch to a 12-inch and a 13-inch if it's more of a rock feel," Yard explains. "That's the only change he makes, and then he tunes either higher or lower depending on the music. He tunes his kit to suit the music he's playing!"

 

Tuned and ready

 

Yard Gavrilovic at soundcheck in Santiago.

Yard Gavrilovic at soundcheck in Santiago.

When Yard Gavrilovic is tuning Steve Gadd's kit, he does what he would with any drummer he's working for — try and get inside his head. "Basically, you have to get into the mind of the person you're working for, because everyone that you work for will want to hear something different," says Yard. "It could be the pitch of the snare. It could be different heads. Gadd striking his drum will sound totally different from someone else playing it. It's all in the body and it's all in the way you play. You can tune a kit the same as Gadd's and put someone else on it, but they will never recreate the sound he gets. Tuning, for me, is really when they turn up and they say, 'This is my kit and this is the way I tune it.' And then you have to recreate that every day, because you're working for them and they're not working for you, and if they don't like the sound it'll be hard for them to play it!"

Steve Gadd does tend to vary his Zildjian cymbal selection depending on how he feels and what is available. "Steve has been using the Class Orchestra Series for crashes, and he uses a K Custom Dark ride," explains Yard. "Then he'll use a 16-inch Rivet cymbal just above the hats and sometimes he'll use a china, but it depends on the songs they pick out to do. Then he'll use an 18-inch or a 16-inch china and a couple of crashes, like a Custom Thin crash. He used to use K Dry Light rides and that sort of thing, but I think they've gone out the window now."

When it comes to hats, Steve Gadd still regularly uses the pair he bought around 40 years ago, even though wear and tear is starting to take its toll. "He's got a pair of hats that he bought back in New York in the '60s and they're on every recording he's ever done," says Yard. "But the top one's keyholed where it's been worn out. Zildjian actually developed some Gadd hats a little while ago, but he still favours his old ones. He'll use the new ones over here for records, but generally on tour he'll use the ones he's happy with. He still hits them now and says, 'Doesn't that sound great?' and that's after 40 years. That's what I like about him. We get stuff from Zildjian and Yamaha, and what we don't need he just sends back, and that's a good sign. When I worked with Ginger, he had a lot of cymbals sent from Zildjian when we arrived from New York and he just went, 'Nah, I've got my cymbals!' and sent the whole lot back. The good thing about them is they know what they like and as soon as they get it they don't want anything else."

 

Drum heads

 

"Steve's one of these classic drummers who never changes anything unless there's a reason for it."

"Steve's one of these classic drummers who never changes anything unless there's a reason for it."

Photo: Andrew Lepley/Redferns

Heads-wise, Steve Gadd again knows exactly what he likes and knows exactly what they sound like to boot. "Steve uses Ambassador Coated on the toms, a clear Pinstripe on the bass drum, and on the snare he uses the PS3 Coated with a Diplomat snare bottom head," says Yard. "If you put an Ambassador one on the bottom, he can tell the difference. I pulled one out by mistake, thinking it'd just be a Diplomat, and he noticed during the gig! How he did that I'll never know, because the thickness difference is minimal, but he said, 'I'm not getting enough out of the snare!'"

Yard Gavrilovic only changes the heads on Gadd's kit when Steve says he wants him to. "I always leave it to the guy to tell me, because if I change it they could go, 'Oh, they were sounding good!'" explains Yard. "So we have this thing where if a head's really bad and all dented, we don't change all of them. He might get up after the gig and say, 'Let's just change the 12,' and then that's all you'll do. Some people seem to think that if one head goes you have to change all of them, but you don't!"

Gadd particularly likes to keep the snare head on right until the point it breaks. "Generally, he'll lean over and he'll say to me, 'You might want to get the spare up in a minute,'" explains Yard. 'He'll rub it with his hands and he'll say, 'We're alright for another song.' Then after that song, you'll go to change it and he'll say, 'No, let's leave it for a minute. It's sounding good!' Then it'll pop mid song. But he's professional enough. He'll just take his hand up and play the tom instead of the snare while I change it over. I just flick it out, put the other one in, put the mic back down and then get out of his way quick. And he'll then just drop back on the snare, really calm about it.

It's the same if the bass drum beater goes. He'll move his right foot over to his left double pedal and will carry on playing. Then, when I've switched the beater round and taken out the broken stem, he just switches back and carries on playing and never drops a beat. It's just his amazing confidence without being arrogant. He's such a nice guy as well as a great player."

Yard has also learned a nifty little head changing trick from Gadd during their years working together. "You put the head on, you centre it and you put the hoops on, but you can't do this with wooden hoops, because you'll end up busting the hoops," he explains. "What I'll do is crank it right up so you hear the head crack and all the glue is giving way. I stretch it and then I'll leave it for a while, go have a cup of coffee, come back, detune it, and then tune it up. After that, you don't get all the dents and dings in it that you get if it hasn't been stretched enough. If you don't do that, as soon as you start playing it, you start stretching it and it'll go out of tune. It just stays in tune longer and settles the head properly."

 

Sticks and metronomes

As far as drumsticks go, Steve currently has his own custom Vic Firth series. "He uses the Vic Firth Steve Gadd range, which are black," says Yard. "We generally have them sanded, which takes a little bit of lacquer off so they don't slip. They now do clear tips as well, but the heads still go black for some reason."

An extra piece of kit on the stage comes in the form of a metronome, which Steve Gadd will briefly utilise during the slower songs in any given set. "For certain really slow songs, I'll switch the metronome on while he's playing and then turn it off when he's kicked them off after a bar or so," Yard says. "If you go from a fast song to a slow one, he may just want to make sure he's in the right time. I'll start it while he's finishing off the last one, and he'll just look at the light and then count them in."

When Yard is on tour with Gadd and Clapton, the daily routine usually stays pretty much the same. "When I'm working with him, I'll get up, go and have a shower and go and have breakfast," explains Yard. "Then we'll start around midday, which gives them time to get the lights up in the air. We get the risers out on stage and start setting up. Then I'll tweak all the drums before I put them up at the back of the riser. We mike them all up and leave the sound crew to that. Then we do a soundcheck, and that's where I show Steve how to really play them! The band crew do the soundcheck, and then the band turn up and go straight on. They don't soundcheck — only on the very first day of a tour or if there's something that's unsettled them the night before."

Cleaning is kept to a bare minimum when it comes to Steve Gadd's kit. "I never ever use cymbal cleaner with Steve," says Yard. "It's just a case of a bit of furniture polish to wipe the fingerprints off. If he turned up and all his cymbals were shiny and back to nature, he would go nuts, because that's where the sound comes from. Never use cymbal cleaner. If you need to do it, use Ginger's method, which is to use warm, soapy water like in the old days, just to get the dirt out of the grooves. On the shells, we just use a bit of furniture polish too, a duster to get into the hard corners where the dust collects on top of all the hardware fittings and around the lugs, and that's it really."

 

Always alert

When it's time for the band to finally take the stage, it's the day's most testing time for Yard; a time when he has to be as vigilant as humanly possible to make sure Steve Gadd's performance is not interrupted by any problems with the gear.

"Basically, I have a chair right behind his riser, as low down as can be behind the wedge," explains Yard. "I'm visible to the crowd, but not from the front where all the camera angles are. You do get to know everything he plays, and I'll have certain markings on the set list to know when to operate the metronome or when to do something else. Then it's just staying alert. Your eyes are following his playing around the kit so you're looking at the bass drum beater and everything else that might have moved a little bit. You're just wary of anything happening, because if it does you've just got to be on it as quickly as possible. You're just doing your job, I suppose, and you just do it all naturally!"

Whilst Yard has worked with some of the greatest drummers in the business, there is one sticksman that he would love to have had the opportunity to work with and that's the legendary Led Zep man, the late John Bonham. "John had it all!" enthuses Yard. "A great right foot makes all the difference! Anyone can keep 4/4, but it's the flicks you throw in that can change the whole pattern. I don't think anyone can touch him for the speed or the power, even though he wasn't really such a hard hitter. He sounds like he was a demon, but he wasn't a hard hitter. And I think one man that needs credit is Mick Hinton, his drum tech. Mick died last year, so he deserves a mention. He did a sterling job for Bonham and he never sold his story. He was an honourable man and such a decent bloke, but he wouldn't ever talk about Bonham unless it was about his drums."

 

 

Накрая какво се оказва - света е голямо село и няма толкова невероятни и невъзможни неща.

Английският Стив Гадд се познава с американският, за малко да е работил и за него...

Ярд Гаврилович( по някое време свирил в Ху), който явно също е барабанист, освен на по-известният Гадд, е бил теч на Ейдрийън Смит ( пак от Айрън Мейдън)(вероятно по време на соло проекта му).

 

А, ако някой бг барабанист с прекалено самочувствие, не може да осмисли за какъв барабанист става дума, когато се говори за Нико, проблема си е лично негов.

( не визирам никой конкретно, но определно познавам пренебрежителното нашенско отношение)

Редактирано Март 17, 2012 от TONY

[niacin]

Мерси Тони за интересното инфо! Нещата наистина са заплетени както казваш. А от интервютата с въпросните хора, които си постнал са много интересни. Не съм искал по никакъв начин да изтъкна непознаване на материята от твоя страна. Идеята беше да споделя едно голямо съвпадение

[TONY]

Да, всичко е 6

 

Днес попаднах на това -

 

Кармайн Еписи ( ако го знам вярно, как се произнася), записа е пресен, пресен.