Clem Burke – Drumming Icon

On this particular prolonged weblog/tribute, Martin Grey takes a heartfelt and appreciative look again at one in every of rock’s most illustrated, universally adored and charismatic and iconic drummers, Clem Burke, who tragically died final week aged 70, after privately battling most cancers, and shares his personal ideas and ruminations on how he was such a vastly influential determine for therefore many followers and aspiring drummers alike.

Flashback #1 – October 1971

Slade had been on High Of The Pops, performing their first number one hit Coz I Luv You. As a six-year-old, this was the primary band I went nuts for. They’d already featured on TOTP with their first prime 20 hit a couple of months earlier – a stonking cowl of Little Richard’s Get Down And Get With It, however this time they’d grown out of their skinhead look of brief hair and bovver boots, and now glammed up with lengthy hair, they seemed considerably totally different, however ace.

Rip-roaring singer Noddy Holder sported his enormous trademark flat cap (later stovepipe hat with mirrors) over his curls; Dave Hill together with his pudding basin fringe, cape threw flamboyant guitar shapes; bassist Jim Lea brandished his viola; and, most fun to me, Don Powell behind the drums, nonchalantly chewing gum as he pounded these skins. I used to be captivated and besotted. I pestered my sister to purchase me the one a couple of days later.

Slade grew to become my pop obsession for the subsequent three years or so, together with fellow glam rockers The Candy, who additionally featured an ideal drummer (Mick Tucker) I merely couldn’t take my eyes off as an impressionable teen. Thanks to those two teams, I’d already determined there after which that I wished to play drums too. Different acts quickly appeared on High Of The Pops whose drummers I watched with zeal and harboured a need to repeat: the Faces with Kenney Jones, then the nice Cozy Powell (no relation to Don) in 1973 together with his hit Dance With The Satan.

Additionally in 1971, my elder sister had the one single we ever purchased by The Rolling Stones: Brown Sugar. It was a stone chilly traditional and nonetheless offers me goosebumps to at the present time. While by no means a Stones fan in any respect, I all the time cherished these strong, pounding, tough-sounding drums that the legendary Charlie Watts made a lot his personal model. He very quickly grew to become the subsequent of the holy quintet of nice rock drummers I aspired to emulate: so we had Don, Mick, Kenney, Cozy and Charlie (sounds nearly like a 60s band!)…. I used to be starting to dream that dream, as youngsters of that age usually do.

And but what occurred in 1972 defied all logic. I didn’t ask for a drum equipment for my seventh birthday however I really settled for a guitar. God solely is aware of why, as a result of I wished to be a drummer, however drums took up an excessive amount of room. So a guitar it was, and thus I used to be promptly purchased one: a half-size little one’s acoustic. And I nonetheless have it to at the present time – 53 years later. Albeit lacking three strings and searching a bit battered across the varnished wooden casing, just because I abused it with little one’s drumsticks. I used the left stick to slip up and down the frets and I might smash the strings with the proper one – while laying the guitar horizontally like a pedal metal….. a tuneless racket for positive, however in some weird method I’ll have unwittingly pioneered the Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth strategy to enjoying the guitar with drumsticks some 10 years earlier than it was even a factor…

A lot for eager to be like my 5 drum heroes then. Because it transpired, I by no means learnt to play the guitar correctly anyway, cos I used to be hopeless and much too impatient.

Flashback #2 – February 1978

High Of The Pops once more. There have been some actually cool bands within the charts by this level. The belligerence of punk the earlier 12 months had given approach to post-punk and new wave (extra tuneful, much less shambolic and thus extra interesting to me) and a complete slew of latest bands had been now common entries and featured on this version: Elvis Costello, The Boomtown Rats, Ian Dury & The Blockheads, The Motors to call however a couple of. There was additionally Kate Bush – the primary actually authentic feminine artist to look in ages, plus a few disco acts, nonetheless, and the remnants of the Saturday selection present regulars (e.g. Boney M and Brotherhood of Man, each of whom I made a decision I hated).

Nevertheless, a gang of thrilling new faces had been on this programme: the debut efficiency of Debbie Harry and Blondie – making their UK chart debut with a gleefully boisterous tune Denis (later we found it was a canopy of ’60s vocal group Randy & The Rainbow’s Denise – now gender switched with French pronunciation). Having by no means seen this lot earlier than, I used to be captivated…and agog. It was like an epiphany. A pre-teenage ‘wow’.

Classroom speak the subsequent morning in class was inevitably about ‘that ace new band with the cunning blonde chick singer with cheekbones and Monroe-esque pout’. In fact all of us fixated on Ms. Harry in her brief purple one-piece stage gown, however I used to be additionally watching the drummer, as regular … as a result of, to be honest, he was the opposite clear shining star among the many group. His method of enjoying and his showmanship completely transfixed me – and never for the primary time both.

He seemed so effortlessly cool in a tonic go well with and tie, sensible mod haircut, somewhat hint of Paul McCartney’s boyish seems to be too – he was a good-looking dude, and a complete fucking star even then. The band all seemed fairly suave and dapper come to that and the tune was an earworm straight from the off. In order that was it. A brand new favorite band to now comply with.

From that time onward. I might eagerly await the subsequent time Blondie and Debbie Harry would seem once more on TOTP. I didn’t have lengthy to attend both as, a mere weeks later after Denis gatecrashed the highest finish of the charts, there was a second hit single in sizzling pursuit: (I’m All the time Touched By Your) Presence Expensive. This was an excellent higher tune. I used to be in pure ‘new wave pop heaven’. And the drummer – Clem Burke – once more didn’t disappoint. In truth, he positively outshone the remainder of the group.

So inevitably Blondie grew to become my new pop obsession of types. At that age, I didn’t actually care a lot for punk to be trustworthy – it was just about the whole lot that adopted in its wake. An avalanche of nice bands of all totally different genres that got here alongside on the tail finish of the Nineteen Seventies that rescued the last decade from sliding right into a MOR-ass of sentimental rock mundanity which it had threatened to do round 1976-77, when there was additionally merely far an excessive amount of bandwagon disco dross and iffy gorgonzola novelty acts for my liking. Sarcastically, it was the pub-rock bands, like Dr. Feelgood and Eddie & The Scorching Rods, that pre-empted the arrival of punk correct that proved to be the a lot wanted shot within the arm.

And out of the blue, seemingly out of nowhere, this unbelievable man known as Clem Burke from Blondie grew to become my new drum figurehead for just about the remainder of time and proper to the current, steamrollering over my 5 earlier early-’70s drum heroes with gusto.

A real maverick and ready-made rock star

Born Clement Anthony Bozewski in Bayonne, New Jersey on twenty fourth November 1954, the irrepressible Clem knew his stuff even earlier than he joined Blondie in 1975. He was a type of who, at a younger age, already had his trajectory set on conquering his first and largest ardour – that of drumming for all times in rock bands – and had the suss and know-how, in addition to sure-shot confidence, to succeed. It’s thought that, even earlier than becoming a member of Blondie, he adopted the stage surname ‘Burke’ just because he felt it sounded sharper and extra succinct and in step with the rock’n’roll spirit on the time.

His influences had been proudly displayed for all to see within the method wherein he not solely set his equipment up however how he performed it: the 4 most evident being Keith Moon (whom Clem was obsessive about and thus began his lifelong infatuation with all British beat teams of the period); Ringo Starr – the drummer from his all-time favorite band The Beatles; Hal Blaine (grasp sticksman who propelled Spector’s legendary Wrecking Crew together with his cavernous and inimitable powerhouse drumming model); and lastly, one of many earliest progenitors of the nascent rock’n’roll sound, Earl Palmer.

One solely needed to hearken to any Blondie monitor with Clem in full stream (or throttle) to totally respect the extremely deft method wherein these 4 musicians’ influences weren’t solely current, however finally assimilated into his personal singularly distinctive and distinctive model. Clem took the brutality and bombast of Keith Moon’s unhinged and thunderous pummeling and harnessed the tough edges right into a extra tighter, disciplined assault (greatest instance of that is after all the whole drum monitor to Dreaming – 3.03 minutes of relentless full-on clattering frenzy like no different).

Within the case of Ringo Starr, Clem shared the identical curious attribute of enjoying left-handed on a right-handed equipment, which is what Mr. Starkey did all by means of his time with the fab 4. Much more astonishingly, Ringo Starr’s distinctive ‘backwards drum fills’ – the place he hits the toms first earlier than the snare (the most effective examples are heard on Rain and Strawberry Fields Ceaselessly) had been the template for a few of Clem’s most mind-boggling and creative breaks – significantly on the sooner Blondie tracks that featured on their first two albums. Hearken to his drumming within the bridge of Presence Expensive and people advanced fills between 1.36 – 1.49. They are surely fairly out of this world.

It’s additionally clearly evident that the spirit of Hal Blaine’s distinctive tumbling drum sound runs rampant all through a variety of Clem’s drumming. Their first hit Denis options some gleefully manic somersaulting fills cribbed straight from the Blaine college: in direction of the top of the tune’s fade, Clem goes hell for leather-based and nearly all of these accents might be heard in lots of these traditional Phil Spector hits – albeit Clem performs them at twice the pace just because he can. This can be a measure of his talent and adeptness. He takes on the traditional sixties woman teams’ sounds – be it Phil Spector’s Ronettes (or Shadow Morton’s Shangri-Las – one other of Burke’s massive ’60s pop obsessions) – and applies his personal ‘none extra punk rock’ tackle their execution. It truly is an exhilarating factor to behold and that is the explanation why I discover his drumming model to be so thrilling and completely irresistible.

Lastly, the sooner rock’n’roll model of Earl Palmer might be clearly heard within the frantically-paced songs like 11.59, Will Something Occur, Assault Of The Large Ants, Kung Fu Women, and others. Clem’s nearly comically-accelerated model the place he performs these deliriously fast machine gun fills are nearly tremendous human in tempo and it’s what makes him such a tremendous showman and consummate performer who by no means comes throughout as something lower than completely thrilling to look at in motion, whichever band he occurs to guesting with.

Such was Clem’s bigger than life presence in Blondie that I can say with all honesty that the band had TWO primary focal factors at any time when they appeared onstage wherever. All eyes tended to dart like in a tennis match between the singer and the drummer. Each commanded a lot consideration (and adoration), it’s an affidavit of how completely indispensible he actually was inside the group.

It’s additionally been usually mentioned that Clem was really the second pin-up within the band, after Debbie. Debbie had her legions of common admirers and devotees – each female and male, and Clem attracted the identical form of adulation from not simply the women for his good-looking poster boy seems to be, but additionally the fellows who wished to be identical to him (be it effortlessly cool in these Mod-ish tonic fits and immaculate barnet, or after all enjoying the drums in precisely the identical method as he did – barely breaking sweat and maintaining his composure in such admirable model: physique posture sat bolt upright regardless of head nodding and his arms frantically flying throughout the equipment in a frenzied blur).

Irrepressible icon of cool and an unabashed Anglophile

Clem all the time made no secret of the actual fact as to how a lot he cherished England (and the UK). A self-confessed Anglophile, he usually made journeys over to London on his personal, separate from the band, simply to purchase information and garments and to then work these cultural and sartorial influences into the band’s visible manifesto so to talk. In fact, in time he would find yourself enjoying with numerous bands on each side of the Atlantic, guesting, sessioneering and certainly gigging in good previous trusty ‘transit and truck cease’ model throughout the nation with easy no-nonsense rock’n’roll / punk outfits and sharing the limelight in collaboration with new rising abilities simply because his ardour and urge for food for stay music was so insatiable and unquenchable.

He was the quintessential ‘hardest working drummer in rock’, as they are saying, however with good cause. It’s not identified precisely what number of gigs he has clocked up now previously 20+ years since Blondie re-emerged triumphantly with their sixth number one hit Maria in early 1999, however I’m keen to guess it’s someplace within the hundreds. The man was merely tireless and perennially super-youthful and appeared to be possessed with a supernatural surfeit of boundless vitality and a voracious urge for food for simply jamming and enjoying with anyone. It’s the cause why he’s so universally adored and revered, even worshipped.

Going again to the early days once more, contemplate how he was the one Blondie member accountable for honing the band’s picture earlier than they broke enormous the world over. The picture which grew to become iconic and launched numerous copycat bands of their wake. In 1975, when Clem first connected with Debbie and Chris Stein after answering an advert the latter positioned for a ‘freak vitality drummer’ [sic], he additionally took alongside his greatest college mate on the time – Gary ‘Valentine’ Lachman – and launched him to the couple, recommending they recruit him too because the bass participant and one other songwriter. Thus was the primary incarnation of Blondie and certainly 4 fifths of the quintet which graces the duvet of their first self titled album (keyboardist Jimmy Destri would be a part of shortly after).

Gary – like Clem – was very into the UK music on the time and shared an analogous curiosity and enthusiasm for the beat pop and mod kinds of the mid to late Sixties, and thus they each advised the others within the band undertake the retro-’60s look with sharp fits and shirts as a distinction to the considerably shambling boho anti-styles that so lots of their contemporaries had been sporting.

On the time, mid-’70s, all of them had longish hair (Clem included, being as he was an enormous fan of trashy glam punks just like the New York Dolls), however with Clem’s ’60s Brit obsessions lastly taking on, he acquired his personal hair trimmed and styled to copy these of the UK beat teams, even creating his personal particular person ‘male beehive’ look – an astonishing (and on the time audacious) stylistic sidestep. To attain his distinctive barnet which grew to become his trademark throughout these first business breakthrough years, he really went to the acute of baking his specifically sculpted haircut (formed utilizing a home-made combination of beer, sugar, hairspray, and no matter else he might improvise with) by mendacity prostrate together with his head partly inside a heat oven for no less than an hour or so till it was set.

Debbie Harry remembers one explicit event throughout these early years, once they hadn’t seen Clem for a couple of days, and it turned out he’d jetted over to the UK once more to buy groceries in London’s hipness epicentre of Soho for brand spanking new fits – one for every member of the band – and introduced them on his return. He had additionally fallen in love with nascent r’n’b acts like Dr. Feelgood with their sharp fits, so determined that not simply their information, however the band’s look too, ought to inform his personal picture change. His meticulous consideration to element – doing the whole lot to make sure that the group’s picture was simply *so* – has earned him the unofficial mantle of the band’s unsung model guru – one thing which, in lots of different circumstances, could be virtually exceptional given how most bands’ drummers care little about such trivia as presentation. However that is Clem we’re speaking about, and it’s these very foibles that make him so common and actually iconic.

This author has been so in awe of his look, his model and his irrepressible spirit and modus operandi all these years since that first TOTP look in February 1978, that, come the one fateful day after I lastly acquired to fulfill him in individual (of which extra later), I underwent what one can solely mildly name a ‘state of close to fan boy meltdown’ and had issues attempting to articulate myself.

A drummer in the beginning

Clem Burke by no means joined Blondie to be a songwriter. He was, in his personal phrases, a drummer in the beginning, and a drummer to the top. And what an exemplary one at that. His imaginative and prescient for the band was firm: that he would merely be an integral contributor to securing success that he already (quietly) sensed would ultimately come. He lived the rock and roll dream 100%. Some would say that he in all probability drummed in his sleep. He was exceptionally blessed with these game-changing attributes which have ensured his immortality even after his passing.

Blondie issued eleven albums between 1976 and 2017, and although all of them had numerous members of the band penning the songs, in addition to – in later years post-2000s – many collaborative unions with exterior songwriters in addition to visitor gamers, one notable absentee within the songwriting credit was, certainly, Clem Burke. Nevertheless, there’s one curious anomaly which can have been ignored by many. Though it’s extensively recognised that Clem performed little to no half in songwriting duties in any respect, he did partake in association and music of some tracks, and the one album the place his identify does seem within the credit as songwriter and arranger for the primary time is No Exit – the 1999 comeback album after 17 years hiatus.

Clem really co-wrote one monitor on the album – Divine – with Kathy Valentine from the Go-Gos. He additionally options as music arranger on one other – Growth Growth In The Zoom Zoom Room – once more with Kathy. So in the end he seems to have damaged his duck and made his songwriting debut on a Blondie album. Nevertheless, that continues to be his sole cameo to the current day, however it’s nonetheless an fascinating little element to the touch upon nonetheless.

The Curse Of Mike Chapman

The primary two (decisively extra ‘road punk’ sounding) albums Blondie and Plastic Letters had been produced by Richard Gottehrer (with Craig Leon dealing with duties on two songs from the debut). Their third, breakthrough, mainstream-strafing monster Parallel Strains was the work of famend pop producer par excellence Mike Chapman. It went stratospheric, due to a combination of Chapman’s ruthless effectivity and strictness within the studio, and collective meltdowns from numerous band members at having to do take after take after take to fulfill Chapman’s control-freak strategy to recording, bequeathing an ideal business pop file.

Understandably, Clem and different band members initially resented Chapman and his dictatorial methods, performing just like the over-officious college grasp berating his costs for not getting into line. To the band’s utter chagrin, the producer even had the nerve to criticise their enjoying throughout their many takes for the tracks on their third album, and deriding the band (initially) for being sloppy and never enjoying to their strengths.

In fact issues would quickly change over time, as little by little, after all of the squaring up and gnashing and wailing, the band admitted {that a} traditional file was within the works because the preparations started to sound a lot tighter and extra concise – helmed by Chapman’s indeniable manufacturing nous. His legacy was plain: he was in any case, the purveyor of the very best of the early Nineteen Seventies glam pop acts of the UK just like the Candy, Mud and Suzi Quatro – collectively together with his writing companion Nicky Chinn scoring hit after hit for all three acts….and extra bands apart from. You merely don’t argue with that type of pedigree. However Clem initially wasn’t too proud of Mike’s regimental boot camp manner. And one tune specifically actually acquired up his again and – initially no less than – introduced on much more indignation than regular.

Right here’s Mike Chapman recounting (laughing) in an interview when speaking about Clem Burke: ‘Clem….. my god, Clem – he was uncontrolled! He was a vastly proficient drummer for positive, however I needed to do one thing to rein that precociousness in!’
Even Chris Stein mentioned one thing related: ‘Clem had this angle that he was Keith Moon: eager to play each drum the entire time!! It was a problem attempting to get him play easier and in time!’

And what Mike did was unprecedented in studio recording again then. He insisted Clem file every drum half individually – the kick, the snare, the hello hat, the cymbals and many others….for the tune they had been engaged on at that juncture (Coronary heart Of Glass).  It was no method for a maverick free-spirit like Clem to play any drum equipment, that was for sure. The explanation for this was that Mike wished to sync up a drum machine to present the tune a extra consciously mechanical really feel – thus Clem must then play his half over it. The latter initially baulked at that concept, however Chapman insisted the equipment now be recorded in separate elements, thus started the painstaking process of doing a wonderfully easy drum half however in a really fragmented and time-consuming method. **

In addition to, Mike was additionally insistent that the tempo be completely exact and metronomic, and didn’t enable for any rushing up of the drum monitor which he totally anticipated Clem would do because the tune progressed. Thus the drums had been ‘lower and pasted’ right into a locked beat. That is what we hear on the principle monitor – the 4-minute single edit, the prolonged 5.46 minutes 12-inch edit (which concludes with simply the wordless chorus merely looped for round 2 minutes to fade, with completely no variation in any respect).

Nevertheless, all will not be fairly what it appears. Regardless of Chapman avowing that this was how the drum monitor was recorded and that he didn’t enable Clem any free rein on the drum equipment to play it naturally, the unique 3.54 album model of this tune (later CD variations changed it with the 12″ prolonged model) and specifically the particular remix (an extended 4.34 edit – video beneath) that graced 1981’s The Finest Of Blondie compilation suggests in any other case. Each these characteristic an instrumental outro whereby it’s clear that Clem has been granted the freedom of enjoying his drums as ‘regular’ …. Nearly as if the dam holding him again has been breached, he begins so as to add his signature accents and acrobatic fills on each bar, the kind you hear him enjoying on different Blondie songs. Evidently he’s been allowed to go loopy and let rip on the drum equipment in any case, because the monitor fades.

Humorous what many years of hindsight does although, as a result of a lot later, reflecting again on the recording course of that birthed Parallel Strains, lots of the band, Clem included, confirmed extra gratitude and humility by admitting how the expertise taught them so much about self-discipline within the studio. Clem even retrospectively praised Chapman for displaying him that there was extra to recording the drums than simply bashing the fucking shit out of them – there was equivalent to factor as subtlety and restraint – and it was a invaluable studying curve for him in his quest for self enchancment and adapting different totally different enjoying strategies in keeping with numerous new recording processes.

** Was Martin Hannett by any probability taking notes? Unlikely, however I ponder this as a result of this was nearly the very same course of (close to sufficient) he went by means of when recording one of many bands on Manufacturing facility throughout the very same time – specifically Unknown Pleasures by Pleasure Division (launched a 12 months later in 1979) whereby he instructed Steve Morris to have every drum and cymbal recorded individually in the identical method by taking aside the drum equipment piece by piece. Uncanny coincidence certainly (though it must be mentioned Chapman didn’t go to the identical form of extremes by demanding Clem dismantle his equipment…).

Ever reliable perennial drummer for rent. 

The listing of bands and artists which were blessed with Clem’s unbelievable stickwork is rattling close to exhaustive, studying like a veritable who’s who of recent rock and pop. Even earlier than Blondie’s first break up, he was contributing as visitor drummer with fellow ’80s duo the Eurythmics on their 1981 debut album In The Backyard, earlier than returning to the fold to finish his personal band’s (on the time) remaining album The Hunter, which was launched in 1982, after which the group parted methods amid some appreciable inter-band tensions (crucially, Chris Stein was additionally fairly unwell by this level so the top was inevitable). In fact, a couple of years later Clem was Eurythmics’ touring and studio drummer, that includes on the Revenge album and tour of 1986.

Following this stint, the stressed and ever-versatile Clem performed key roles in lots of different teams – notably enduring Detroit rockers The Romantics, fellow veteran CBGB storage act The Fleshtones, backing bands for Joan Jett, Pete Townshend, Iggy Pop, Johnny Thunders, Bob Dylan, and in addition a quick stint with long-time contemporaries Ramones, deputising (for departed drummer Richie) on a few gigs underneath the alias Elvis Ramone. This seemingly tireless workaholic additionally then performed in several bands with former Intercourse Pistols members Steve Jones (Chequered Previous, between 1983-1985, which additionally featured former Blondie bandmate Nigel Harrison) and Glen Matlock (Worldwide Swingers, 2011-present), in addition to cameo stints with The Grownup Internet, and The Go-Gos.

As if that wasn’t sufficient, Clem additionally – extremely – starred because the token superstar drummer with Bootleg Blondie (self-declared ‘the world’s no. 1 Blondie tribute band’), enjoying and touring with them, even at one level reunited alongside his former colleague Gary Lachman, who additionally briefly had a stint with this London-based (and wonderful) tribute act which has gone from power to power over the past decade or so. In truth the core duo who initially conceived this band, married couple Andy and Debbie Harris (actual surname), struck up such a cordial working relationship with the ever reliable drum legend across the time of the pandemic in 2020-2021 that they’ve since been engaged on a rock opera about London, little question helped alongside immensely by Clem’s famend ardour for the whole lot to do with Britain’s music scenes.

Apart from endorsing the sterling efforts of Bootleg Blondie, Clem saved busy enjoying and touring with one other lengthy established group of US rock veterans The Tearaways, returning to UK shores in 2023. It was solely after the band’s most up-to-date look on the Worldwide Beatles Competition in Liverpool, held throughout late August, that Clem joined ranks with them and performed on the hallowed Cavern Membership – who after all host the annual shindig that unites Fab 4 followers worldwide – for the second time that 12 months (the primary event being in March 2023 at a present celebrating 45 years of Iggy Pop’s Lust For Life album, the place Clem shared star billing alongside luminaries Glen Matlock, Katie Puckrik and Kevin Armstrong).

A doctorate and UK ambassador for drumming too.

In 2011 Clem acquired a Honorary Doctorate from the College of Gloucestershire, UK, for his function in collaborating in a complete years-long examine which he arrange in 2008 (named the Clem Burke Drumming Venture) together with two professors within the area of utilized sport science, Dr. Marcus Smith and Dr. Steve Draper, to research the therapeutic and bodily/psychological results and advantages of drumming on individuals of various ages and social backgrounds.

The conception of this undertaking arose after an preliminary analysis programme was began by Professor Smith in 1999, when Blondie first returned to nice public acclaim after 17 years absence within the wilderness. Clem was examined for his personal stamina ranges when drumming for a particular time period and it was discovered that they had been akin to, and even surpassing, that of knowledgeable athlete or footballer. Provided that many live shows common round 90 minutes for a primary set (an analogous size to the common soccer/soccer recreation), this was an interesting perception into simply how strenuous on the physique’s metabolic fee drumming might be.

Admirably, he advisable that academic and well being organisations contemplate reassessing bodily demanding musical actions – equivalent to drumming – as a way of boosting the nicely being and confidence (in addition to health ranges) of its individuals, significantly within the circumstances of individuals throughout the autistic spectrum equivalent to ADHD, but additionally equally relevant to anyone taking over drums as both a passion or (skilled) profession.

Extra just lately, Clem was awarded an Honorary Physician of Music by Chichester College in 2022 for the above excellent achievements within the necessary analysis they carried out over time into the correlation between drumming and human sciences, one thing which, up till that time, had by no means been correctly investigated or certainly understood. In consequence the college then established a ‘drumming lab’ – the primary of its type wherever – to observe different drummers and the psychological/bodily results of their day by day routines.

Weak In The Presence Of Godlike Greatness

It’s onerous for a shameless Clem-ophile like myself to not share my very own once-in-a-lifetime encounter with the legend himself after I was working at Liverpool’s Beatles Story customer attraction between 2007 – 2012. In August 2011, Blondie had been embarking on a (close to offered out) UK tour for the primary time in a number of years to advertise their latest album Panic Of Women – and had been enjoying the O2 Academy that first week, when Clem and a few his entourage paid their customary go to to the museum to purchase a couple of extra gadgets of Fab 4 merchandise. Provided that Clem is an obsessive Beatles fan, this was a given….however by no means in my wildest goals did I ever think about that sooner or later, while stood on the door welcoming guests from far and extensive, that he would himself drop by.

I used to be advised by administration that we’d expect him to name in, and I used to be beside myself with pleasure and nervousness, having by no means seen them enjoying stay, not to mention meet them. For sure, after I did come nose to nose with the legendary man, it was the same old fanboy gushing and awkward outpouring of garbled platitudes, thanking him and Blondie for being such an inspiration to my teenage years and galvanizing in me the will to start out enjoying drums identical to him.

He was so accommodating and by no means for one second behaved like a haughty rock star – pleased to speak and present a real curiosity in listening to about how I realized to play all his drum licks on the singles and each monitor on the album Parallel Strains. ‘Hey man, that’s so cool!’ he mentioned in return at one level and I virtually melted – a lot to the amusement of my youthful colleagues who had been stood by the admissions desk reeling off tickets to the queues of tourists.

I mentioned to him ruefully that I couldn’t make the Blondie present within the subsequent couple of days cos it was offered out. He then surprised me by asking if I wish to be placed on the visitor listing, as he could be more than pleased to get me and a buddy in to the gig if I left their administration with an e mail handle. I used to be gobsmacked and completely elated, thanked him profusely, shook his hand, advised him how a lot I adored and worshipped the band all these years and that was it. I had this insane grin on my face for the remainder of the day. My colleagues in all probability thought I’d swallowed some pleased biscuits.

True to his phrase, they did e mail me two days later and, together with my workmate Neringa, we took ourselves off to the O2 Academy that Tuesday night time, and to our disbelief and delight got AAA laminates. Entry All Areas! Wow! The venue was heaving, the temperature was sauna-like, however hell, I used to be excited as fuck, and so was my buddy Neringa as she had by no means seen the band earlier than both.

The band had been tighter than a gnat’s chuff and belted out all these evergreen hits I went doolally over all these teenage years again. Debbie was simply impeccable and in nice voice, Chris to her proper was his regular studied cool however after all who was the opposite star of the present?! We had been as close to to seventh heaven because it was doable to be – 33 years it has taken me to lastly see Blondie in motion (what with being too younger in 1978 to catch them you perceive). Some bizarre serendipity to narrate: 33 years was additionally the age of Debbie Harry in 1978. She was twice that age at 66 now – right here standing on stage proper in entrance of us. However her look and voice was ageless. As for Clem – nicely, Clem additionally seemed perennially youthful and did the whole lot we anticipated him to do and for the encore he confirmed his loyalty to the honest metropolis of Liverpool by sauntering again onto the drum riser sporting one of many 4 Beatles T-shirts he purchased at my office. Now that’s real love and dedication for you!

Following the set, we had been on the backstage after-show gathering the place Clem was already chatting to all people as was his regular genial self. Debbie didn’t present up till some time later however when she did it was heart-a-flutter time over again. Like with Clem, I made some fast hushed complimentary small speak and thanked her graciously, telling her how a lot I loved their present and what an absolute honour it was to fulfill all of them. Listening to her say the phrases ‘thanks’ in return was identical to…. oh my! Gently kissing her hand, I then backed off into the room and shortly caught up with Clem once more. I acquired my buddy to pose with him for one solitary picture, and when Neringa provided to take one in every of me in return with my idol, I faltered, then – foolishly – declined. I couldn’t bear the considered him wanting so cool standing subsequent to a dork like me so I’ll now rue this misplaced alternative for the remainder of my life.

Because it transpired, I’ve solely had ONE picture taken of me with a legendary rock drummer idol within the current previous: Don Powell from Slade. That was in December 2019 at one other of my former workplaces: the British Music Expertise. I didn’t look too nice in that image both, all saggy jowls and untimely man-boobs poking by means of my t-shirt. However then that’s simply me, probably not the sort to get pleasure from seeing myself in images, I assume.

A very singular expertise: cherished, adored and now mourned by thousands and thousands.

The information of his premature loss of life from most cancers (what a bastard that’s) despatched shockwaves all through the music world. I used to be completely surprised when my greatest buddy (like me, a lifelong Blondie and Clem fan) texted me with the three easy phrases on Monday afternoon: Clem Burke RIP. I used to be incredulous at first, pondering he was winding me up, however then as soon as it sank in, my head was in items. The shock was like a brick wall slamming into me. By no means earlier than has the passing of a well-known rock drummer affected me on this devastating, crushing method. Charlie Watts was in all probability the closest – in August 2021. I adored Charlie too – he was a real class act for positive and, regardless of by no means being a Stones fan, I had a variety of love, respect and admiration for the nice man, his cool persona and his debonair model. When he handed, I used to be fairly damned upset. A lot in order that I didn’t communicate to anyone for 3 days – completely consumed by my grief and mourning for the legendary determine.

However with Clem’s passing, it was much more profound and a hell of much more painful. Just because I seemed as much as him as my all time drummer hero in some ways, for the explanations outlined earlier, and for the straightforward incontrovertible fact that I additionally met him nose to nose again then in 2011 – in order that makes an enormous distinction and throws the whole lot into better, starker significance. It appears unreal that he’s gone, as so many fellow musicians and legions of followers all around the world (articulating their collective devastation and sharing their tributes and condolences on-line) have equally expressed.

The outpouring of grief has been phenomenal : it’s honest to say that I don’t suppose now we have ever seen such a colossal tsunami of united love and collective unhappiness/shock for the lack of a contemporary up to date drummer as now we have finished for Clem. It actually does deliver a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes each time I see these tributes on-line and all these pics being shared throughout the many years of this unbelievable drumming legend and figurehead to so many followers younger and previous. And nonetheless the tributes have been pouring in on-line, per week on from the day he left this planet rock. And nonetheless I’ve these tearful moments in reflection.

He simply appeared so boundlessly energetic, versatile, enthusiastic and completely indefatigable, residing his musical life to the total, to succumb to one thing as terrible as this. Ceaselessly youthful too, belying his 70 years by a long way, however as ever, the dreaded C-word doesn’t discriminate. It’s merciless and cruel. Too lots of our nice heroes in music, movie, artwork and literature have already been taken from us on this method.

All of us genuinely believed that anyone as passionate, super-fit, ebullient, amiable and outgoing as Clem would by no means age, and thus be immortal. It’s due to this fact a seismic shock to see that he’s now the primary of the traditional Blondie line as much as have left us. Typically I ask that query: why is it all the time the drummer in a traditional band that all the time goes first (provided that solely weeks earlier we additionally misplaced Rick Buckler from The Jam; the nice John Bradbury from The Specials passing in December 2015 floored me too)?

Followers in every single place will after all be remembering him by whacking on these traditional timeless tunes and blasting them out at full quantity, and enjoying actual, or air, drums in respect of the nice man little question…… while Clem himself, now inducted into the nice drumming supergroup within the sky, might be hooking up with the most effective of the remainder of them: these equally cherished and revered legends whose time was sadly up earlier than they even knew it. Of these, he shall be particularly ecstatic to see Keith, Earl and Hal, however he might have to carry out a short time longer earlier than the equally irrepressible Ringo (85 this summer time) is able to be a part of him.

On the time of his loss of life two main undertakings have remained partly incomplete: his London Rock Opera with Debbie and Alan from Bootleg Blondie, and in addition the memoirs he was engaged on that he introduced to the world solely a few years in the past. Hopefully they are going to be realised and consummated not directly and that followers in every single place will get to share in that remaining couple of chapters of his already large legacy.

Godspeed and RIP Clem Burke – drumming celebrity and a a lot revered buddy to nearly all people in rock. Ceaselessly additionally in my head, coronary heart and ears.

Clem’s formidable powerhouse drumming model and explosive punk rock vitality might be totally appreciated in his performances as seen within the ground-breaking Eat To The Beat video album:

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All phrases written by Martin Grey.  For different articles and critiques, examine Martin’s profile right here