Walking It Off

  After arriving safely in Perth W. Australia, things started to pick up after the first show with Stevie and her band. Having done the two tours of North America with her, it became enjoyable pretty much immediately.

 It was great having my own kit to play. Even though all the hardware was supplied by DW Drums, I was at home. Tours a long way from home are not always comfortable for me on hired equipment, but with the assistance and insistence of my top man tech. Justin Welch, we took all but the hardware and had a special flight case made for the drums alone.

 Playing a drum kit is not like a keyboard or guitar (or any other instrument, for that matter). Although those instruments have different feels of course, a drum kit is a much larger area of operation. I got into this conversation with Jim Keltner on a tour we did together with Neil Young/Pretenders some years back.

  Jim has an incredible feel and plays with such an elegant flow. He really is the cream. We spoke of the distance that some unconscious choices take the hands and sticks to that micro moment of contact with the colour and temperature of the sound you wish to throw into the mix! There is an endless amount of choices in the way anything can be struck, brushed, stroked or smashed, and that’s just with a bit of wood! There are tympani mallets, brushes of all types, and of course, custom made shaker stiks and nylon brushes with bits of wire attached for bright moments. It really never ends.

Chrissie overheard us and was (metaphorically) thrown into a coma!  

What it really adds up to is the 'feel', the 'groove', the life of the platform of the music upon which the top lines can play.

Still with me?

It's kind off important in a massive way.

  I have, on occasion, sat on other people’s kits. It's a hell of an eye opener and allows a mental view of the owner’s private creative hub. Keltner's kit is gentle and what you expect, but as Charlie Watts looked me in the eye and said of Jim years ago; 'he's a tricky one isn't he?'. I immediately knew what he meant! There's a hell of a lot going on within the beautiful simplicity of his performances.

 So, I was at home. My space is built for opportunism and aggression. It can be kind and tender as on 'I go to Sleep' or dangerous like in 'Up the Neck' or 'Tattoo'd Love Boys'. My kit is spread apart and there is distance to cover. My kit is a workout. 

 Hey man yer workin' too hard! Yeah ya got that right! I like workin' hard when the mood and lyric demands! It's about the song, dynamics and making moments hang in the air for longer than is real! That takes space.

 Around this Perth - Adelaide - Sydney period, I felt an annoyance in my right knee. It came and went and I figured I must have absent-mindedly knocked it on something, so I walked it off.

 The gigs were all going really well, and I was looking forward very much to our own show at the Melbourne Forum in a week or so. 

 The day after the Hunter Valley Bimbadgen Winery show we flew up to Brisbane to play another winery, but I couldn't walk off this pain in my right knee. It was becoming quite annoying…almost painful.

 During that Brisbane show I experienced more pain than any other show I had ever played. I’ve had severe and deep cuts to hands and fingers in the past, but this hurt more than when I broke two metatarsel bones in my left foot at the beginning of a long U.S. tour!

What was to be done? 

  After the show, I saw Dr. Bill backstage and he gave our tour manager a prescription for some special gel to be carefully applied. He said I had tendonitis. I hastily applied the gel  that night, but awoke only three hours later in screaming pain. The mind plays games at times like these and my thoughts turned to: “Is this what they call a career ending injury?”

I was in some kind of serious trouble. All I could do was swear and curse at my knee in a big way and wait until my painkillers (which I always carry in my bag) kicked in.

 We had three gigs on the trot coming up and I couldn’t even bend my leg!

This I can't walk off because I can't walk.  

Holy shit!

M.D.C.