Drummers - Rick Allen
Richard John Cyril Allen (born November 1, 1963,
Dronfield, Derbyshire, England) is the drummer for the British rock band
Def Leppard. He is famous for being a prominent professional drummer who
continued his musical career despite the amputation of his left arm.
Biography
Childhood and early career
Rick Allen started out drumming with his mother's kitchen utensils when
he was five, using a tambourine as additional percussion. At about the
age of ten he successfully persuaded his parents to get him a drumkit,
by agreeing to take lessons, and pay half the cost of the kit. He got a
blue sparkle Del-Ray drum kit and after six months of lessons, he began
playing with his first band, Smokey Blue. Later on he played with bands
called Rampant and the Johnny Kalendar Band.
Def Leppard
When he was 15 years old, his father replied to an ad (he didn't want to
reply, as he was ready to give up the drums), of a band looking for a
drummer, "Leppard loses skin", and on November 28, 1978, he was given
the job of drummer for the rock group Def Leppard, replacing Frank Noon.
In 1979, he dropped out of school, at the same time as other band
members quit their jobs, to concentrate on a career in music. In
September of that year, they opened for Sammy Hagar at London's
Hammersmith Odeon and, in October and November, played support for
AC/DC, with Rick celebrating his 16th birthday by playing at the
Hammersmith Odeon. On March 14, 1980, the band released their first
album, On Through the Night, which was followed by three other albums.
Accident and recovery
On December 31, 1984, while driving his Corvette near Sheffield, UK, he
endured an off-road accident. He was thrown from the car. His left arm
was severed due to his seatbelt not being completely engaged. Despite
attempts by doctors to reattach it, infection set in, and the arm had to
be reamputated. Through perseverance, the support of his band mates, and
a custom drum kit, he remained with the band to enjoy continued success.
Much to the dismay of Rick, the Ludwig drumkit he used on High & Dry and
Pyromania has since been given away by Def Leppard's former management.
Former Status Quo drummer Jeff Rich was an invaluable source of help and
encouragement during Rick's convalescence, and after many hours of
discussion they decided to try and develop Rick's famous multi-pad
electronic kit. After many attempts and with much determination they
came up with what was to become a revolution in drum technology. A
unique pedal trigger system was successfully utilised and Rick was now
able to play more or less as he could before, even delivering a
successful and well received set at the "Monsters of Rock" festival at
Castle Donington in 1986. In August 1987, the band released their fourth
album, Hysteria, which was highly successful, selling over 15,000,000
copies. He has released so far six more albums with the band, the latest
being Yeah!, a 2006 collection of covers reinterpreted by the band.
Post-accident drum sets
After Allen's accident, some unique thinking came into play in order to
keep him behind the drum set. Simmons, a company noted for making
electronic drum sets, designed a custom kit for Allen. Since electronic
drums are little more than "triggers" which sense a hit from a drumstick
or the motion of a pedal, Allen's kit was primarily pads in front of him
and to his right (to play with his remaining arm), and primarily pedals
on his left, which triggered the sound of snare drums and tom-toms.
Allen would learn how to play patterns with his right hand and left foot
that complete drummers would ordinarily play with their right and left
hands. Allen has also experimented with what he calls "technology
stunts" using hardware from companies such as ddrum and Acupad.
In more recent years, as the "80s sound" has all but disappeared,
Allen's sound would change to a more "acoustic," natural sound, still
through the use of samplers. In this case, the samplers were loaded with
actual recordings of Allen's acoustic kit, so that in the final mix, it
is difficult to tell between the drum sounds in the samplers and the
drums actually struck during the performance.
Allen's current setup is custom-manufactured by Whirlwind and Hart
Dynamics. [1]
Side projects
* Even though he was not credited, Allen co-wrote the soundtrack to a
1998 Disney TV-movie called "Brink!"
* In May and June of 2000 he played two shows with the Mark Mason
Project, featuring guitarist Mark Englert previously of Dramarama.
* Allen has also written some music with his wife Lauren.
Personal life
Rick was married on October 11, 2003, to Lauren Monroe, co-founder of
Raven Drum Foundation a charity set up by Rick located in Malibu,
California, to encourage disabled children to overcome their challenges.
Rick has a daughter, Lauren Shane Allen (born May 20, 1997), by a
previous marriage. Rick is helping with chef Jeannine Carney to create a
cook book.
Trivia
* Allen auditioned to Def Leppard with Thin Lizzy's song "Emerald."
According to bandmate/founder Rick Savage, they sounded much better than
they had in the past.
* Allen was given the Humanitarian Award on August 29, 2001.
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Allen_%28drummer%29
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