Skip to main content
Music Radar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
  • Guitars
  • Amps
  • Pedals
  • Drums
  • Synths
  • Software
  • Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Recording
  • Buyer’s guides
  • Live
  • DJ
  • Advice
  • Acoustic
  • Bass
  • About Us
  • More
    • Reviews
Magazines
  • Computer Music
  • Electronic Musician
  • Future Music
  • Keyboard Magazine
  • Guitarist
  • Guitar Techniques
  • Total Guitar
  • Bass Player
More
  • How to make an AI cover song
  • 30 beautiful acoustic guitar chords
  • 86000+ free music samples

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

  1. News

Five great drummers to check out from this month's Rhythm

By Chris Burke, Rhythm magazine
published 3 October 2012

Rhythm is the place to find drum talent…

Paul Cook
The Sex Pistols
(Image credit: Kevin Nixon)

Paul Cook

Seminal punk album Never Mind The Bollocks album is 35 years old this year. Blimey. Here’s Pistols’ drummer Paul Cook in this month’s Rhythm, explaining that the much-maligned (at the time) music came first for the band. “People thought the music was crap when it first came out. They thought it was just noisy, horrible punk stuff. It wasn’t until later that people gave us credit for the album. It was not a bad bit of musicianship if I don’t mind saying so.”

Check out The Sex Pistols’ doing ‘Pretty Vacant’. Check out Paul’s tom work!

Page 1 of 5
Page 1 of 5
Chris Johnson
Rihanna
(Image credit: Will Ireland)

Chris Johnson

Two of r’n’b’s finest players are interviewed together in this month’s Rhythm, Chris Johnson and Aaron Spears. First of all, here’s Chris talking about restraint:

“When I play a song I think back to church. Okay, if I play this my mom would look at me crazy, so if she would look at me crazy then I know the musical director will be like, ‘What are you doing?’”

Here’s Chris playing live with Rihanna:

Page 2 of 5
Page 2 of 5
Aaron Spears
Usher
(Image credit: Will Ireland)

Aaron Spears

Another drummer with a solid background in church drumming, Usher’s drummer Aaron Spears was nevertheless quick to refute the idea of ‘Gospel Chops’: “When people say Gospel drumming or Gospel chops or licks or whatever, I don’t necessarily think it’s a style outside of playing from your heart.”

And here’s Aaron Spears, with James Brown’s Jabo Starks at the Guitar Center Drum-off 2011…

Page 3 of 5
Page 3 of 5
Bernard Purdie
Legend

Bernard Purdie

If you don’t know Bernard Purdie, let’s just say that as a drummer you SHOULD KNOW BERNARD PURDIE… He’s only the inventor of the Purdie Shuffle, one of the most sublime grooves in the history of modern drumming. Jeff Porcaro adapted it for Toto’s ‘Rosanna’, and every drummer worth his salt loves to play it. In this month’s Rhythm, Bernard gives you Five Tips on how to play his famous shuffle about which, he reveals: “I got it from the locomotion of a train.”

Check out Bernard “’splaining’ it” on YouTube.

Page 4 of 5
Page 4 of 5
Robyn Griffith
Evarose

Robyn Griffith

“Playing drums I just thought was an awesome thing to do,” says Evarose stickswoman Robyn Grifffith (front, right). Although the all-girl punk/pop quartet draw inevitable comparisons with Paramore, they revealed to Rhythm that they take their cues more from post-hardcore bands such as Taking Back Sunday and Reuben, as well as blues rockers from John Mayer to The James Cleaver Quintet. Read more about Robyn and Evarose in Rhythm’s Introducing section this month. And check out the video to ‘Cough It Up’ right here!

Page 5 of 5
Page 5 of 5
Chris Burke
Social Links Navigation
More about drums
Dave Grohl playing drums on Play live, 2018

Watch Dave Grohl unleash a 36-minute live version of his Play instrumental

Gretsch Renegade

Gretsch Drums launches new beginner-friendly Renegade Series drum kits

Latest
Jackson MJ Series Roads RR24MG

Jackson expands its Japanese made MJ Series with a pair of high-end shred-ready RR24MGs in two classic pinstripe finishes

See more latest ►
Most Popular
6 of the best new Eurorack modules in 2023

By Rob Redman7 December 2023

Catalinbread opens up the Sinkhole, “a harmonically-rich ‘hole’ reverb with an impossibly deep four-voice chorus” for other-worldly guitar sounds

By Jonathan Horsley7 December 2023

Ubisoft’s Rocksmith+ can now teach you to play piano as well as guitar: use the 'falling notes' method or the sheet music view

By Ben Rogerson7 December 2023

6 of the best new controllers and sequencers in 2023

By Si Truss7 December 2023

Has guitarist Andy Wood just made the ultimate Eddie Van Halen pedalboard?

By Rob Laing7 December 2023

“This is the proudest and happiest I’ve ever felt”: Taylor Swift is named Time’s Person of the Year

By Ben Rogerson6 December 2023

An Alex Lifeson signature pedal has arrived much sooner than we expected: you can get the Lerxst By-Tor Drive pedal right now

By Rob Laing6 December 2023

How Gary Numan's unexpected discovery of the Minimoog paved the way for The Pleasure Principle and the birth of synth-pop: "I just pressed a key and it made that famous Moog sound, that low growl and the room vibrated. It was the most powerful thing"

By Vincent Joseph6 December 2023

“The union passed a motion to ban the use of synths, drum machines and any electronic devices”: the day the 'Loony' Musician's Union tried to kill the synthesizer (which also happened to be Bob Moog’s birthday)

By Andy Jones6 December 2023

Marta Salogni: "Seeing a mixing desk for the first time lit up something inside of me - it's the meeting point of music, art, science and engineering"

By Danny Turner6 December 2023

We tried to make a Beatles track using AI-generated vocals - here's what happened

By Andy Jones6 December 2023

  1. Telecaster guitar
    1
    The 7 ways I learned to improve my guitar tone – that won't cost you money
  2. 2
    7 of the best new hardware synths in 2023
  3. 3
    “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called soundcheck”: Watch Prince shred on his Yellow Cloud guitar as the NPG warm up for their Special Olympics 1991 set
  4. 4
    Japanese ambient musician Michiru Aoyama has woken at 5am to record a new album every day since 2021 – he's now earning $3,000 a month from his music on Spotify and Bandcamp
  5. 5
    “The union passed a motion to ban the use of synths, drum machines and any electronic devices”: the day the 'Loony' Musician's Union tried to kill the synthesizer (which also happened to be Bob Moog’s birthday)
  1. Telecaster guitar
    1
    The 7 ways I learned to improve my guitar tone – that won't cost you money
  2. 2
    7 of the best new hardware synths in 2023
  3. 3
    “I don’t want to generalise and say that he made everything sound good, but he did”: Joe Satriani reveals his strategy for replicating Eddie Van Halen’s tone on upcoming Sammy Hagar tour
  4. 4
    Japanese ambient musician Michiru Aoyama has woken at 5am to record a new album every day since 2021 – he's now earning $3,000 a month from his music on Spotify and Bandcamp
  5. 5
    “The union passed a motion to ban the use of synths, drum machines and any electronic devices”: the day the 'Loony' Musician's Union tried to kill the synthesizer (which also happened to be Bob Moog’s birthday)

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.