Skip to main content
Music Radar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Guitar Amps
  • Guitar Pedals
  • Synths
  • Guitars
  • Artist news
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Software & Apps
  • Drums
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • Santana on Beck
  • Friday, I'm in Love
  • Knopfler's 4-note secret
  • 95k+ free music samples
Recommended reading
Hannah Montrose
Artists Session drummer Hannah Montrose on facing down challenges and manifesting a spot behind the kit with Lizzo
Drummer sat at an e-kit places a pair of headphones over his head
Drummers Best headphones for drummers 2025: sound isolation for the studio, rehearsal room and stage
Yamaha Stage Custom drum set in a studio with spotlights behind
Drum Kits Best drum sets 2025: Top drum kits for beginner to pro drummers
Man jams with a guitar player and bass player on an electronic drum kit
Drum Gear These huge drum deals at Sweetwater are about to disappear – here’s your last chance to bag up to 60% off electronic drums, cymbals, sticks and more
Sleep Token
Drums “We tried it as a laugh and now it’s our standard setup”: The secret sauce behind Sleep Token’s live drum sound
Ray Cooper
Artists Percussionist Ray Cooper tells the story of his ‘lost’ live collaboration with Elton John
Man in orange shirt playing drums with a guitar player
Drum Gear Best drum thrones 2025: my pick of budget-spanning stools for comfort behind the kit
  1. Artists
  2. Drummers

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

News
By Rhythm magazine, Chris Burke published 3 October 2012

Rhythm is the place to find drum talent…

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

Paul Cook

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

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

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

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

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
Categories
Drums
Chris Burke
Read more
Hannah Montrose
Session drummer Hannah Montrose on facing down challenges and manifesting a spot behind the kit with Lizzo
Drummer sat at an e-kit places a pair of headphones over his head
Best headphones for drummers 2025: sound isolation for the studio, rehearsal room and stage
Yamaha Stage Custom drum set in a studio with spotlights behind
Best drum sets 2025: Top drum kits for beginner to pro drummers
Man jams with a guitar player and bass player on an electronic drum kit
These huge drum deals at Sweetwater are about to disappear – here’s your last chance to bag up to 60% off electronic drums, cymbals, sticks and more
Sleep Token
“We tried it as a laugh and now it’s our standard setup”: The secret sauce behind Sleep Token’s live drum sound
Ray Cooper
Percussionist Ray Cooper tells the story of his ‘lost’ live collaboration with Elton John
Latest in Drummers
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 06: (L-R) Ed Sheeran and Chris Hemsworth attend The 2024 Met Gala Celebrating "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 06, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/MG24/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)
Watch Chris Hemsworth’s painful first drumming lesson
SPAIN - JULY 12: Nine Inch Nails (NIN) will perform on the second day of Mad Cool 2025 at the Iberdrola Music venue on July 11, 2025 in Madrid, Spain. Today's performance at Mad Cool of the historic American industrial rock band has been one of the most anticipated moments of the international event, during which they have flaunted their powerful live show and new songs. The festival, which kicked off yesterday, brings together legends and new promises in four days of music, consolidating itself as an essential event of the European summer. (Photo By Ricardo Rubio/Europa Press via Getty Images)
Nine Inch Nails have just played their first show back with drummer Josh Freese
The Who
Zak Starkey claps back at Roger Daltrey's "character assassination" claims
Roger Daltrey of The Who performs at Parco Della Musica on July 22, 2025 in Milan, Italy.
“It was kind of a character assassination”: Roger Daltrey on Zak Starkey’s reaction to his Who ‘sacking’
Ilan Rubin
It’s a drummer swap! Ilan Rubin signs up as Foo Fighters' new beat supplier whilst Josh Freese rejoins Nine Inch Nails
Oasis
Oasis' first drummer Tony McCarroll reveals the confrontation that led the band to sack him
Latest in News
Brian Eno
“Festivals are being cancelled due to extreme weather”: Brian Eno and others urge government to cancel new oilfield
Dave Mustaine of Megadeth wears a white shirt and trademark Megadeth sweat bands as he plays his signature Gibson V at Tons of Rock Festival 2025.
Megadeth to come to an end – Dave Mustaine announces final album and farewell tour for 2026
Radiohead
“It was a dark time in so many ways”: Radiohead to release new live album
Taylor Swift and Max Martin
Taylor Swift on how she threw down the creative gauntlet to Max Martin for new album The Life Of A Showgirl
A composite image of Steve Vai [left] playing his green PIA Ibanez signature guitar onstage with the Satch/Vai band, and right, the late, great Allan Holdsworth playing an S-style with a cigarette smoking wedged on the strings.
Steve Vai on why Allan Holdsworth – the fusion virtuoso who wrote his own rules – was the GOAT
A man dwarfed by two huge sub woofer speakers
“Incredibly powerful, efficient, and fast”: Ascendo Immersive unveil the largest subwoofers in the world

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
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

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

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...