From anyone, really, but of course I’m really talking about those involved in creating something. It’s so much easier to talk about it, to bitch, to criticise and to dream up excuses as to why it never got made, played, written or painted. I admire those with large catalogues of works that need curating, volumes of sketches that lead to bigger pictures, studios full of maquettes and moulds. I admire people who’ve had time to have a Blue Period, to become a Cubist or a Bloomsbury Grouper, whose work, in short, has bulk, consistency and staying power.

Consideration of what has been achieved over a life’s effort is much more fun and re-warding when there is a genuine journey to observe, when the later works explain the earlier works, and where you see where the artist was trying to get to and did he get there or not? The journey may be circular, or lead back on itself, or go at different speeds during different phases, but all of it interesting. Did the artist sustain a high period or was it all a flash in the pan? Did he rest on his laurels, content to churn out re-treads, or did he lurch off to pastures new? Such people have lived and worked for years, and have ‘put out’.

The danger lies in the excessive scrutiny of a handful of artistic gestures without the necessary search for their relevance to the bigger picture. Some chip away at the rock face, achieving incrementally, one hammer-blow at a time. Unobserved, their contribution may be over looked in favour of the noisy flash in the pan, the starshell that illumines all briefly, but, perhaps, to marginal lasting effect. It’s a man’s entire body of work that counts.

Stephen Vivona - 12/16/2009 4:15:11 PM  wants to know “ What's new? Seriously. What is different since you have retired? I am not so much interested in what you do but rather, how the same things FEEL since you retired. Does music sound different to you now? When you play the drums or piano just for kicks (if you play at all) how is it different than before? Do you find yourself going to musical places you didn't previously. When you listen to music do you listen in a way that you didn't before? Have you discovered new elements that were not apparent before? How about other activities? Does retirement change life's experiences a little or a lot? Your autobiography answered many of the questions we all had about your professional experiences; your thoughtful and thought provoking stories have made me wonder where that introspective mind of yours has wandered lately. I am fascinated about the "new" Bruford and what he is thinking and feeling. Thank you in advance!”

Stephen -  I’ve been doing very little music, listening or playing. Some practise here and there, but more on a piano than a drumset. I really need time away from it. I’m a pretty good walker and am about to tackle the Coast to Coast in the UK (195 miles across the narrowest part of the British Isles) over a couple of weeks. That should blow out some cobwebs.

I miss my colleagues of course and the general banter of music gossip. I don’t go to concerts much – they just re-awaken old feelings. If they’re awful I want to leave after 15 minutes; if they’re good I want to leave after 10 minutes, or play. Having not yet settled on an alternative to a 24/7 life as a gigster in the music business, I find myself nonetheless booking gigs, but now without a drumkit. I’ve been giving talks at British academic places. I sense an increasing gulf between me and the admirable twenty-something performance arts and music students before me, who appear keen as mustard to get started at this ‘music thing’. The ‘music thing’ I’m discussing, however, seems to have progressively less to do with the music thing I imagine they are imagining. I was alarmed as the February 2010 issue of Modern Drummer plopped through the letterbox. Not only did  I fail to recognise the names of all three lead featured drum stars, or the organisations to which they belonged – respectively Matt Byrne of Hatebreed, Chris ‘Daddy’Dave of Maxwell, and Barry Kerch of Shinedown – but I could summon no enthusiasm to go and check them out. My ignorance knows no bounds. I opt instead for Jon Christenson’s beautiful playing on Keith Jarrett’s ‘My Song’, secure in the knowledge that I’m sure Matt, Chris and Barry are aware of him, even if he is not aware of them.

Medium-term plans call for the re-organisation of this site into a ‘Learning Resource’, or what we used to call a museum. The student of modern drumming in 2020 will, I hope, come across the name Bruford, and if willing to go further will find this site to be the most comprehensive site available for all things Bruford. Here he may be confident at least that the facts come straight from the horse’s mouth. But he may have to come to me – from here on in, I shan’t be going to him.

Many thanks to  James Donegan - 1/1/2010 11:45:30 PM Shirley - 12/23/2009 6:31:52 AM,  Ray - 12/23/2009 11:50:43 AM, Matthew Baker - 12/6/2009 12:24:57 PM and loads of others for seasonal greetings, and to those who’ve provided warm feedback on the book - Scott Robbins - 12/6/2009 11:19:43 AM; Trond - 11/13/2009 6:06:01 AM and many others – all much appreciated.

With a recent class at the University of East London. “I sense an increasing gulf…”

SOME ANSWERS...

Paul Humphries - 1/16/2010 1:15:29 PM: OK, see you at Jagz in Ascot on January 28^th.

Nav Jhaj - 1/4/2010 8:13:43 AM : Nav, we’ve got our tenses muddled up. I didn’t say that drumming had fossilised, but that it had been prevented from fossilising by all the good things you say.

SkaaDee - 12/25/2009 4:50:35 PM  What a wonderful poem! Great writing. I hope others read it and may your work be garlanded with flowers.

Nav Jhaj - 12/23/2009 8:18:40 PM.  Probably right. I’m sure a lot of these movie directors and producers are closet proggers. Vincent Gallo (Buffalo ’66) for example.

Richard Deem - 12/23/2009 4:01:13 AM asks: “What decade was the most fun for you to play in King Crimson. 70's 80's or 90's ? After all, music is supposed to fun , isn't it ?” It is indeed, Richard.  I liked the 80’s Crimson the best. One of my favourite albums of the band is ‘Absent Lovers’ DGM9804 - a double Live CD from Montreal in 1984, the last night we played together.

Billy Middlemiss - 12/19/2009 7:31:28 AM: Thanks for the interesting character-analysis of people with the name Bill! I’m not sure how big your sample was – maybe three or four people?! I have no problem with people making suggestions -  and they do, mostly about whom I should be playing with – after all, I invited it! I’m very good at ignoring stuff too, hopefully like the other Bills in your analysis.

Dane Terry - 12/18/2009 4:27:13 PM – Dane, I’m sorry I don’t remember the story, but I’m glad we a had a few minutes to make friends. You must have got me on a good day!

Condor ~ USA - 12/18/2009 2:03:05 PM:  Yes, Pete Lockett’s Network of Sparks (the album is called ‘One’ )  Summerfold BBSF024 CD should be in the online store about now.  Thanks for holding on to get it from our shop – the modest profit we make over there goes to bringing out more music, so your custom is always welcomed and appreciated.

before? Do you find yourself going to musical places you didn't previously. When you listen to music do you listen in a way that you didn't before? Have you discovered new elements that were not apparent before? How about other activities? Does retirement change life's experiences a little or a lot? Your autobiography answered many of the questions we all had about your professional experiences; your thoughtful and thought provoking stories have made me wonder where that introspective mind of yours has wandered lately. I am fascinated about the "new" Bruford and what he is thinking and feeling. Thank you in advance!

Scott Ellsworth - 12/6/2009 1:08:17 PM describes Holdsworth instrumental clinics prior to a gig at the Tralf in Buffalo the following evening. Sounds great – I wish Ginger Baker and Graham Bond and John McLaughlin had taken time to walk us all through it when I was a kid! When I re-joined with ABWH briefly in 1989 I was older and wiser, and knew at least that the musical gulf between us was too great to consider the daunting prospect of writing fresh material together. That wouldn’t have worked in my case.

Matthew Baker - 12/6/2009 12:24:57 PM asks why was it that “The Owl thought you weren't ready for Crimson back when you joined them?”  Matt - I was more ready when I joined them, and pretty unready six months earlier. Maturity? I was growing up fast.

Davo - 11/16/2009 3:50:43 PM has a question “on your health and the perils of drumming. Now that Phil Collins has retired from drumming apparently due to back/neck problems I'm wondering if this condition is common among drummers and do you suffer from this malady to any degree to the point it influenced you to retire? (If this sort of thing is referenced in the book, my apologies.) Along those lines, how is your hearing beyond the usual that comes with our advancing age? And finally, what sort of physical workout, if any, did you employ to hold up against 30 plus years of 2 hour shows, city after city, night after night?”

Well, drummers are dropping like flies with sundry maladies, but not perhaps at a greater rate than other members of the population, and nothing like violinists, who are the leading authorities on neck and back pain. I’m in good health; my hearing is down a whisker but well within a range considered normal for my age-group. I never really did ‘city after city, night after night’. I did very little touring. 2885 gigs in 41 years works out at an average of 1.3 gigs a week, or about 5 a month. Not a lot – and I was never a very heavy hitter.  Drumming keeps you fit, and isn’t dangerous so long as you don’t play absurdly loud and you have good posture at the kit. Heck, you’re even sitting down all night!

Rv - 11/14/2009 6:11:15 AM asks a little-asked question about other instruments I’ve played on record, and cites a credit for ‘Moog’ on America by Yes. I don’t remember that, but if a few notes were required here and there from a bored drummer hanging about wating to get the record finished, it wasn’t a problem! More seriously, I studied mallets (marimba, vibraphone, xylophone) quite hard, with my debut on vibraphone coming on ‘Sweetness’ by Yes, on the band’s first album in 1969-ish. I kept it going for about another ten years, with xylophone in King Crimson’s Fracture and several improvisations. Mallet instruments were heavy in my own band – Bruford - on Feels Good To Me, and peaking with some nifty marimba on ‘One of a kind’. By then I was running the band and writing the music and didn’t seem to have time to keep them going. The bigger instruments were also too expensive to provide for the occasional live performance.

Thanks for the kind words about the book.

Dave Burgess - 11/9/2009 2:30:53 AM: Thanks Dave, I’ll keep my eyes skinned for Trio VD.

Steve Townsend - 11/7/2009 5:58:32 PM:   I’m sure!

Copyright © 2005 Bill Bruford Productions Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Site Maintained by Mouselike.org