http://news.qthemusic.com/2010/12/top_10_drummers.htmlIn Q295, Q Magazine counted down their favourite sticksmen and woman. Here they are in all their finery, and not a drummer joke in sight! But do you agree with the selection? Feel free to tell us in the comments below.
10. RENI
He got the funk
Laid-back, enigmatic and seldom seen without his signature hat, The Stone Roses' Reni could play anything, from '60s garage pop to wig-out psyche rock - producer John Leckie even noting that the sampled funk loop on Fools Gold didn't sound right until Reni played along to it.
9. Matt Helders
P diddy's sticksman of choice
He may have stated that he took up the drums because it was the only instrument left unclaimed in the Arctic Monkeys, but Helders's untutored energy and rasping snare rolls remain as integral to the band's appeal as Alex Turner's angular riffs. Indeed, his skills are now more widely appreciated than ever, with rap mogul P Diddy recently inviting the "funky and soulful" Helders to join up with his Dirty Money crew.
8.?uestlove
The roots' soul brother #1
For years hip hop drew on two sources for its beats - the metronomic thump of Roland's famous 808 drum machine and samples from '70s funk. Ahmir Thompson, however, the spectacularly Afro-ed power behind Philadelphia rap collective The Roots, combines both, emulating the machine-like crunch of early Def Jam and James Brown's militantly funky drummers. Little wonder he's in such demand among his peers, most recently beefing up the backbeats for soul crooner John Legend.
7. Moe Tucker
She does it standing up
Rock drummers tend to be viewed as a macho breed, yet during her time in The Velvet Underground, Moe Tucker was the polar opposite, with a cool, detached drumming style as uniquely unconventional as her blank, androgynous appearance. Not only did she play standing up, she used mallets rather than sticks on her four-piece kit - a pared-down approach that later inspired Bobby Gillespie-era Jesus And Mary Chain and, naturally, Meg White.
6. John Bonham
Led Zeppelin's titanic tub-thumper
The undisputed king of '70s rock, John "Bonzo" Bonham hit as hard as he partied, famously using the heaviest drumsticks available - which he nicknamed "trees" - to pound out intense 15-minute drum solos. His premature death marked the end of Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant remarking that Bonham's was "an impossible role to fill", only to be resurrected via early hip hop (the Beastie Boys sampled his thunderous drum break from When The Levee Breaks) and Spinal Tap's self-destructing drummer gags.
5. Joey Jordison
Slipknot's masked marauder
Recently voted the best drummer of the past 25 years by Rhythm magazine - an award he described as "beyond unbelieveable" - the Slipknot man has skills even more terrifying than his stage mask. A master of blurred, double kick-drum riffage, he's since taken the drum solo to previously untested angles, performing on a rotating drum riser which tips forward 90 degrees while illuminated by a glowing pentangle. Not even Tommy Lee attempted that.
4. Sly Dunbar
Reggae's rhythm king
Alongside bassist Robbie Shakespeare, Lowell "Sly" Dunbar reinvented Jamaican reggae, his relaxed tempos and dub-inspired double rimshots anchoring great '70s roots albums by Peter Tosh and The Mighty Diamonds. No doubt aware he was irreplaceable, Dunbar wasn't troubled by the arrival of the drum machine, effortlessly blending synth-pop, disco and dancehall on Grace Jones's run of classic early-'80s albums - though even he couldn't repeat the feat for Mick Jagger's She's The Boss.
3. Neil Peart
Rush's professor of paradiddle
A drummer joke: What's the last thing a band wants their drummer to say? "Want to try one of my songs?" Unless it's Neil Peart, of course, the rhythmic brain behind Canadian "power trio" Rush, and the group's primary lyricist and songwriter. Equally renowned for his roiling tom-tom breaks and improbably gigantic kits - for a time he boasted back-to-back electronic and acoustic rigs - Peart also introduced future generations of math-rock nerds to the mysteries of 5/4 time signatures and the paradiddle-diddle.
2. Stewart Copeland
Gobby yank. Sting's nemesis. Drum guru
He may have looked like an off-duty tennis coach, but it was Copeland's blend of rock power, reggae-inspired timing and jazz finesse which propelled The Police from the London punk circuit to global ubiquity. And while the headbands were in dubious taste, there was no questioning his technique and infectious enthusiasm, whether travelling Africa as "The Rhythmatist" or flicking his drumsticks against the engines of a Saturn V rocket in the video for 1979 chart-topper Walking On The Moon.
1. Keith Moon
Not called "moon the loon" for nothing...
The most famous drummer in rock - with good reason. Prior to Moon, drummers mostly sat at the back of the stage keeping time, a convention he upended with a combination of wild showmanship, rampant hedonism and the kind of unstoppable backbeat which powered The Who's My Generation. Tragically, his alcohol intake was as prodigious as his talent and he died aged just 32. But the legend lives on, thanks to incidents such as the time he detonated a firework inside his bass drum live on US TV.
And the worst drummer...
Tommy Lee
MÖtley Crüe muppet
More notorious for his offstage antics, Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee masked his obvious limitations with charisma, mayhem and ludicrous drum solos performed upside down inside a hydraulic cage. At least he can now laugh at himself - a recent internet clip shows him "playing" the breasts of a troupe of bikini models.
Can't argue with who is number 1. Keith Moon is the greatest drummer ever to of lived and it's a shame his lifestyle took his life from him at such a young age. RIP Keith.
