B.J. Wilson
Encyclopedia
Barrie James "B.J." Wilson (18 March 1947 — 8 October 1990) was an English
rock
drummer
.
, London
, England
, Wilson was the drummer
for Procol Harum
. He did not play on their first hit "A Whiter Shade of Pale
" (jazz
session
drummer Bill Eyden
did), but joined the group soon afterwards. As a result he played on the follow-up single "Homburg
" and their first album (Procol Harum
). He also played on the later hit single, the live version of "Conquistador
". Wilson was the only stable member of the band
besides Gary Brooker
during their commercial and artistic peak from 1967 to 1977. He had a powerful, distinctive style - he sat very low behind his kit (often side-on at the side of the stage) and was once referred to as like an 'Octopus in a Bathtub'.{Steve Peacock in SOUNDS magazine, reviewing a 1971 concert: Peacock actually wrote, unfairly, that B.J. thrashed around like "an octopus in a hot tub."}
A 1974 Danish TV recording of the band was released as a 6-track "extra" on the 2009 DVD "Procol Harum in concert with the Danish National Concert Orchestra and Choir".
Although he lacked the name recognition as other great drummers of his generation, Wilson is considered to be one of the greatest drummers in rock music, and was voted Best Drummer in the popular Playboy Music Polls of the early 1970s. He declined an offer by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant to be the original drummer for Led Zeppelin.
After Procol Harum disbanded in 1977, Wilson played on Frankie Miller
's Double Trouble album
in 1978, and was a member of Joe Cocker
's touring band between 1979 and 1984. Their concert
in Calgary
is featured on the DVD
Joe Cocker Live (1981) and he is also featured in two Berlin concerts on the 2008 Joe Cocker DVD Cry Me A River (The Rockpalast Collection). He was also the drummer on Cocker's hit single
, "With a Little Help from My Friends
", recorded in 1968.
In 1984 Wilson played briefly with Patrick Landreville, a former member of the 1960s cult band RHS, which included bandmates Bob Siebenberg
(Supertramp
), Scott Gorham
(Thin Lizzy
) and John Boutell (Beauregard Ajax).
In 1983 Wilson was brought in to play drums on AC/DC
's Flick Of The Switch
album, after their drummer Phil Rudd
left the band close to the end of the recording
for the album. No tracks recorded by Wilson were used on the finished album according to engineer and soon after replaced by drummer Simon Wright.
Wilson was the drummer on the film
soundtrack
of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
, on which his former Procol Harum bandmate, guitarist Mick Grabham
, also played. According to IMDb, Wilson's friend, prominent film composer, Richard Hartley
, was the one who invited him to drum on that soundtrack, and Wilson brought Grabham in to play guitar.
Wilson's last recorded work was on the 1985 Gary Brooker
solo
album, Echoes in the Night, along with his former Procol Harum bandmates Keith Reid
and Matthew Fisher
, on tracks "Ghost Train," "The Long Goodbye" "Hear What You're Saying" and "Mr. Blue Day".
He died in Eugene
, Oregon
, following a long illness, at the age of 43. He was married and had two daughters.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
.
Career
Born in EdmontonEdmonton, London
Edmonton is an area in the east of the London Borough of Enfield, England, north-north-east of Charing Cross. It has a long history as a settlement distinct from Enfield.-Location:...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Wilson was the drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
for Procol Harum
Procol Harum
Procol Harum are a British rock band, formed in 1967, which contributed to the development of progressive rock, and by extension, symphonic rock. Their best-known recording is their 1967 single "A Whiter Shade of Pale"...
. He did not play on their first hit "A Whiter Shade of Pale
A Whiter Shade of Pale
"A Whiter Shade of Pale" is the debut song by the British band Procol Harum, released 12 May 1967. The single reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 8 June 1967, and stayed there for six weeks. Without much promotion, it reached #5 on the US charts, as well...
" (jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
session
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
drummer Bill Eyden
Bill Eyden
Bill Eyden was a renowned English jazz drummer....
did), but joined the group soon afterwards. As a result he played on the follow-up single "Homburg
Homburg (song)
Homburg was Procol Harum's follow-up single to their initial 1967 hit "A Whiter Shade of Pale". Written by pianist Gary Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid, "Homburg" reached number 5 in the UK charts, number 15 in Canada, and number 34 in the United States...
" and their first album (Procol Harum
Procol Harum (album)
Procol Harum is the self-titled first album by British rock band Procol Harum, released in September 1967. The original Deram release of the LP included a large poster of the album cover artwork by Dickinson....
). He also played on the later hit single, the live version of "Conquistador
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
". Wilson was the only stable member of the band
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
besides Gary Brooker
Gary Brooker
Gary Brooker, MBE, is an English singer, songwriter, pianist and founder of the rock band Procol Harum. Brooker was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours on 14 June 2003, in recognition of his charitable services.-Early life:Brooker was born in...
during their commercial and artistic peak from 1967 to 1977. He had a powerful, distinctive style - he sat very low behind his kit (often side-on at the side of the stage) and was once referred to as like an 'Octopus in a Bathtub'.{Steve Peacock in SOUNDS magazine, reviewing a 1971 concert: Peacock actually wrote, unfairly, that B.J. thrashed around like "an octopus in a hot tub."}
A 1974 Danish TV recording of the band was released as a 6-track "extra" on the 2009 DVD "Procol Harum in concert with the Danish National Concert Orchestra and Choir".
Although he lacked the name recognition as other great drummers of his generation, Wilson is considered to be one of the greatest drummers in rock music, and was voted Best Drummer in the popular Playboy Music Polls of the early 1970s. He declined an offer by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant to be the original drummer for Led Zeppelin.
After Procol Harum disbanded in 1977, Wilson played on Frankie Miller
Frankie Miller
Frankie Miller is a Scottish rock singer-songwriter, who had his biggest success in the 1970s. Miller was raised at Colvend Street, Glasgow with his parents, Cathy and Frank, and elder sisters Letty and Anne. Miller attended Sacred Heart Primary school. He was an altar boy in Sacred Heart Chapel...
's Double Trouble album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
in 1978, and was a member of Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
's touring band between 1979 and 1984. Their concert
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
in Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
is featured on the DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
Joe Cocker Live (1981) and he is also featured in two Berlin concerts on the 2008 Joe Cocker DVD Cry Me A River (The Rockpalast Collection). He was also the drummer on Cocker's hit single
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
, "With a Little Help from My Friends
With a Little Help from My Friends
-Joe Cocker version:Joe Cocker's version was a radical re-arrangement of the original, in a slower, 6/8 meter, using different chords in the middle eight, and a lengthy instrumental introduction...
", recorded in 1968.
In 1984 Wilson played briefly with Patrick Landreville, a former member of the 1960s cult band RHS, which included bandmates Bob Siebenberg
Bob Siebenberg
Bob Siebenberg, also known as Bob C. Benberg, is an American musician, best known as a member of British progressive rock band Supertramp, playing drums and percussion...
(Supertramp
Supertramp
Supertramp are a British rock band formed in 1969 under the name Daddy before renaming to Supertramp in early 1970. Though their music was initially categorised as progressive rock, they have since incorporated a combination of traditional rock and art rock into their music...
), Scott Gorham
Scott Gorham
Scott Gorham is an American guitarist and songwriter who rose to international recognition as one of the "twin lead guitarists" of the Irish-formed rock band, Thin Lizzy...
(Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Two of the founding members, drummer Brian Downey and bass guitarist/vocalist Phil Lynott met while still in school. Lynott assumed the role of frontman and led them throughout their recording career of thirteen studio albums...
) and John Boutell (Beauregard Ajax).
In 1983 Wilson was brought in to play drums on AC/DC
AC/DC
AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...
's Flick Of The Switch
Flick of the Switch
Flick of the Switch is the ninth Australian and eighth international studio album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, recorded shortly after their European Tour at the beginning of 1983. The album was originally released in the US on 15 August 1983...
album, after their drummer Phil Rudd
Phil Rudd
Phillip Hugh Norman Rudd is an Australian drummer. He is best known for his membership of rock band AC/DC from 1975 until 1983, and again from 1994 to present. After the 1977 departure of bass guitarist Mark Evans, he became the only Australian-born member of the band...
left the band close to the end of the recording
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
for the album. No tracks recorded by Wilson were used on the finished album according to engineer and soon after replaced by drummer Simon Wright.
Wilson was the drummer on the film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show, written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940s through early 1970s. Director Jim Sharman collaborated on the...
, on which his former Procol Harum bandmate, guitarist Mick Grabham
Mick Grabham
Mick Grabham played lead guitar for Procol Harum after the departure of Dave Ball, beginning with their album, Grand Hotel through to Something Magic...
, also played. According to IMDb, Wilson's friend, prominent film composer, Richard Hartley
Richard Hartley
Richard Hartley is a British composer.His work is extensive and varied, including musical arrangement for theatre and many scores for television and film. In the 1970s he began a long association with Richard O'Brien. Hartley was originally part of the four-piece band for the Rocky Horror Show. ...
, was the one who invited him to drum on that soundtrack, and Wilson brought Grabham in to play guitar.
Wilson's last recorded work was on the 1985 Gary Brooker
Gary Brooker
Gary Brooker, MBE, is an English singer, songwriter, pianist and founder of the rock band Procol Harum. Brooker was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours on 14 June 2003, in recognition of his charitable services.-Early life:Brooker was born in...
solo
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
album, Echoes in the Night, along with his former Procol Harum bandmates Keith Reid
Keith Reid
Keith Reid is a songwriter who wrote the lyrics of every Procol Harum song that is not a cover...
and Matthew Fisher
Matthew Fisher
Matthew Fisher is an English organist and singer-songwriter, and was responsible for the organ sound on the 1967 single, "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum.-Biography:...
, on tracks "Ghost Train," "The Long Goodbye" "Hear What You're Saying" and "Mr. Blue Day".
He died in Eugene
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, following a long illness, at the age of 43. He was married and had two daughters.
External links
- B.J. Wilson's extensive fan page at procolharum.com
- Master Drummer B.J. Wilson: one fan's tribute