Richard John Cyril "Rick" Allen (born November 1, 1963,
DronfieldDronfield is a town in North East Derbyshire, England formed by the three communities of Dronfield, Dronfield Woodhouse and Coal Aston.-Geography:...
,
DerbyshireDerbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains...
,
EnglandEngland 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 and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
) is the
drummerA drummer is a person who plays drums, particularly a drum kit , marching percussion or hand drums. The term percussionist applies to a musician performing on any percussion instrument, but usually refers to one who plays classical or Latin percussion. Most bands for Rock, Pop, Jazz, R&B etc...
for the
EnglishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
hard rock band
Def LeppardDef Leppard are an English rock band from Sheffield, who formed in 1977 as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. Largely on the strength of their albums Pyromania and Hysteria, Def Leppard became one of the top-selling rock bands throughout the 1980s, selling over 65 million albums...
. He is famous for overcoming the complete amputation of his left arm and continuing to play with the band, which subsequently went on to its greatest popular success worldwide.
Childhood and early career
The son of Geoff and Kathleen (Daly), Allen started out drumming with his mother's kitchen utensils when he was five, using a
tambourineThe tambourine or Marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils"...
as additional percussion. At about the age of 10 he successfully persuaded his parents to get him a drumkit; by agreeing to take lessons and paying half the cost of the kit. He got a red sparkle Del-Ray drum kit; after six months of lessons he began playing with his first band, Smokey Blue. Later on he played with bands called Rampant and the Johnny Kalendar Band.
Def Leppard
When Allen was 15, his father replied on his behalf (Allen himself didn't want to reply, as he was ready to give up the drums) to an ad placed by a band called Def Leppard looking for a
drummerA drummer is a person who plays drums, particularly a drum kit , marching percussion or hand drums. The term percussionist applies to a musician performing on any percussion instrument, but usually refers to one who plays classical or Latin percussion. Most bands for Rock, Pop, Jazz, R&B etc...
to replace
Tony KenningTony Kenning was Def Leppard's original drummer.-Def Leppard:He attended Tapton School in Sheffield with fellow founder members Rick Savage and Pete Willis. With them, he formed Atomic Mass in 1977, which morphed into Def Leppard in November 1977...
("Leppard loses skins" was the ad's headline), and on November 28, 1978, Allen joined the band. In 1979, he dropped out of school (other band members quit their jobs around the same time) to concentrate on a career in music. In September of that year, they opened for
Sammy HagarSamuel Roy "Sammy" Hagar , known as "The Red Rocker", is an American rock singer, guitarist, composer and solo artist. Hagar was one of the three singers for Van Halen, as well as of the early 1970s rock band Montrose. On March 12, 2007, Hagar was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a...
at
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
's Hammersmith Odeon and in October and November played shows as a support act for
AC/DCAC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Although the band are commonly classified as hard rock and are considered pioneers of heavy metal, they have always classified their music as "rock and roll".AC/DC underwent several line-up...
; Allen celebrated his 16th birthday with a performance at the Hammersmith Odeon. On March 14, 1980, the band released their first album,
On Through the NightOn Through the Night is the debut album by British heavy metal band Def Leppard, released in 1980. It features rerecorded versions of "Rocks Off" and "Overture", tracks from the band's original independently released EP, The Def Leppard E.P. Other tracks are rerecorded versions of early demos, some...
. Since their first album, Allen still continues to record and tour with the band.
Accident and recovery
On December 31 1984, on the way to a New Year's Eve party at his family's home in
SheffieldSheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city has grown from its largely industrial roots to encompass a wider economic base...
, England, 21-year-old Allen was driving his Corvette when a Alfa Romeo passed him. The driver had been egging Allen on and would not allow him to pass. In his rage to pass this driver, he did not see a turn up ahead and lost control of his car, which sailed over a stone wall and into a field. He was thrown from the car, with his left arm severed due to the seatbelt not being properly fastened. The car ended up upside down, with his girlfriend Miriam Barendsen secure in her seat. She was not seriously injured, and found Allen in the field. They were helped by a passerby, who was a nurse, and Allen was taken to a hospital. Doctors initially reattached Allen's arm, but due to infection it was removed again. He left the hospital three and a half weeks later, with recuperation expected to last six months.
Allen thought that he could no longer be the great drummer of Def Leppard and he was very depressed so the singer of Def Leppard, Joe Elliot stopped by to see Allen, trying to cheer him up. Soon after Elliot and Allen sat down with some engineers and started to design a drum set to assist Allen's drumming. After all of this he could still play some drum beats with one hand, using his left foot (typically for hi-hat pedals in common drumsets), to play the snare drum. Former
Status QuoStatus Quo, also known as The Quo or just Quo, are an English rock band whose music is characterized by their distinctive brand of boogie rock....
drummer
Jeff RichJeff Rich is an English rock drummer, who is best known as a former drummer for the English rock band, Status Quo...
was a source of help and encouragement during Allen's convalescence, and they designed an electronic kit Allen could play using only one arm. (The
LudwigLudwig-Musser is a drum and percussion instrument manufacturer owned by Conn-Selmer, Inc.-History:The company was formed in 1909 as Ludwig & Ludwig by brothers William F. and Theo Ludwig. The brothers' first product was a bass drum pedal capable of playing faster beats than was typical of products...
acoustic drum kit he used on earlier albums
High 'n' Dry and
Pyromania was later given away by Def Leppard's onetime management.)
Electronic drumAn electronic drum is a percussion instrument in which the sound is generated by an electronic waveform generator or sampler instead of by acoustic vibration.-How electronic drums work:...
manufacturer
SimmonsSimmons was a pioneering British manufacturer of electronic drums that supplied electronic kits from 1980 to the early 1990s. The drums' distinctive, electronic sound can be found on countless albums from the 1980s....
created a kit to their specifications, and Allen made his post-accident debut in 1986 with a well-received set at the "
Monsters of RockMonsters of Rock was an annual hard rock music festival in England held every August at the Castle Donington racetrack from 1980–1996 . Monsters of Rock festivals have also been organized in other cities around the world...
" festival at
Castle DoningtonCastle Donington is a large village, with a population of around 7000 in the North West of Leicestershire, part of the Derby postcode area and on the edge of the National Forest. It is the closest village to East Midlands Airport and DHL which are major employers...
. In August 1987, the band released their fourth album,
Hysteria, which, after a relatively slow start in the U.S., ultimately became another huge success, selling over 20 million copies worldwide.R
1978-1984
Allen used Pearl Drums from 1978-1980. From 1980-1984
LudwigLudwig-Musser is a drum and percussion instrument manufacturer owned by Conn-Selmer, Inc.-History:The company was formed in 1909 as Ludwig & Ludwig by brothers William F. and Theo Ludwig. The brothers' first product was a bass drum pedal capable of playing faster beats than was typical of products...
drum set and
PaistePaiste, a Swiss manufacturer and designer, is one of the world's largest manufacturers of cymbals, gongs, and metal percussion. Paiste is an Estonian/Finnish word which means "shine". The company's website indicates that "the correct pronunciation for 'Paiste' is 'Pie-stee', or as Mario Calire of...
's RUDE and 2002 cymbal lines during the
High 'N' DryHigh 'n' Dry is the second studio album by British heavy metal band Def Leppard, released on July 11, 1981 and the last studio album by the band to feature original co-lead guitarist Pete Willis, who was fired in 1982 for excessive alcohol consumption Its title song "High...
and
PyromaniaPyromania is the third studio album by British heavy metal band Def Leppard, released in 1983. It broke the band across North America and in Japan, and would sell over 10 million copies in the US alone...
recording and touring sessions. The drums for the
Pyromania album were computer generated.
His setup for 1980-1982 consisted of nine pieces: snare (6-1/2" x 14"), bass (16" x 22"), four rack toms (11" x 12", 12" x 13", 13" x 14", and 14" x 15"), two floor toms (16" x 16" and 16" x 18") which were suspended by a Ludwig cymbal stand, and a gong drum (15" x 16"). And in early 1983 he removed the gong tom and two of the rack toms from his drum set. The reason when asked at a Meet & Greet was that the 14" x 15" tom broke and so Rick replaced that with the "gong" drum. Also, when asked why he removed the rest of the drums from the set, Rick replied, "I got tired of lugging them around on tour".
1985-Present
Most electronic drums use piezoelectric triggers which sense a hit from a drumstick or a pedal and activate a sampled or synthesized sound in response. The customized kit built by Simmons for Allen included drum pads (placed primarily in front of Allen and to his right) triggering the sound of the
snare drumThe snare drum is a drum with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom...
and
tomsA tom-tom is a cylindrical drum with no snare.The tom-tom originates from Native American or Asian cultures...
, to be played with his surviving arm, combined with multiple pedals (mainly placed on the floor to his left) duplicating many of the same sounds. This allowed Allen (after much practice) to play patterns using his right hand and left foot that two-armed drummers would typically play with their right and left hands. Allen subsequently experimented with hardware from other electronic percussion companies, such as Clavia's
drumThe drum is a member of the percussion group of music instruments, technically classified as a membranophone.. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with parts of a player's body, or with some sort of...
system, Forat's F/16 system, and the Hart Dynamics Acupad system.
In more recent years, as the undisguisedly artificial drum sound popular in the 80s has largely disappeared, Allen has favored a sound more like that of an
acousticAcoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...
drum kit, using the electronic pads to trigger samples made from recordings of Allen's acoustic drums.
Allen's current setup uses DW acoustic drums, Zildjian acoustic cymbals, Hart Dynamics Acupad electronic pads, Akai samplers, and custom-manufactured cable routing by Whirlwind. He uses four electronic pedals for his left foot to play the pieces he used to play with his left arm, which from left to right trigger sounds of a closing hi-hat, bass drum, snare drum, and a tom drum. He is ranked #7 on the UK website Gigwise in the
100 Greatest Drummers Of All Time list.
On the 14th of June 2009, Allen headlined
Download FestivalThe Download Festival is a three day music download festival held annually at Donington Park, England...
with the rest of Def Leppard. Towards the end of the set, vocalist Joe Elliot dedicated the set to Rick in scenes reminiscent of their 1986 Monsters Of Rock performance. What followed was well over five minutes of ovation from the crowd and Allen being taken aback with tears.
Side projects
- Even though he was not credited, Allen co-wrote the soundtrack to a 1998 Disney TV-movie called "Brink!
Brink! is a 1998 Disney Channel Original Movie set in the backdrop of casual inline skating. Scenes from the film were shot at Malibu High School and Zuma Beach in Malibu, California. The tagline for this movie is It Takes A Champ To Stay In Line...
"
- In May and June 2000 he played two shows with the Mark Mason Project, featuring guitarist Mark Englert
Mark Englert is an American musician who has been a member of Dramarama since 1982. He has appeared with Dramarama on "Late Night With David Letterman", "VH-1", and "The Tonight Show". He has worked with a number of established musicians including Benmont Tench from Tom Petty and The...
previously of Dramarama.
- Allen has also written some music with his wife Lauren.
- In November 2004, Allen collaborated with Krishna Das in the recording of a CD entitled All One.
Personal life
Allen was married on October 10, 2003, to Lauren Monroe. Allen is the co-founder of Raven Drum Foundation, a charity located in
Malibu, CaliforniaMalibu is an incorporated city in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population is 12,575....
, to encourage disabled children to overcome their challenges. Allen also has a daughter from a previous marriage, Lauren Shane born on May 10, 1997.
External links