Ronnie Verrell
Encyclopedia
Ronald 'Ronnie' Thomas Verrell (21 February 1926 – 22 February 2002) was an English
jazz drummer. He played in two of the United Kingdom's "most famous" big bands, The Ted Heath
Orchestra and The Syd Lawrence
Orchestra. Verrell also worked extensively in television, including as a drummer in Jack Parnell
's ATV
Orchestra and Sunday Night at the London Palladium
. He also provided the drumming for The Muppet Show
s Animal
, and was a "Skinnerett" on The Frank Skinner Show
.
The Scotsman
called Verrell a "driving band drummer" and an "exciting soloist". The Daily Telegraph
said Verrel had a "rare combination of craftsmanship and bravura showmanship" and called him "Britain's best-known big band drummer for half a century".
in England. Initially he showed little interest in music until he saw The Benny Goodman
Quartet perform in a film, Hollywood Hotel
in 1938. Verrell was so impressed by what he saw, he stayed to watch the film a second time. He wanted to be a drummer and taught himself how to play after only one lesson. In 1940, after the outbreak of World War II
, the 14-year-old Verrel was evacuated to Porthcawl
in South Wales, where he made his first public appearances drumming with local bands in the area. He returned to Kent in 1943 and worked professionally for a while with the Claude Giddins band, before being conscripted
to work as a Bevin Boy
in the coal mines for the remainder of the war.
In the mid-1940s Verrell began performing with Scottish saxophonist Tommy Whittle
and Belgian trumpeter Johnny Claes. Then between 1947 and 1951 he played with several big band
s, including those led by Carl Barriteau
and Cyril Stapleton
. In September 1951 Verrell joined The Ted Heath
Orchestra and remained with the band until Heath’s retirement in 1964. At the time Heath’s band was the leading British big band, and they performed at many concerts, including Sunday-night swing sessions at the London Palladium
. They toured America in 1956 and were the first British big band to break into the US big band arena. Verrell played on many Heath hits, including "The Champ", "Hot Toddy" and "Swingin' Shepherd Blues". One of his best known drum solos with the orchestra was the "Hawaiian War Chant".
After leaving Heath’s band Verrell focused on session work
and backed many popular artists, including Winifred Atwell
, Jack Jones
, Tony Bennett
, Tom Jones
, Shirley Bassey
and Strawbs. Verrell also joined Jack Parnell
’s house band
at ATV
, playing with them for ten years. In 1980 Verrell joined Syd Lawrence
's band and stayed with them for almost 20 years.
Verrell also performed in several television shows, including The Muppet Show
where he played drums for the show's manic puppet drummer, Animal
. When American drummer Buddy Rich
, one of Verrell's heroes, guested on the show, Verrell (as Animal) had a drumming duel with Rich, and won after Animal smashed a snare drum
over Rich's head.
In the mid-1990s, Verrell formed his own band, a quintet
he modelled after Benny Goodman's band. Several years later Verrell was involved in a serious road accident that forced him to stop performing for almost a year. But after recovering he continued to play with Lawrence's band. In 2000 Verrell toured with an all-star band, Best of British, where his drum solos earned him standing ovations. His final appearance was on The Frank Skinner Show
in 2001.
Verrell died on 22 February 2002 in Kingston-upon-Thames in England, one day after his 76th birthday. The cause of death was a chest infection he contracted during an operation to fix a crushed vertebra resulting from a fall he had had down some stairs in November 2001. Verrell was married three times and had three daughters, Sherry, Faye and Lara. He also has three grandchildren, Sherry's son David, Faye's daughter Bethany and Lara's daughter Ellie-Jaye.
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...
jazz drummer. He played in two of the United Kingdom's "most famous" big bands, The Ted Heath
Ted Heath (bandleader)
Ted Heath, musician and big band leader, led Britain's greatest post-war big band recording more than 100 albums and selling over 20 million records...
Orchestra and The Syd Lawrence
Syd Lawrence
Syd Lawrence , was a British bandleader from Chester, England, who became famous in the UK for his orchestra's Big Band sound, which drew on the 1940s style of music of Glenn Miller and Count Basie amongst others....
Orchestra. Verrell also worked extensively in television, including as a drummer in Jack Parnell
Jack Parnell
John Russell Parnell was an English bandleader and musician.-Biography:Parnell was born into a theatrical family in London....
's ATV
Associated TeleVision
Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...
Orchestra and Sunday Night at the London Palladium
Sunday Night at the London Palladium
Sunday Night at the London Palladium is a British television variety show produced by ATV for the ITV network, originally running from 1955 to 1967, with a brief revival in 1973 and 1974...
. He also provided the drumming for The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show is a British television programme produced by American puppeteer Jim Henson and featuring Muppets. After two pilot episodes were produced in 1974 and 1975, the show premiered on 5 September 1976 and five series were produced until 15 March 1981, lasting 120 episodes...
s Animal
Animal (Muppet)
Animal is the primitive man and crazed drummer of Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem, the fictional band from The Muppet Show. He is one of the Muppets originally created by Michael K...
, and was a "Skinnerett" on The Frank Skinner Show
The Frank Skinner Show
The Frank Skinner Show was a television chat show hosted by comedian Frank Skinner which lasted nine series on British television between 1995 and 2005.It was screened on BBC One from its first episode on 10 September 1995 until 3 June 1999....
.
The Scotsman
The Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
called Verrell a "driving band drummer" and an "exciting soloist". The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
said Verrel had a "rare combination of craftsmanship and bravura showmanship" and called him "Britain's best-known big band drummer for half a century".
Biography
Ronnie Verrell was born on 21 February 1926 in Rochester, KentKent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
in England. Initially he showed little interest in music until he saw The Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
Quartet perform in a film, Hollywood Hotel
Hollywood Hotel (film)
Hollywood Hotel is a 1937 American film, directed by Busby Berkeley. It stars Dick Powell, Rosemary Lane, Lola Lane, and Ted Healy. Ronald Reagan, Benny Goodman and Harry James also appear....
in 1938. Verrell was so impressed by what he saw, he stayed to watch the film a second time. He wanted to be a drummer and taught himself how to play after only one lesson. In 1940, after the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the 14-year-old Verrel was evacuated to Porthcawl
Porthcawl
Porthcawl is a town on the south coast of Wales in the county borough of Bridgend, 25 miles west of the capital city, Cardiff and 19 miles southeast of Swansea...
in South Wales, where he made his first public appearances drumming with local bands in the area. He returned to Kent in 1943 and worked professionally for a while with the Claude Giddins band, before being conscripted
Conscription in the United Kingdom
Conscription in the United Kingdom has existed for two periods in modern times. The first was from 1916 to 1919, the second was from 1939 to 1960, with the last conscripted soldiers leaving the service in 1963...
to work as a Bevin Boy
Bevin Boys
Bevin Boys were young British men conscripted to work in the coal mines of the United Kingdom, from December 1943 until 1948. Chosen at random from conscripts but also including volunteers, nearly 48,000 Bevin Boys performed vital but largely unrecognised service in the mines, many of them...
in the coal mines for the remainder of the war.
In the mid-1940s Verrell began performing with Scottish saxophonist Tommy Whittle
Tommy Whittle
Tommy Whittle is a British jazz saxophonist.Whittle was born in Grangemouth, Scotland and started playing clarinet at age 12 before taking up the tenor saxophone at 13. He moved to Chatham, Kent at 16 and in 1943 started playing in the dance hall band of Claude Giddins in nearby Gillingham...
and Belgian trumpeter Johnny Claes. Then between 1947 and 1951 he played with several big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
s, including those led by Carl Barriteau
Carl Barriteau
Carl Alrich Stanley Barriteau was a jazz clarinetist.Barriteau was raised in Maracaibo, Venezuela. He played tenor horn in Trinidad from 1926 to 1932, then played clarinet in a local police band from 1933 to 1936. At the same time, he also played in Port of Spain with the Jazz Hounds and the...
and Cyril Stapleton
Cyril Stapleton
Cyril Stapleton was an English violinist and jazz bandleader.Born in Mapperley, Nottingham, Stapleton began playing violin at age 7, and played on local radio at the age of 12. He performed on the BBC Radio often in his teenage years, and played in film orchestras accompanying silent films...
. In September 1951 Verrell joined The Ted Heath
Ted Heath (bandleader)
Ted Heath, musician and big band leader, led Britain's greatest post-war big band recording more than 100 albums and selling over 20 million records...
Orchestra and remained with the band until Heath’s retirement in 1964. At the time Heath’s band was the leading British big band, and they performed at many concerts, including Sunday-night swing sessions at the London Palladium
London Palladium
The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...
. They toured America in 1956 and were the first British big band to break into the US big band arena. Verrell played on many Heath hits, including "The Champ", "Hot Toddy" and "Swingin' Shepherd Blues". One of his best known drum solos with the orchestra was the "Hawaiian War Chant".
After leaving Heath’s band Verrell focused on session work
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...
and backed many popular artists, including Winifred Atwell
Winifred Atwell
Una Winifred Atwell Una Winifred Atwell Una Winifred Atwell (27 February or April 1910 or 1914There is some uncertainty over her date and year of birth. Many sources suggest 27 February 1914, but there is a strong suggestion that her birthday was 27 April. Most sources give her year of birth as...
, Jack Jones
Jack Jones (singer)
John Allan "Jack" Jones is an American jazz and pop singer. He was one of the most popular vocalists of the 1960s.-Overview:...
, Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....
, Tom Jones
Tom Jones (singer)
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...
, Shirley Bassey
Shirley Bassey
Dame Shirley Bassey, DBE , is a Welsh singer. She found fame in the late 1950s and was "one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century"...
and Strawbs. Verrell also joined Jack Parnell
Jack Parnell
John Russell Parnell was an English bandleader and musician.-Biography:Parnell was born into a theatrical family in London....
’s house band
House band
For the British band that existed from 1984-2001, see The House BandA house band is a group of musicians, often centrally organized by a band leader, who regularly play an establishment. It is widely used to refer both to the bands who work on entertainment programs on television or radio, and to...
at ATV
Associated TeleVision
Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...
, playing with them for ten years. In 1980 Verrell joined Syd Lawrence
Syd Lawrence
Syd Lawrence , was a British bandleader from Chester, England, who became famous in the UK for his orchestra's Big Band sound, which drew on the 1940s style of music of Glenn Miller and Count Basie amongst others....
's band and stayed with them for almost 20 years.
Verrell also performed in several television shows, including The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show is a British television programme produced by American puppeteer Jim Henson and featuring Muppets. After two pilot episodes were produced in 1974 and 1975, the show premiered on 5 September 1976 and five series were produced until 15 March 1981, lasting 120 episodes...
where he played drums for the show's manic puppet drummer, Animal
Animal (Muppet)
Animal is the primitive man and crazed drummer of Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem, the fictional band from The Muppet Show. He is one of the Muppets originally created by Michael K...
. When American drummer Buddy Rich
Buddy Rich
Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Rich was billed as "the world's greatest drummer" and was known for his virtuosic technique, power, groove, and speed.-Early life:...
, one of Verrell's heroes, guested on the show, Verrell (as Animal) had a drumming duel with Rich, and won after Animal smashed a snare drum
Snare drum
The snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...
over Rich's head.
In the mid-1990s, Verrell formed his own band, a quintet
Quintet
A quintet is a group containing five members.It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single unit....
he modelled after Benny Goodman's band. Several years later Verrell was involved in a serious road accident that forced him to stop performing for almost a year. But after recovering he continued to play with Lawrence's band. In 2000 Verrell toured with an all-star band, Best of British, where his drum solos earned him standing ovations. His final appearance was on The Frank Skinner Show
The Frank Skinner Show
The Frank Skinner Show was a television chat show hosted by comedian Frank Skinner which lasted nine series on British television between 1995 and 2005.It was screened on BBC One from its first episode on 10 September 1995 until 3 June 1999....
in 2001.
Verrell died on 22 February 2002 in Kingston-upon-Thames in England, one day after his 76th birthday. The cause of death was a chest infection he contracted during an operation to fix a crushed vertebra resulting from a fall he had had down some stairs in November 2001. Verrell was married three times and had three daughters, Sherry, Faye and Lara. He also has three grandchildren, Sherry's son David, Faye's daughter Bethany and Lara's daughter Ellie-Jaye.