Keith Moon

Keith John Moon (23 August 1946 - 7 September 1978) was an English drummer of the rock group The Who. He gained acclaim for his exuberant and innovative drumming style and notoriety for his eccentric and often self destructive behaviour, earning him the nickname “Moon the Loon.” Moon joined The Who in 1964. He played on all albums and singles from their debut, 1964’s “Zoot Suit”, to 1978’s Who Are You, which was released three weeks before his death.

Moon was known for dramatic, suspenseful drumming-often eschewing basic back beats for a fluid, busy technique focused on fast, cascading rolls across the toms, ambidextrous double bass drum work and wild cymbal crashes and washes. He is mentioned in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the greatest of all rock and roll drummers. Moon was ranked by Rolling Stone magazine in a 2003 compilation as fourth in its 100 greatest drummers of all time.

Tommy Lee

Tommy Lee (born October 3, 1962) is an American musician, and founding member of glam metal band Mötley Crüe. As well as being the band’s long-term drummer, Lee founded rap-metal band Methods of Mayhem, and has pursued solo musical projects. Lee was born in Athens, Greece, as Thomas Lee Bass. His mother, Vassiliki “Voula” Papadimitriou, was Miss Greece in 1957, and his father, David Lee Thomas Bass, was a US Army serviceman of Welsh descent. He has one younger sister, Athena Kottak, who is currently married to James Kottak, the drummer for the band Scorpions and the current drummer of Kottak. His family moved to California one year after his birth. He received his first drum when he was four. However he received his first real drum kit when he was a teenager.

By that time he was listening to Kiss, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Judas Priest. As he started listening to Kiss, his main drum influence became Peter Criss. After transferring from South Hills High School (West Covina, California); he joined the marching band at Royal Oak High School (now Royal Oak Middle School) in Covina, California, but dropped out of school in his senior year to focus on his musical career.

His first successful band Suite 19 played the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles during the late 70s. At this time he met future bandmate, Nikki Sixx. Casually, Sixx was forming a theatrical band that would specialize in anthemic heavy metal, and was impressed by Lee’s drumming. At this time, he changed his name to Tommy Lee and earned the nickname “T-bone” due to his 6′ 2½? height and his skinny physique. Shortly afterward, guitarist Mick Mars joined the band. Mars recommended a singer Tommy had met while in high school, Vince Neil, who soon joined the group, and Mötley Crüe was formed.

Meg White

Megan Martha “Meg” White (born December 10, 1974) is an American drummer best known as one half of the Detroit rock duo The White Stripes, with her ex-husband Jack White. Jack White spent much of the 1990s hopping from band to band. In 1997, Meg first tried playing drums. In Jack’s words, “When she started to play drums with me, just on a lark, it felt liberating and refreshing. There was something in it that opened me up.” The two then began calling themselves The White Stripes and soon played their first gig at the Gold Dollar in Detroit. In keeping live performances to three basic elements, Jack did the guitar and vocal work while she played drums.

Jack White has declared her to be the key component in the White Stripes’ sound. In reference to her “primal” approach to drumming, she remarked, “That is my strength. A lot of drummers would feel weird about being that simplistic.”

Though Jack White usually sings the lead vocals, Meg White sings lead on “In the Cold, Cold Night”, from the band’s fourth album, Elephant; “Passive Manipulation”, from the band’s fifth album, Get Behind Me Satan; “Who’s a Big Baby”, the B-side to “Blue Orchid”; and “St. Andrew (This Battle Is in the Air)”, from the band’s sixth album Icky Thump. Both Meg and Jack White sing vocals on the tracks “Hotel Yorba” and “This Protector” from White Blood Cells, “Rated X” from the “Hotel Yorba” single, “Well It’s True That We Love One Another” on Elephant, and “Rag and Bone” from Icky Thump. The first time Meg sang along on a White Stripes record was with Jack on “Your Southern Can is Mine” from De Stijl.

White has also appeared on the cover of Whirlwind Heat’s single “Pink”, in a Detroit Cobras music video “Cha Cha Twist” as Little Red Riding Hood, and appeared with Jack White in a segment of Jim Jarmusch’s 2003 film Coffee and Cigarettes. Meg White was chosen by Bob Odenkirk to compose a drum theme for one of his characters in the film Let’s Go to Prison, which was released in November 2006. Meg White also has a song dedicated to her by Ray LaMontagne entitled “Meg White”, which appears on LaMontagne’s most recent album, Gossip in the Grain.

Bev Bevan

After education at Moseley Grammar School where he gained two O level passes, he worked as a trainee buyer in a city centre department store called The Beehive with school friend Jasper Carrott. His professional music career started with a stint with Denny Laine in his group Denny Laine and the Diplomats, then with Carl Wayne and The Vikings, followed by The Move in 1966. The Electric Light Orchestra released their first album in 1971, by which time The Move existed only as a recording outfit. They released their final single, “California Man” in 1972, and the subsequent successes of the Electric Light Orchestra, and the Roy Wood led Wizzard, led to their being laid to rest.

Bevan has a deeply pitched singing voice. While with The Move he lent lead vocals to two tracks: a remake of “Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart” and the country and western spoof, “Ben Crawley Steel Co”. In 1980 Bevan published a biography of the Electric Light Orchestra. He also made a solo single in 1976, a cover version of the Sandy Nelson instrumental, “Let There Be Drums.”

In 1983 he replaced Bill Ward from Black Sabbath for their Born Again tour. Bevan also appeared in two music videos (”Trashed” and “Zero the Hero”). After the death of Carl Wayne in 2004, he formed a new band, Bev Bevan’s Move,[2] with Phil Tree and former ELO Part II colleagues Phil Bates and Neil Lockwood, to play a set comprising mostly The Move classics on tour. Bates left in July 2007 to re-join ELO Part II, by then renamed to The Orchestra.

Bevan currently presents a radio show on BBC Radio West Midlands on Sunday afternoons. He also reviews records for the Midlands’ Sunday Mercury and has a blog on their website. Bevan played on all but one Electric Light Orchestra and ELO Part II albums (the exception being 2001’s Zoom which marked Lynne’s return to recording under the ELO name, with only Richard Tandy present from previous band line-ups).