Memories of Martin Drew (Wembley’s most famous drummer) by Adrian Tilbrook

I first met Martin Drew in the late '60s at The Mandrake in Soho. It was the place to head for after your gig finished so you could check out the great Phil Seaman who was the on-off (more off than on!) drummer with resident pianist Joe Burns' Trio.

Martin and I would be invited to sit in by Phil so that he could hold court at the bar. I was working at the Palladium with Val Doonican at the time and Martin was carving out a career as a jazz musician, poles apart as they say. But life has many twists and turns and only a few years later I bumped into Martin at Ronnie Scott's. By now he was the ‘House drummer' and I was playing at the club with the headlining band Back Door. It was during this time that we became good friends and mutual drum anoraks!

Martin would bring in a different cymbal almost every other night and would want to know how it sounded during a particular tune or was it better or worse than the one he had used the previous night! He would also sit watching you play and would give you a hard time if your performance wasn’t up to the previous night's (all in good humour). We would also meet during the day to have marathon drum sessions at the club, really annoying manager Pete King trying to work in the back office. Martin used to give him hell and call him ‘Shylock’.

We would all end up in the Greek restaurant across the road, Jimmy’s, for a £5.00 all you can eat dinner (Martin always got his £5’s worth!).

Over the ensuing years I would often see Martin playing with the Ronnie Scott Quintet and, as ever, he would be playing with great taste and enthusiasm and above all else great musicianship. He was still enthusiastic about the art of drumming and always talking about the new breed of ‘Super’ drummer that emerged during the mid 80s, in particular he was a great fan of US drummer Dave Weckle. Martin even adopted the double bass drum pedal that Weckle used. I always thought this to be an unusual piece of hardware for a straight ahead drummer but Martin, as always, wanted to keep up to speed (literally!) and would call it his secret weapon, “it help the punters to know when the drum solo is finishing” bubada-bubada-bubada-bubada...

Since the tragic news of Martin's death I have been looking at the many video clips of him playing (YouTube) and one thing strikes you about him as a drummer/musician, and that’s his 100% concentration, have a look yourself, he is totally immersed in the music, always listening and responding in a musical and restrained way.

I don’t have to go into the list of world class musicians who have benefitted from Martin's musicality as that information is well documented, but I would like to say that Martin always had a smile and a joke (usually very corny) the latest gossip, a new cymbal for you to hear.

Last time I saw Martin was at the Corner House gig with Mornington Lockett and Laurence Cottle, and as usual he was enthusing about some new young players and how great his new band was and how he was hoping to try out a new range of Sabian cymbals etc, etc, etc....

I will remember with affection spending many a happy hour talking shop and watching him play and that will be my lasting memory of a giant amongst the jazz and drumming community.

Hi Adrian .. Martin Drew here the most famous drummer in Wembley - Ha Ha only joking, any chance of a gig for my amazing new band its ...

Adrian Tilbrook.