Brian Bennett

Brian Laurence Bennett OBE born 9 February 1940 is an English drummer pianist composer and producer of popular music He is best known as the drummer of the UK rock and roll group the Shadows He is the father of musician and Shadows band member Warren Bennett Bennett was born in Palmers Green North London England Educated at Hazlewood Lane School Palmers Green London and Winchmore Council School he finished school at the age of sixteen to play drums in a Ramsgate skiffle group performing for holiday makers After returning to London he became the inhouse drummer at The 2is Coffee Bar in Soho and was a regular performer on Jack Goods TV show Oh Boy He then became a member of Marty Wildes Wildcats in 1959 After a successful period with the Wildcats during which he appeared on their instrumental record without Wilde recorded as the Krew Kats Trambone he backed Tommy Steele for some of his London stage performances In October 1961 he joined Cliff Richard and the Shadows as the replacement for Tony Meehan The Shadows were known for their instrumental songs mainly Apache 1960 FBI 1961 Wonderful Land 1962 and Foot Tapper 1963 among many others The band split up briefly between 1968 and 1973 but was reformed by Marvin Welch and Bennett He stayed with the group throughout all of their subsequent lineups and in May 2005 took part in the Shadows European tour During a show in Reykjavík Iceland he sustained what was thought to be a minor injury to a finger A splinter from a drumstick pierced under his fingernail on his right hand he removed it with a pair of old pliers and applied a plaster A few days later after arriving in Paris France he was in so much pain he called a doctor The doctor diagnosed a bad infection and recommended Bennett go to hospital immediately Thinking it would be a short visit he attended only to find out that it would involve a minor but very painful operation to remove the poison He was due to be playing on stage that evening and had already missed the soundcheck He arrived at the theatre 15 minutes before the show with his righthand bandaged and still numb from the anesthetic He managed to play for the whole show using an altered playing style In addition to his work with the Shadows he has also appeared in Cliff Richards backing band and plays piano and occasionally vibraphone In 1967 Bennett released a solo album of jazz music entitled Change of Direction in mono and stereo neither charted This was the first solo album by a member of the Shadows In the 1970s music by Bennett was selected for several Radley Metzger films including Barbara Broadcast and The Opening of Misty Beethoven Source Article Brian Bennett from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30