Pick Withers

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Pick Withers 1978

David "Pick" Withers (born April 4, 1948 in Leicester , England ) is a British drummer .

He became known as the drummer of the band Dire Straits , whose sound he significantly influenced on the first four albums between 1977 and 1982.

He got his first drum at the age of 14 from the Boys Brigade, a uniformed Christian youth organization. There he received the only instruction on the drums. Soon after, his parents gave him a drum kit that he used to play along to popular music. During the Beatles boom in 1965 he went to Germany and also toured other European countries. He played together with the singer Mal in a band called The Primitives before he was hired as a studio drummer at Rockfield Studios in South Wales for five years, where he also made records for Dave Edmunds , Del Shannon , Cuthbert Collins, Graham Bond , Andy Fairweather-Low and others.

In 1975 Withers moved to London, where he finally met Mark Knopfler , with whom he now often worked. When Dire Straits got their first record deal in 1977, Withers got out of the folk band Magna Carta , of which he briefly belonged and with which he had recorded the album Putting It Back Together .

Withers has been described as a very sensitive drummer by Mark Knopfler, which describes his style quite well. His play in the Dire Straits was characterized by emotional hi-hat - and snare drum combinations, which mostly blues and folklastigem game very well harmonized with Knopfler. In Sultans of Swing, one of the most famous songs by the band, Withers developed a groove that moves very swingingly between the elements of rock and jazz. The musical unity of the first albums is style-defining for the time. Withers played Paiste cymbals, although he had a weakness for ride cymbals . As for the drums, he preferred Tama , Gretsch and Eddie Ryan drums, handcrafted drums from London that are characterized by their dark sound.

1982 Withers left Dire Straits after the recording of Love over gold , because the music had become too heavy rock him. Then it became quiet around him. In 1987, however, he played in Phil Carmen's band at the Montreux Jazz Festival .

Withers has played in the band The British Blues All Stars since 2013 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Laut.de: Dire Straits
  2. ^ David Knopfler official German website
  3. ↑ The British Blues All Stars Band with David Withers in the Seehaus, Bavaria  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / wasser-prawda.de  
personal data
SURNAME Withers, pick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Withers, David (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British drummer
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Leicester , England