In this episode of The Quo-Cast, Jamie Dyer is joined by drummer Mark Gormley from the Scottish Status Quo tribute band My Status is Quo. As someone who has studied drumming, he shares his thoughts on the styles of the various Quo drummers who have played in the band throughout the decades, from John Coghlan to Pete Kircher, Jeff Rich, Matt Letley, and Leon Cave.
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Transcript:
The following is a transcript of the conversation featured in this podcast. Please note that some alterations have been made to ensure readability.
Jamie:
I’m joined right now by Mark from the tribute band My Status Is Quo. Thanks for joining us, Mark. So, you are in a tribute band. We’ve spoken a couple of times and it’s great to have you back once again.
How are you finding drumming in My Status Is Quo right now?
Mark:
Yeah, it’s really, really enjoyable. We’ve built a really, really good relationship in the band now between all the members. I’ve known the lead singer, Kyle, for a couple of years now and we had that sort of friendship before, but meeting Tom and Logan more recently, I’ve become really, really good friends with those guys as well.
So, that’s been really nice in terms of having that relationship, and I think that’s translated into the music-making process, in terms of everyone being able to be open and honest with each other and that ability to communicate effectively, to bring all the different parts and to bring the whole song together. So, it’s really been my joy, to be fair, and I think the mixture of personalities works really, really well. Everyone’s got something to bring to the table and it’s been really, really good fun.
Jamie:
One thing I noted when I spoke to you all twice is that you do a lot of research. You’ve done a lot of study when it comes to the history of Status Quo and the various things. Because you play drums, I’m interested to get your perspective on each drummer, or most drummers, of Status Quo, obviously from John Coghlan all the way up to Leon Cave.
When you see John Coghlan, what goes through your mind? What sticks out to you?
Mark:
I think from a drumming perspective, straight away the first thing I think of with John Coghlan is solidity. All those early performances, I mean I’m going back to that idea of Roll Over Lay Down, there’s a lot of structure to the drumming in terms of thundering around the kit. It’s quite a dynamically expressive song.
So, when I think of him, that 70s era was perfect for him. He’s a real powerhouse behind the kit. There’s a real solidity there and he’s got that element of real technical ability to his playing as well. If you look at some of the stuff, there’s so many switches in Status Quo songs between what you’re playing in a verse, what you’re playing in a chorus, breaks, different things like that.
So, he’s a remarkable drummer. There’s that sense of shuffle and swing. The hi-hat patterns weave in and out and they give Alan Lancaster a real ability to sit in the pocket, if that makes sense, and it becomes almost like another dynamic element to the full sound. The drums are really, really important because if the beats were straight, it just would not work at all.
The bass and the drums would almost clash, and I think that ability that Coghlan gives with the shuffle feel really gets the best out of Alan. Then Rick can really join in with that as well, and Francis is allowed to go and express himself with the solos and things like that. So, that four-piece overall, that Frantic Four, if it had a different drummer, I don’t think it would have been as successful in that time period.
Jamie:
Do you think, given the military drumming background, that perhaps has something to do with the swing?
Mark:
Yeah, definitely. I think it’s got a lot to do with the swing and with the rudiment patterns that John plays. I would probably attribute that back to that background of military drumming because that is such an integral part of it. Being able to play paradiddles, being able to play doubles very quickly, things like that, he does really well in that area.
So, I definitely think the history there is attributed to his playing style, as it does with every drummer.
Jamie:
Indeed. Pete Kircher, who took over from John, had a really hard job. They were tough shoes to fill, weren’t they? But I think he made it his own, as can be seen on the NEC ’82 gig and End of the Road ’84, and obviously Live Aid, which is where you first saw them.
Mark:
Yeah, Pete Kircher is actually my personal favourite Status Quo drummer. I think if you speak to a studio engineer, what they look for in a drummer is that ability to provide light and shade, and someone that has a real grasp of dynamics. A drummer that knows how to put the best parts to the song, someone that really plays for the song, and I think Pete excels in that area.
I think studio engineers recording him would really enjoy that process because there’s such an understanding of dynamics. There’s such a sharpness to his drumming as well. There are times where he’ll thunder down on the crashes and there’ll be a big dynamic explosion, but he’ll then go back to the shuffle and it’s so subtle. The shuffle is played at a really nice dynamic level, and that probably gives more room for Andy Bown and stuff, because it moved in that era to have more of that keyboard synth element.
I think that worked really well for that transition out of the traditional 70s era into what Quo became in the 80s with Burning Bridges and things like that. I don’t think that would have worked without Pete.
Jamie:
Do you think that the recordings we have from the studio albums don’t necessarily do him justice? To my ear, some of the drumming isn’t quite as vibrant-sounding as previous, and that’s probably down to production more than anything.
Mark:
Yeah, I suppose the element of production comes into it, but I think he’s more about being a drummer who plays in the pocket. It probably applies to him personally as well. He’s a bit like myself. I enjoy playing in the pocket, being solid, and doing my job. I’m not so much of a flashy drummer.
I get the sense that he’s quite similar, and that aspect of his personal life, how he completely removed himself from public life, would suggest to me that he wasn’t into big gestures. I think that applies to a lot of the drums. He wouldn’t necessarily be someone you’d watch and think he’s really flamboyant on the kit or trying a crazy fill at this point.
I think a lot of his personality comes through in his drumming. He’s quite a relaxed, reliable, steady guy.
Jamie:
Which is quite a contrast to Jeff Rich, who replaced him in 1986. It’s a powerhouse, isn’t it, and quite fast at times?
Mark:
Yeah, Jeff’s great. For me, at times he’s a little bit too fast. I feel like the songs race away from the band a little bit at times. When I look at Birmingham NEC in 1989, I feel sometimes the band almost needed to slow down a little bit.
When you’re playing too fast, the groove can slip away. That shuffle feel, which is so important to Quo drumming, can get lost if you race away. I’m not taking anything away from him, he’s a fantastic drummer, but if I compare him to John and Pete, those two felt a bit more reliable. This is just my personal opinion. It’s not gospel truth.
From my own experience playing in My Status Is Quo and other projects, tempo is really important. I felt some songs like Caroline lost a little bit of something with the tempo.
Jamie:
Do you think, though, in the same way that Pete came alive live, that Jeff really worked in the studio?
Mark:
Yeah, listening to a lot of the studio tracks he played on, the average listener probably hears the drums and thinks they’re very explosive, with a lot of power behind them. Again, it comes down to personal preference. I like subtlety. I listen for little things, like clever ghost notes.
In terms of production value and what you can hear on records, for a lot of people there’s that wow factor with how thunderous he is around the kit. Another interesting thing is how high his crash cymbals are. He’s not the biggest guy, but being able to play and reach up there is pretty incredible. He was definitely a powerhouse with absolute bags of energy.
Jamie:
Before we move on, what is a ghost note?
Mark:
A ghost note is when you’re hitting the snare drum and you let the stick rebound on the drum. You come down and hit the snare with a strong crack, but you have a loose grip so it bounces twice. It creates the feeling of playing two notes rather than one.
When you’re looking at the shuffle, it’s important to have a loose grip. If you hold the stick really tight, you would tire very quickly. That dexterity, letting the stick bounce, is really important because every Status Quo song has some element of shuffle or ghost notes. That’s a really important element.
Jamie:
Can you do that with the hi-hat as well as the snare?
Mark:
Yeah, you can play ghost notes on the hi-hat. The technique of letting the stick rebound for a shuffle is really important. If I wasn’t able to do that technically, I would really struggle. That emphasises that to play drums for Status Quo, all of these guys have bags of technical ability.
Jamie:
With the following drummers, Matt and Leon, what do they bring to the table?
Mark:
I think they both bring real technical skill. I really like Matt’s drumming. There’s a real fluidity to it and he serves the song, but you can see he’s someone who has spent a lot of time honing skills. In one documentary, you see him on his practice pad constantly playing rudiments before the show, just to warm up and get into that frame of mind.
He brought a technicality similar to Pete, but you could hear it more later because production techniques evolved. There was more opportunity in the studio for him to show that off. You can always hear the technique when he’s playing. There’s a real balance of light and shade and real prowess there, if that makes sense.
Leon is quite similar. Looking at his social media and stuff, he does a lot of recording work independent of Quo and things like that. The fact that he’s doing all that sort of work, you can tell that he’s a really high-level guy, just in terms of people wanting to work with him. You can see that to be able to record drums yourself independently and do it very well, there’s a lot to that. I think Leon is a really talented guy as well.
Jamie:
You mention documentaries. Which ones do you recommend?
Mark:
There’s quite a few. I would say my favourite one that I watched was the Rock On documentary, which was early 2000s, I believe. I enjoyed that. I thought it was interesting and gave quite an insight into the band at that time. I felt the tone of the interviewer wasn’t always great, so even though it’s not ideal, in a weird way it made for quite interesting viewing.
Right near the start of that documentary she says she’d spoken to her friends and told them she was going on tour with Status Quo and a lot of them laughed. Any Status Quo fan would think, why would someone open with that tone? Although I don’t like it, it did make for an interesting programme. Francis was quite defensive straight away, but Rick, despite the tone, was quite open.
I think it created an interesting balance between those two personalities, because they are very different people, and you could see that in the programme. It was also interesting to see how Rhino plays a massive part in the harmony of the band in terms of mood. There are a couple of examples where they’re on the tour bus and they feel the show hadn’t gone well, and Rhino is just a ball of enthusiasm, saying it was brilliant and sounded great. You can see how important he was for morale.
Obviously he’s an amazing bassist as well, but you could see he was the counterbalance. A lot of the time Rick and Francis would get quite insular and not be too happy with things, but he was always there to brighten the mood. I loved looking at the dynamics of the band at that time and I thought that was really good.
Moving on from that, I’ve watched Rock Till You Drop, which was really good fun. I really liked the concept. I can’t think of another band that would take on that kind of challenge, almost trying to break a Guinness World Record. There aren’t many bands that would even attempt it, but it’s testament to those guys and how committed they are to the fanbase. Playing four gigs in one day is pretty remarkable.
The amount of energy put into that, and having Chris Tarrant presenting it, was great. He’s pretty funny and had a good rapport with the band, winding them up and even holding up signs in the crowd. I really enjoyed that. It was a great watch.
Jamie:
There are plenty of documentaries charting the band at various points in their career. We’ll start to wrap up now, but we’ve been talking about drumming primarily in this episode. Is there a particular Quo song that comes to mind when you think about interesting or solid drumming, something where the drums could be the star?
Mark:
This might sound like a random choice because most people wouldn’t necessarily think of the drums, but I think of Burning Bridges quite a lot. The keys play a massive part in how that song moves, and I know it’s got that shuffle feel, but it’s the way the snare drum cracks into that song.
There’s also a really interesting bass drum pattern with multiple hits that creates a really groovy backbeat behind the song, which really helps it along. When it goes into the jig at the end, the drums are a really integral part of that. That’s the song where, when I listen to it, I want to get on my electronic drum kit at home and play along.
Jamie:
Is that one you play in your set list, or is that a one-day thing?
Mark:
I think it’s definitely a one-day song. The keys are such a big element of it and we don’t currently have a keys player in My Status Is Quo. It’s a favourite of mine and I know the boys really like it as well, so hopefully one day we can get it into the set list.
Jamie:
Awesome. You can check out My Status Is Quo on Facebook. Thank you so much once again, Mark, for being a guest. Please do come back.
Mark:
I will do. Thanks for having me, Jamie.
