And in that same fucking deep raspy cigarette scorched voice too... that’s so weird that they talked the same way with the same accent and all. Ginger Baker would talk about people that had TIME quite a bit too.
Phil and Ginger were both really great friends of my mum ... mum had two jazz pubs and the mandrake club in Soho and they played in all three venues... but everyone loved Sunday lunchtime at the Tally Ho... I used to wriggle through the sardines to collect glasses 🥂 🤣 Mum was so sad when they passed I remember Phil doing his solos and the crowd would go WILD it was so electric I met drummers later in life who used to come to the Tally Ho just to listen to Phil he was their idol
what a judgmental statement. They both have more intellect in their left pinky nail than any haters I guess you never got high or did Bird Philly Joe ,Miles etc etc etc that's shameful, but I wish you the best anyway. We are all human.
I lived in the town Phil grew up in, my mum was friends with his mum. Met her a few times (Phil's mum that is, not my mum...I met her many times in my life). A true legend (Phil, not his mum) , but often overlooked in magazines or tv programmes about drummers. That recent 4-parter on Sky tV didn't mention him
This man one when i was practicing in tube . When i finished he came up to me that i shouldn't stop that i had something special . Im still recording at 74 years old. That was in1967 sh . Now i have seen this amazing documentary on pn him . Such an honor . I know he gone now . But his meeting was a gift
I could listen to this for hours and hours, i would have loved to have spent an evening in his company listening to these stories. What a drummer, RIP Phil and Ginger.
Phil Seamen recorded with Joe Harriott in the early 60's. " Free form" , listen to THAT. I have enjoyed every word of "The Phil Seamen story', he was before my time. Thank you Paddy Steer so much for posting this, it is so right that this great musician is remembered.
Teedub Hello to you. I saw Phil Seamen, play with Joe Harriott, Club 43, Manchester, in 1961 + later that year with Tubby Hayes, same venue + later all night session at The Left-wing Coffee House. Great memories. Sorry for being boringly nostalgic. Peace to all !!
Ginger Baker has fully admitted that Seamen was one of his greatest influences. By the way, the "Heinz" number is supposed to be 57, named after the famous "Heinz 57" steak sauce.
I kinda wonder if Cream didn't hurt Ginger in a way. I know it made him rich and famous, but he also spent the rest of his life trying to tell the world that he was a jazz drummer---which he certainly was. I saw him play with Jazz Confusion and the whole room seemed like a Rock crowd. I bet the true jazz people were something like 5% of the audience. It's just a thought, but in a different timeline where Cream never happened, somehow I just feel Ginger's life would have been a happier one.
I met Phil in the Black Bull pub Kentish Town when he was in Air force with Ginger...who he complained about for being unreliable. He was an early mentor to Ginger. Phil was in the theatre orchestra for the King and I production. He kept his Alsatian dog at his feet by his drums. He went to sleep during a performance as he was up most night playing in jazz gigs During a quiet period he suddenly awoke and thought it was time to bang the gong. As the silence was shattered by his smashing of the gong his slumbering dog jumped up and bit the conducted.
Thanks for putting this up. I bought this record second hand twenty five or so years ago as a bit of a punt, loved it, recorded it onto cassette then later burnt it onto disc & it became a tour bus perennial classic. My bandmates can virtually recite the whole thing down to the band lineups & our drummer plays air drums to his drumming. A bit sad i know, but there's lots of time to kill on the bus. "We had a singer...huh....best plater in the business!......Her mother of course was an RC...Roman Catholic, & she didn't believe in this girl....er...giving you one...er... off the old John Thomas fatdangle. Nevertheless she was a darling.......& I had the sorest pair of balls you'd ever known." Totally juvenile, great comic timing. The other side is lovely.
I was fortunate enough to get Ginger Baker's autograph when my band opened for Cream in 1968 Albuquerque, NM. Phil Seamen sounds like he was a really interesting cat, not only on drums but to just sit around and shoot the bull. It's so great that I've lived 72 years, I met a lot of fascinating characters. I quit booze and cigarettes 30 years ago which probably is responsible for the early death of so many
Phil was a m8 of my dad and I can remember meeting Ginger baker in the late sixties a few times. I can also remember my dad pulling a needle out of Phils arm after taking a hit. He died when we was in spain in 1973.
In my past, I was a fair-to-middling drummer. I used to hate the way the snare would resonate when I'd hit the toms. MAN, I WAS STUPID! Just listen to that exact same sound when Seamen demonstrates his kit at 2:33. That's just a gorgeous sound which totally adds to the the power of the overall sound. I would bet he tuned that snare so it WOULD RESONATE like that!
thejimdoherty Hi Jim. Same for me too. I think I knew nothing about tuning to diminish the snare resonating. It happens on most kits but the sound of the kit that drummer hears is not the same as what the punters hear some several feet away. Keep playing.
OK my friend. The sound of the kit is very raw on the recording as if set up in a very resonant room with phases quickly bouncing off of surfaces and then flooding back into probably what is a very basic mic. just by way of sharing with a fellow drummer, I once played in a gig in large room venue with a very very curved ceiling. The resonant phase cancellation bouncing in the room made my Zildjians sound like saucepan lids. Acoustic drums sounds are difficult to control as we know. Anyway thanks for comment
Before multi track recording. Drums sounded more like drums actually sound in real life. They were hardly damped at all, the bass drum possibly. The early rock greats like Bonzo and Ian Paice started from that tradition too. There’s good example of raw drumkit if you check out Deep Purple playing No No No in a tv studio. Just before the get started you hear Paicey land a few hits and it’s the same raw sound as Seaman, just bigger drums. Personally I think the old 2 or 3 mic approach was better because it’s whole kit mic’d. When an engineer close mics plus overheads, they start fucking with the balance those mics and what drummer actually played can be overridden. That’s wrong when it’s a great player with a good kit sound. Obviously the perception of a “drum sound” has changed enormously but it’s good to hear the almost unadulterated drum kit sounds pre multi track recording. Obviously you can hear Seaman is playing in a space with a long reverb.
I forget if it was Phil Seamen or another drummer who advised Ginger Baker to develop your left hand technique by doing everything you could do with your left hand as well as you could do it with your right hand, even if it was holding your penis while taking a pee, just to get your left hand up to the same capabilities of your right hand.What a great suggestion.
Ginger Baker has fully admitted that Seamen was one of his greatest influences. By the way, the "Heinz" number is supposed to be 57, named after the famous "Heinz 57" steak sauce.
I bought this double lp when it came out. Still got it. Saw him plenty of times and apart from his playing he kept us all amused by his announcements.No trace of self pity even towards the end. Best gigs at the Hope and Anchor was Phil with Alan Holdsworth and Mike Osborne.
In his autobiography, "The Greatest Drummer in the World," Ginger writes that Phil warned him NOT to touch smack. Upon learning that Ginger was already occasionally snorting heroin, Phil waxed furious. So sad! 😢
Funny comment by Phil, "If you've ever seen a Buddy Rich drum solo written out it looks like 'fly shit'." I have seen a Buddy Rich drum solo written out, and it does look like fly shit as does the rest of his music; because it contains complicated nuance.
+Berliner Stadtschloss Obvious to who? Yes you could be right about his drug addiction and drumming but that's open to debate. He often warned pupils of the dangers of heroin including Ginger. It was a trend in Jazz during that time in the U.K which almost ended fellow college Stan Tracey early. Shame he couldn't kick and do more records.
@Berliner Stadtschloss Maybe we should ALL stop being fucking morons and trying to rationalize stupid, self-destructive behavior and call it for what it is: MENTAL ILLNESS. Wake the hell up fool.
Is it true that Phil nodded off while playing a theater show, woke up thinking he had heard his cue to strike a gong, struck it, and then realized he was in the wrong place in the music. So he stood up and intoned, "Dinner is served." Is that a true story, or just the sort of thing Phil would do?
I remember that story way back in 1959 when I used to visit the "old" Scott Club down in that basement in Gerrard Street - Phil, Scott, Hayes, Deuchar, Tracy etc etc.. They reckoned it took place when Phil was in the pit band during West Side Story. Great to know there's still others out there that remember these things.
@@joejohnson945 I think that was the show where for some reason Phil bit Max Harris on the ankle, as he sat at the piano as he made his way to the pub.
You notice that when Phil Seamen plays his drum kit, the sound produced therefrom is radically different from the sound emanating when Buddy Rich plays his Slingerland skins...
BR played a variety of brands including Rogers, Ludwig, Slingerland, Fibes as well as house kits in TV studios. Phil's sound is resonating and flooding in what sounds like an empty room with phase rebounds from walls, floor and ceiling all coming into one mic. Wonderful style indeed.
He got de beat - Him turn on de heat - Ginger Faker him fall down de stairs - Phil Seaman him play musical chairs... There ain't no comparison to dem who don't know - Coz Phil him knew how to steal de show...
Can anyone verify this story? Phil was supposed to go to the States with Ronnie Scott sailing from Southampton but he had a prior drug conviction so they had to drop him at the very last minute. I want to know who did they get to replace him at such short notice?
The Ronnie Scott Sextet were going over on the Queen Mary to do a tour as part of a Musicians Union exchange deal. But going through customs in Southampton prior to boarding, Her Majesty's custom officiers took one look at him, pulled him aside and Seamen got busted for possession of drugs. In spite of a solemn agreement with his fellow musicians, having stashed the marjuhana in the seat of his drumstool and enough heroin for the voyage in other secret places in his drumkit, he just completely goofed it by having one shot in his coat pocket! Slung in jail until his case came up, then released after being fined 80 pounds by the magistrate, Seamen never made it to the States. (Ronnie Scott ended up having to fly Allan Ganley over for the tour, and never really forgave Phil).
I'll try and dig out side B .It's just playing I think ... no talking ..I heavily compressed this side because his voice was very quiet compared to drums
Lot's of comments mentioning Ginger Baker here..Why? He was crap. Couldn't keep time for toffee. Saw one of his solo efforts, Aircraft or something... Embarrassing.
I saw ginger with Jack Bruce & blues saraceno in '89. hung out back stage & both of signed about 40-50 lps each for me. Ginger next to buddy Rich impressed me the most. I've seen Carl Palmer, John Bonham, Butch Trucks, Jaimoe, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzman, Tommy Aldridge, & many more in all genres. btw/ I saw Lionel Hampton & he played drums for a solo spot. Incredible & he was around 70 years old.Phil is amazing 🪘
