Procol Harum playing Power Failure, live at the German Tv in 1976. With an amazing drum solo by Mr. BJ Wilson. Procol Harum tocando Power Failure, en vivo en la Tv Alemana en 1976. Con un impresionante solo de batería por Bj Wilson
Well put chrishopman. Wilson is possibly the single most overlooked, under-appreciated drummer of recent times. His left hand is phenomenal, his syncopation equally so. His independence is in Bruford territory and it's all topped off with a rich imagination. He should have been on the cover of Modern Drummer many times over at the very least. Those of us who love the percussive arts owe him a debt. Cheers BJ!!!!!
The great triumvirate of British drummers....Bonham, Moon and Wilson....it's a shame more people don't know about B.J. Simply awesome and beautiful playing throughout his career.
Gary Brooker died at the age of 76. (R.I.P.) 02.19.2022. Cancer. A remarkable and unforgettable voice. I Love You, Gary. I Love Procol Harum. Forever. 😭😭😭😭😭
Wow!!! He was so ahead of his time. Not just his incredible playing but also his setup with the extra hihat, the splashes & the mounted toms interchanged. Always underrated, gone much much too early, but always a great drummer, a big influence (on me anyway) and so never forgotten! RIP.
On The Johnny Carson Show once, or one of those late night talk shows back in the early mid-70's, drummer extraordinaire Buddy Rich was asked by the host who he thought was a great drummer out of the new crop of players he has seen. Immediately Rich said Chicago's Danny Seraphine -- but, all he said was that he was first class, talented, precise and clean. Then he said he heard a record by an English group with a drummer named B.J. something -- said he was dynamic, creative and held his sticks like a jazz pro. Audience members shouted up at the stage: "BJ Wilson...he holds his sticks jazz style." Rich acknowledged them and smiled. For what it's worth -- Buddy Rich endorsing you on drums means you are great. BJ Wilson...you were great because Buddy Rich said so and he wasn't one to give compliments easily. Also....extraordinary acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke once toured with Procol Harum & he was so impressed with "Power Failure" that he recorded it on his "Chewing Pine" album on 12-string acoustic guitar. While not as exciting a singer as Gary Brooker, Leo's performance is one hell of a cover and the live version on RU-vid is something as well.
Such a talent and tragic ending... Although he lacked the name recognition as other great drummers of his generation, Wilson was voted Best Drummer in the popular Playboy Music Polls of the early 1970s. He declined an offer by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant to be the original drummer for Led Zeppelin., so John Bonham got that gig instead. After Procol Harum disbanded in 1977, Wilson played on Frankie Miller's Double Trouble album in 1978, and was a member of Joe Cocker's touring band between 1979 and 1984. Their concert in Calgary is featured on the DVD Joe Cocker Live (1981) and he is also featured in two Berlin concerts on the 2008 Joe Cocker DVD Cry Me A River (The Rockpalast Collection). BJ had been the drummer on Cocker's hit single, "With a Little Help from My Friends", recorded in 1968. In 1984 Wilson played briefly with Patrick Landreville, a former member of the 1960s cult band RHS, which included bandmates Bob Siebenberg (Supertramp), Scott Gorham (Thin Lizzy) and John Boutell (Beauregard Ajax). In 1983 Wilson was brought in to play drums on AC/DC's Flick of the Switch album, after their drummer Phil Rudd left the band close to the end of the recording for the album. No tracks recorded by Wilson were used on the finished album according to the recording engineer and was soon after replaced by drummer Simon Wright. Wilson was the drummer on the film soundtrack of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), on which his former Procol Harum bandmate, guitarist Mick Grabham, also played. According to IMDb, Wilson's friend, prominent film composer, Richard Hartley, was the one who invited him to drum on that soundtrack, and Wilson brought Grabham in to play guitar. BJ also played on two tracks ("Lady Day" & "The Kids") on Lou Reed's 1973 album "Berlin". Wilson's last recorded work was on the 1985 Gary Brooker solo album, Echoes in the Night, along with his former Procol Harum bandmates Keith Reid and Matthew Fisher, on tracks "Ghost Train", "The Long Goodbye" "Hear What You're Saying" and "Mr. Blue Day". In 1987, Wilson collapsed after an intentional drug overdose and was hospitalised for three years, remaining in a vegetative state. Brooker and Reid had reformed the band and hoped to aid his recovery by sending "him the demo tapes we were making with a horrible drum machine on it because he hated that sort of thing". Unfortunately Wilson had 'suffered catastrophic damage which was never going to right itself'. He died of pneumonia in Eugene, Oregon, USA at the age of 43, leaving a wife, Susan and two daughters, Sarah and Nicola. Dead at 43 years old......
I had the great luck to spend a while together with Joe Cocker & Band back in 1983 as a drummer of the support band touring through Europe. BJ and me became friends very fast. I must say he was an exeptional drummer and an exeptional personality. We spoke a lot about music and drumming. He was one of those guys I met in my life I will never forget. R.I.P BeeJay
Alan Cartwright, who was a bass player for Procol Harum between 1971 and 1976, died on March 4, 2021, at the age of 75. His cause of death was not revealed, but by the year 2020 he had been diagnosed with stomach cancer. RIP
Thanks, haven't seen this before. I like how BJ has changed his solo, quite interesting… Also notice Chris Copping on guitar, moving back to the organ during the solo…
Wilson was phenomenal and played in a unique higher stance jazz grip position. what I think makes him great is he ability to barely be contained with in the constraints of their great songs. they didn't necessarily lend themselves to be stretched out. few bands could carry that off w/out being showy. led zep and the Who are in this class. PC is all these flourishes and none of them too. rare breed.
Who knew this guy was a technical giant even by today's standards! There are jazz cats today who cannot sustain a sound wave like that. What a great find.
@JeckOverfull Yeah, the solo it's really Amazing, in this song Bj show the drummer that he really was. And also Copping moving, to the organ, after play guitar and sing... Thank You :-)
Of course it might have been deliberate. The verse begins, "Tossed and crossed and screwed in transit......" which would have been censored. But from the reaction by the guitarists, they were surprised.
As low the drummer sits,as high is the quality he performs. Excellent! Energetic, but sophisticated. Guess he is the guinness-recorder of the lowest sitting drummer category.
yeah it looks like all the drums are practically at chest height which is absolutely absurd to me; when i drum i have to set everything extremely low obviously seems to have worked for him though
Ah not it is not me. Thank you. I too play the drums and my snare is at my hip area. I also play using traditional grip and I find it weird that Wilson has the snare up high. Like you said, it does work for him.
Did anyone else notice that Gary threw the band by skipping the second verse? As someone who has led singing I winced in sympathy - I've done that too.
when they play, the sound is somehow crippelt and out of sync, can you check it out and maybe reupload it..? thank you very much for this anyway, what a great drummer!
Instead of just standing there, the guitarists could have been off getting a massage or a mani/pedi during that drum solo... ala Nigel Tufnel and friends, eh wot?
kennatiousc You sure? If yes, that goes a little to explain the very stupid remarks by Page, or maybe Plant, afterwards, about him. He sure had better technique than Bonham, who was good in his own right.
kennatiousc Now that I'm on the subject, I remeber Hatfield's and National Health's great late drummer Pip Pyle's comment in his notes for National's "Compleat", to the effect that they had searched for drummers who could play odd -say, in 7- , or just keep odd time. Pip Pyle says that none of the drummers answering the ad could do that. And some of them were "names".
