Is this the best band he's ever had?

[2manyguitars]

Drums?

Let's be serious, the only alternative to Danny Cummings would be… Danny himself.

The secret lies in the difference between playing a song and how to play a song.

Ha.

Love your passion for Danny on drums but it's not shared by anyone in the music industry.

Chad is a first choice session drummer to the stars.

Ianto is a first choice session drummer to the stars.

Danny, not so much.

I absolutely agree with Danny's approach being the best, I told it to everybody ever since the transition to the "proper" drummer which is Ianto.

It's like George Martin's son gave an answer to the controversy around Ringo being a bad drummer. He says — Ringo plays the song. Exactly!

Ringo is also not a first choice session drummer to the stars, but it doesn't mean he's a star on his own. Love Danny, go Danny go...

Three examples from the top of my head, where Danny beats everybody is Speedway, What it Is and So Far Away.

Need I remind about the comment spuriously attributed to John Lennon when asked if Ringo was the best drummer in the world....

[Peter1981]

Now that we're talking drummers; nobody stills beats good old Pick Withers' playing to me. He's like a British Steve Gadd; so groovy and subtle, yet with a great underlying power. I don't understand he never showed up with another act after leaving Dire Straits.
Or did i miss something? It seems he never really did anything big again, right? It's a shame, brilliant drummer...

[ruipedro]

Yep!!!!by far!!!!

[2manyguitars]

Now that we're talking drummers; nobody stills beats good old Pick Withers' playing to me. He's like a British Steve Gadd; so groovy and subtle, yet with a great underlying power. I don't understand he never showed up with another act after leaving Dire Straits.
Or did i miss something? It seems he never really did anything big again, right? It's a shame, brilliant drummer...

Totally agree. Think the cymbal work on Sultans, unsurpassed,  or TOL as I mentioned earlier. Its really unique drumming. Hugely underrated player if you ask me...

[quizzaciously]

Now that we're talking drummers; nobody stills beats good old Pick Withers' playing to me. He's like a British Steve Gadd; so groovy and subtle, yet with a great underlying power. I don't understand he never showed up with another act after leaving Dire Straits.
Or did i miss something? It seems he never really did anything big again, right? It's a shame, brilliant drummer...

Totally agree. Think the cymbal work on Sultans, unsurpassed,  or TOL as I mentioned earlier. Its really unique drumming. Hugely underrated player if you ask me...

No wonder Bob Dylan hired both Mark AND Pick. His drumming is unbeaten, though it was too long ago. As far as I know, he easily could’ve stayed until the end of DS, but decided to leave. I guess, he got what he wanted and Mark got in trouble changing drummers like gloves for another 40 years lol

[ingridswing]

Drums?

Let's be serious, the only alternative to Danny Cummings would be… Danny himself.

The secret lies in the difference between playing a song and how to play a song.

Ha.

Love your passion for Danny on drums but it's not shared by anyone in the music industry.

Chad is a first choice session drummer to the stars.

Ianto is a first choice session drummer to the stars.

Danny, not so much.

I absolutely agree with Danny's approach being the best, I told it to everybody ever since the transition to the "proper" drummer which is Ianto.

It's like George Martin's son gave an answer to the controversy around Ringo being a bad drummer. He says — Ringo plays the song. Exactly!

Ringo is also not a first choice session drummer to the stars, but it doesn't mean he's a star on his own. Love Danny, go Danny go...

Three examples from the top of my head, where Danny beats everybody is Speedway, What it Is and So Far Away.

Need I remind about the comment spuriously attributed to John Lennon when asked if Ringo was the best drummer in the world....

You

Drums?

Let's be serious, the only alternative to Danny Cummings would be… Danny himself.

The secret lies in the difference between playing a song and how to play a song.

Ha.

Love your passion for Danny on drums but it's not shared by anyone in the music industry.

Chad is a first choice session drummer to the stars.

Ianto is a first choice session drummer to the stars.

Danny, not so much.

I absolutely agree with Danny's approach being the best, I told it to everybody ever since the transition to the "proper" drummer which is Ianto.

It's like George Martin's son gave an answer to the controversy around Ringo being a bad drummer. He says — Ringo plays the song. Exactly!

Ringo is also not a first choice session drummer to the stars, but it doesn't mean he's a star on his own. Love Danny, go Danny go...

Three examples from the top of my head, where Danny beats everybody is Speedway, What it Is and So Far Away.

You forgot Border Reiver, Danny shines on that one too. For me it's exactly what you said: Danny lives the song. I really love him.

[ingridswing]

A good drummer is more important that it seems... it does not only keep the beat, but does a lot of very important things for the song, like remarks here and there. A drummer makes a song slow or fast, boring or interesting.

Richard plays a lot of types of guitars and he's very good but in my opinion is the one that can be easily replaced by someone else like, let's say, Robbie McIntosh. I won't miss the bouzoki or the rest of little things with strings on it at all.

Glenn is really a great bass player but I think he sometimes plays too much. I remember that Tony Levin said in an interview that a good bass player would be someone you don't notice is playing at all, that plays very little but when plays does exactly what the song needs. Glenn plays too much and his playing is all over the song and over others instruments.

Jim is just fantastic. And Guy is very good playing soundscapes, probably there are many many other synths player that can do what he does and probably someone would do it even better, but it suits MK needs musically talking so, heads up.

Ian is a good drummer, that not only keeps the beat but also adds remarks wherever they are needed. he's not too noisy as Chad used to be, and not that fast, sometimes too fast as Terry used to be. Anyway, I would say that Danny Cummings was the best drummer MK had, but I rather have him on percussion so, let's add Ian as the best possible alternative.

The folkies are just fantastic, and the brass section... Tom is very good and Graeme did something very interesting... nobody is missing Nigel Hitchcock so I bet that's because of the great work Graeme Blevins is doing.

I agree that adding Paul Franklin on pedal steel would make it just perfect.

I agree with you about all except the little stringy things that Richard uses, they do add some nice touches to some songs imo. I was very sceptical about the brassies, but I really love them now

[mschaap]

To me this is indeed the best band he’s had. However, they’re not always that good.
A few examples:
- Into speeding on some tunes making the band sound less tight, and those added ‘last word’ endings after an already proper ending of a song on almost every song (sounds almost amateurish to me)
- Jim being so bored with only getting to play solos on silly songs like IUTC and CBC and being obsessed with playing different every time resulting in progressively wackier and wilder solos the extend that it just isn’t good anymore
- Glenn really got problems with his intonation on the big bass, just listen to any version of Bonaparte from this tour to hear how off he is so many times making the song almost unlistenable at times
- John’s playing isn’t melodically as inventive, original and interesting as Mike’s, also he seems to have some problems with intonation with high notes on the fiddle and he’s got some timing issues when strumming stringed intruments as sometimes is notacible on CBC
- Mike making mistakes on the pipes on many occasions last tour on F&S
- Richard plays the exact same strat solo on R&J since 1996 which baffles me and still it doesn’t sound confident at times
- Guy never does anything else on the keys than filling the soundstage, nothing technically challenging and when he does do a solo like with the hillbillies or in BIA a few tours back it is always free of inspired improvisation and out of the nerve of playing a solo he speeds on many occasions
- Graeme hasn’t played a single good solo from start to finish on OES to date as far as I’m aware of. Always timing errors, notes that are out of key and by far the worst of all are those long way too high notes that he tries to reach and that really hurt my ears

Negativity mode off now. I think this band is fantastic and I really enjoyed the one concert I attended this tour in Antwerp.

[Jules]

mmm, i am one of those few that really liked Mike Henderson, so add him, and Robbie and kick (even though i also really like him) Richard.
then add Franklin indeed.

few ? who doesn't like Mike Henderson hehe

I don't like much Ianto on the drums and this is really a major minus to the band imo, so no, this is not the best band ever really imo

I don't like Mike Henderson. He just made noisy noise.

[hunter]

To me this is indeed the best band he’s had. However, they’re not always that good.
A few examples:
- Into speeding on some tunes making the band sound less tight, and those added ‘last word’ endings after an already proper ending of a song on almost every song (sounds almost amateurish to me)
- Jim being so bored with only getting to play solos on silly songs like IUTC and CBC and being obsessed with playing different every time resulting in progressively wackier and wilder solos the extend that it just isn’t good anymore
- Glenn really got problems with his intonation on the big bass, just listen to any version of Bonaparte from this tour to hear how off he is so many times making the song almost unlistenable at times
- John’s playing isn’t melodically as inventive, original and interesting as Mike’s, also he seems to have some problems with intonation with high notes on the fiddle and he’s got some timing issues when strumming stringed intruments as sometimes is notacible on CBC
- Mike making mistakes on the pipes on many occasions last tour on F&S
- Richard plays the exact same strat solo on R&J since 1996 which baffles me and still it doesn’t sound confident at times
- Guy never does anything else on the keys than filling the soundstage, nothing technically challenging and when he does do a solo like with the hillbillies or in BIA a few tours back it is always free of inspired improvisation and out of the nerve of playing a solo he speeds on many occasions
- Graeme hasn’t played a single good solo from start to finish on OES to date as far as I’m aware of. Always timing errors, notes that are out of key and by far the worst of all are those long way too high notes that he tries to reach and that really hurt my ears

Negativity mode off now. I think this band is fantastic and I really enjoyed the one concert I attended this tour in Antwerp.

Interesting observations. I haven't listened to enough shows to compare, but I've noticed tuning and timing issues.

"Best" band for me is DS during Alchemy

[superval99]

mmm, i am one of those few that really liked Mike Henderson, so add him, and Robbie and kick (even though i also really like him) Richard.
then add Franklin indeed.

few ? who doesn't like Mike Henderson hehe

I don't like much Ianto on the drums and this is really a major minus to the band imo, so no, this is not the best band ever really imo

I don't like Mike Henderson. He just made noisy noise.

I agree with you, jbaent!   He spoiled the concert at the RAH 2001 for me, by drowning MK with his noisy guitar!   

[PensaGhost]

mmm, i am one of those few that really liked Mike Henderson, so add him, and Robbie and kick (even though i also really like him) Richard.
then add Franklin indeed.

few ? who doesn't like Mike Henderson hehe

I don't like much Ianto on the drums and this is really a major minus to the band imo, so no, this is not the best band ever really imo

I don't like Mike Henderson. He just made noisy noise.

Nothing new, You are the perfect contrarian indicator 

[Jules]

mmm, i am one of those few that really liked Mike Henderson, so add him, and Robbie and kick (even though i also really like him) Richard.
then add Franklin indeed.

few ? who doesn't like Mike Henderson hehe

I don't like much Ianto on the drums and this is really a major minus to the band imo, so no, this is not the best band ever really imo

I don't like Mike Henderson. He just made noisy noise.

Nothing new, You are the perfect contrarian indicator 

Me and Val. We like the conspiracy.

[dmg]

mmm, i am one of those few that really liked Mike Henderson, so add him, and Robbie and kick (even though i also really like him) Richard.
then add Franklin indeed.

few ? who doesn't like Mike Henderson hehe

I don't like much Ianto on the drums and this is really a major minus to the band imo, so no, this is not the best band ever really imo

I don't like Mike Henderson. He just made noisy noise.

Nothing new, You are the perfect contrarian indicator 

Me and Val. We like the conspiracy.

Count me in mate. Noisy Mikey indeed.

[dustyvalentino]

I like Mike!