James Blades (1901–1999) by Norman Parkinson, 1953 © Norman Parkinson Ltd., courtesy Fiona Cowan; collection National Portrait Gallery, London
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Graham Melville-Mason
Blades, James (1901–1999), percussionist and author, was born on 9 September 1901 at 166 Star Road, Peterborough, the eldest among the four sons and one daughter of Thomas Weston Blades (1879–1953), journeyman tailor, and his wife, Catherine Close (d. 1921). Jimmy Blades...
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Marios Costambeys
Bonham, John Henry (1948–1980), musician, was born at 84 Birchfield Road, Redditch, Worcestershire, on 31 May 1948, the eldest son of John Henry (Jack) Bonham and his wife, Joan Isobel Sargent. Bonham had a younger brother, Michael, and a sister, Debbie. Bonham's early attraction to percussion proved hard for his parents to ignore: they bought him a snare drum when he was ten, and a full, second-hand kit when fifteen. He took pride in teaching himself to drum, influenced initially by American soul records and later by the ...
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Henry Burstow (1826–1916) by Bonmarché, c. 1911 Horsham Museum (Horsham District Council)
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Andrew R. Turner
Burstow, Henry (1826–1916), singer and bell-ringer, was born on 11 December 1826 at 34 The Bishopric, Horsham, Sussex, the second youngest of nine children. His father, William (b. 1781), and mother, Ellen (d. 1857) made clay tobacco pipes; their home, in the poorest and roughest part of ...
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Capaldi, Nicola James [Jim] (1944–2005), musician, singer, and songwriter, was born on 2 August 1944 at 5 Avonside, Evesham, Worcestershire, the eldest of seven children of Nicola (Nicholas) Capaldi (1913–2005) and his wife, Marie, née Houchin (1913–1987). At the time of his birth registration the family lived at ...
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Duckworth, Richard (bap. 1631
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B. H. Blacker
revised by Sarah Brolly
Ellacombe [Ellicombe], Henry Thomas (1790–1885), campanologist and Church of England clergyman, was born at Alphington, Devon, on 15 May 1790, the second of seven sons of William Ellicombe (d. 1831), rector of Alphington, and his wife, Hannah, née Rous. Sir Charles Grene Ellicombe...
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Ellington, Ray [real name Harry Pitts Brown] (1916–1985), drummer, singer, entertainer, and bandleader, was born on 17 March 1916 at 155 Kennington Road, Kennington, London, the second son and youngest of the four children of Harry Pitts Brown (c.1877–1920), a music-hall comedian and entertainer, and his wife, ...
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Martyn Hanson
Hiseman, Philip John Albert [Jon] (1944–2018), drummer, was born on 21 June 1944 at the British Hospital in Samuel Street, Woolwich, London, the son of Philip William John Hiseman (1913–1997), a typographical artist and later college lecturer then serving as an officer in ...
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Johnson, Folorunsho [Ginger] (1916–1975), percussionist and bandleader, was born in Ijebu, Nigeria, on 2 May 1916, the son of a Muslim priest whose name he later gave as George Johnson. His parents were Ijebu-Yoruba from Nigeria. He was orphaned as a child and grew up in ...
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Alun Morgan
Krahmer, Carlo [real name William Max Geserick Krahmer] (1914–1976), jazz drummer and record producer, was born on 11 March 1914 at 22 Cropley Street, Shoreditch, London, the son of William Henry Charles Krahmer, hairdresser's assistant, and his wife, Phoebe Murrell. He suffered from defective vision from birth and taught himself to play the drums. He subsequently received tuition from ...
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Rikky Rooksby
Mitchell, John [Mitch] (1947–2008), drummer, was born on 9 July 1947 in Ealing, London, the son of Jack and Phyllis (Phyl) Mitchell. His parents enrolled him in drama school at the age of ten. He first entered show business as a teenage actor in children's television films such as ...
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![Cover Mitchell, John [Mitch] (1947–2008)](/cover/searchableMedia/odnb-9780198614128-e-1014342-graphic-1-thumbnail.jpg)
John Mitchell (1947–2008) by Gered Mankowitz, 1967 Redferns
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Keith John Moon (1946–1978) by unknown photographer Getty Images
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Marios Costambeys
Moon, Keith John (1946–1978), musician, was born in Central Middlesex County Hospital, Willesden, on 23 August 1946, the eldest child and only son of Alfred Charles Moon (d. 1974), a motor mechanic, and his wife, Kathleen Winifred, née Hopley. Moon had two sisters, ...
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John C. Eisel
Morris, Ernest (1889–1962), bell-ringer and author, was born at 60 Pasture Lane, Leicester, on 28 July 1889, the son of Josiah Morris, himself a well-known ringer, and his wife, Louisa, née Johnson. Ernest Morris had only elementary education, as his father, a shoemaker by profession, was unable to send him to high school; thus he was largely self-educated. At the age of fourteen he left school and went to work in a leather warehouse. After service during the First World War, partly abroad, eventually in 1937 he succeeded his father as verger of ...
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Harold Adolphus Phillips (1929–2000) by unknown photographer, 1961 [Phillips, sitting on left, with members of The Beatles] © KEYSTONE USA / Rex Features
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James McGrath
Phillips, Harold Adolphus [known as Lord Woodbine] (1929–2000), calypsonian and music promoter, was born on 15 January 1929 in Laventille, Trinidad, the fifth of the seven children of James Phillips, a Venezuelan-born butcher, and his wife, Edna, who was originally from Grenada...
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Powell, Colin Trevor [Cozy] (1947–1998), rock musician, was born on 29 December 1947 at Cirencester, Gloucestershire. Adopted, he never discovered the identity of his natural parents. He was married but divorced.
Cozy Powell was one of rock's most celebrated drummers. His powerful style was a feature of many of the biggest rock groups of the 1970s and 1980s, including ...
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