Ian Paice

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Ian Anderson Paice (born June 29, 1948; Nottingham, England) made his name as drummer with seminal heavy rock band Deep Purple. As of Jon Lord's departure in 2002, he is the only founding member of the band still performing with the group.

[edit] Career

Born in Nottingham, England his family moved to Bicester in Oxfordshire.

Heavily influenced by Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich and other jazz drummers, Ian is one of the few hard rock drummers who uses swing and jazz inflections in his powerhouse style. He is also left-handed.

He was the drummer in a local Bicester group called "Georgie and the Rave ons". The group later changed their name to "The Shindigs". Ian left the "shindigs" to join a group called "MI5" later renamed "The Maze".

He played alongside Rod Evans in The Maze. After this, at 19, he helped create Deep Purple in 1968, one of the heaviest rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s. He participated in the 80s 'Super Drumming' event. He is the only one who has been in every Deep Purple lineup until the present. He has also played with Paice, Ashton & Lord, Whitesnake, and Gary Moore.

Recommended albums that best display Paice's talents are Deep Purple's Made in Japan (most notably "The Mule" - including a 6 minute solo, but some find "Lazy" just as good or even better), Deep Purple in Rock (most notably "Child in Time" and "Flight of the Rat"), Machine Head and Burn particularly the title track "Burn" which highlights his mastery of single stroke fills and just overall hand speed and the track "You Fool No One" where his excellent kick drum technique is evident.

He brought forward from a previous generation of rock drummers the tight, precise playing and crisp, clean sound of the best of his predecessors but added power, formidable speed and technique to create a unique style and sound giving the best of both worlds.

Ian uses Pearl drumkits as his main performing drums, incorporating Paiste cymbals and Promark sticks. A devotee of Ludwig kits during the seventies, he switched to Pearl at around 1984, which he still plays. He also prefers a single bass drum set-up, both live and in the studio. One of the few exceptions is on the Paice tour-de-force and Purple charting single "Fireball", probably the finest example of Ian's virtuoso technique.

In the summer of '92, Ian Paice guested at a Leukaemia Research charity concert in Oxford, with members of Bad Company and Procol Harum. "A Whiter Shade of Pale" sounded even better than usual with Paice's drumming.

A recent highlight was guesting on Paul McCartney's Run Devil Run (1999) rock'n'roll album. Steve Morse says about Ian Paice: "He's like a real heavy Ringo. He's just so good on the drums, but doesn't want to make a big deal about it."

He has also released a solo DVD which is aimed at drummers and music fans alike.

He is almost always seen wearing blue (or occasionally green or purple) coloured spectacles.

[edit] External links

• Interview with Ian in web magazine Drummer's Digest
• Ludwig Drummer illustrated article on Ian Paice's pre-1984 drums setup

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