Drummer Alan White, the longest-tenured member of Sure, died at age 72 following a “transient sickness.”
White’s household introduced the information on Facebook, noting the drummer died at his Seattle-area dwelling on Could 26. “All through his life and six-decade profession, Alan was many issues to many individuals: an authorized rock star to followers all over the world; bandmate to a choose few, and gentleman and pal to all who met him,” they wrote.
White, who additionally carried out with John Lennon, George Harrison, Ginger Baker’s Air Pressure and Joe Cocker early in his profession, had suffered from well being issues in recent times. He was pressured to take a seat out of Sure in 2016 because of again surgical procedure, and he guested because the second drummer (alongside Jay Schellen) in 2018 whereas recovering from a bacterial an infection. White then sat out of the band’s fiftieth anniversary U.Ok. tour because of what Sure described as “present well being points.”
White was born on June 14, 1949, in Pelton, England, and took piano classes as a toddler. His pursuits later moved to the drum package, and all through the ’60s he performed with a number of smaller bands, together with Griffin — a gig that finally modified his life. Lennon and Yoko Ono occurred to attend one among that group’s membership gigs in London, and the subsequent night time White obtained a shocking telephone name at dwelling.
“A voice introduced, ‘Hey, that is John Lennon,’” White advised The Seattle Times in 2021. “I assumed it was a mate pulling my leg, put the receiver down and went again to the kitchen. Fortunately, the caller rang again. This time I listened and thought: Grasp on. Possibly it is John Lennon.”
Lennon, impressed with White’s drumming, invited him to play together with his Plastic Ono Band — that includes Ono, Eric Clapton and Klaus Voormann — the next night time on the Toronto Rock and Roll Competition. That set led to additional session work, together with efficiency on Lennon’s 1970 single “Immediate Karma!” and 1971 LP, Think about, together with Harrison’s 1970 triple album, All Issues Should Move.
After a few years of hopping round, White discovered a everlasting dwelling on this planet of prog: In 1972, after dropping cofounding drummer Invoice Bruford to King Crimson, Sure recruited White to hitch the lineup — and, in a mind-boggling feat, he realized the band’s complicated repertoire in simply three days forward of their Near the Edge tour.
“I acquired to know Eddy Offord, who was the producer for his or her first few albums,” White advised Rolling Stone in 2019. “I used to be sitting in a pub with him in London. We acquired to be superb associates. In the future [Yes singer] Jon [Anderson] and [Yes bassist] Chris [Squire] got here round and he mentioned, ‘Sure need you to hitch the band.’ I feel Chris Squire noticed me play with Joe Cocker earlier to that. I used to be simply ending a Joe Cocker tour when Sure requested me. I agreed and mentioned, ‘When are we rehearsing?’ They mentioned, ‘We don’t actually have any rehearsals and we’ve acquired a gig on Monday. Are you able to study the repertoire between now and Monday?’ It was a Friday. I mentioned, ‘Nicely, I’ll give it a shot, but it surely’s a protracted shot.'”
That lengthy shot paid off for everybody. White gave Sure a highly effective rock edge and sonic consistency, the latter a uncommon commodity for a band that routinely switched members. He performed on dozens of live performance and studio albums, beginning with the divisive 1973 double-LP Tales From Topographic Oceans.
“I used to be very impressed by the completely different time signatures and simply creating new and adventurous music,” he advised UCR of that file in 2013. “I assumed it was simply thrilling the entire time, and I feel that is what you hear: a bunch of musicians looking for an alleyway into progressive music. I feel it labored, personally, and I feel lots of people admire it. And like I mentioned, folks would say, “I am unable to imagine you probably did the entire thing [live]!”
His Sure run lasted greater than a half-century, up by 2021’s The Quest, making White the band’s longest-remaining member. And the drummer’s versatility anchored the band’s quite a few shifts in fashion, from the jazz-fusion pummel of 1974’s Relayer to the smooth, arena-friendly stylings of 1983’s 90125.
White, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame with Sure in 2017, launched one solo album, 1976’s Ramshackled. He additionally collaborated with a number of different bands, together with the Sure offshoot supergroup Circa; famously, he and Squire briefly labored on concepts with Jimmy Web page for an aborted supergroup named XYZ (Ex Sure-Zeppelin) in 1981.
Sure, although, turned his dwelling.
“Each album is completely different in its personal approach,” he advised Examiner in 2013. “Relayer was an ideal album that I loved enjoying on. 90215 had loads of memorable songs on it. After that, it will be Discuss, which is a good underestimated album. The Ladder is one other. There’s loads of them, they’re all completely different and elements of the band’s life. I loved all of them.”
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