| Atomic Rooster's |
| Paul Hammond |
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Paul began playing drums at the age of 11, his first
band being the Farm. Aged 18, he was recruited into Rooster during
summer '70, one of his first gigs being an outdoor gig in S Yorkshire at
the end of August. His style of drumming, shuffle rhythms, suited
Rooster music as the band recorded Death Walks Behind You. Always a fine
solo in Gershatzer.
Paul toured hard with Rooster and put in a top performance for the band's 3rd LP, In Hearing Of. Paul toured hard again, from the drum stool, until leaving the band with John, during '71 to form Daemon with bass-player John Gustafson and vocalist Al Shaw and releasing the LP Entrance To Hell. Al Shaw left and the band became Bullett and then Hard Stuff. Paul providing excellent drums on both LP's, BulletProof and Bolex Dementia, until the band ended during '73. A car crash in Belgium left Paul in hospital for some time with the insertion of a metal pin to hold his badly broken leg together! He spent two years putting his drumming 'back together' concentrating on regaining full strength in his left left, however he still walked with a very slight limp. In 1978 he worked with the Intellectuals. However he returned to provide drums in sessions during the recording of John's solo LP and when the drum seat became vacant in Rooster in September '80, Paul returned and stayed with the band, recording the Polydor 12" singles and the Headline News Album, also playing on the following tours until the band finished in '84. If Paul had a musical weakness, it was remembering the song arrangements, hence Rooster's penchant for extended live versions. Paul sadly passed away in '92, accidental death. His contribution and smile greatly missed. When you hear the thunder rumble, and it has a shuffle rhythm to its sound, it's just "Hammy" in the sky. |
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1977 / 1978 - Singer/guitarist/keyboardist Jack Hues and singer/bassist/guitarist/keyboardist Nick Feldman met for the first time after Jack Hues responded to an advertisement that Nick Feldman placed in the classifieds of the weekly British music press, Melody Maker. Prompted by the freedom of the exploding punk music movement in England, they first played together in an avant-garde group called "The Intellektuals", which was together from mid '77 to late '78 approximately. The group included Jack Hues (guitar/vocals), Nick Feldman (guitar/vocals), Bud Merrick (bass guitar), and the late Paul Hammond (drummer - formerly of the rock band "Atomic Rooster"). - November 6, 1978 - Intellektuals gig at The Rock Garden at Covent Garden, London. |
| Any further information about Paul, please contact us. |
| From Mike Healy, 19th September 2000...........I enclose the top half of the rear cover for Daemon's The Entrance to Hell, I wanted you to have this photo primarily with Paul Hammond in it, front and centre.... and smiling! Even when I first saw it, I was amazed to see him actually doing so! Not even in the Hard Stuff cover photos is he smiling or whatnot. | 
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| On that note, this and Bulletproof are pretty much the same thing music-wise, only this has different mixes of all the songs, a few extra ones and some jams scattered around in it. Al Shaw is on the album, but his name doesn't appear anywhere on it, yet they didn't re-do his vocals or anything. They were first together as "An", then Bullet, and then Bulldog, and by the time they had settled on Hard Stuff, Shaw either left or was canned, so there we go. I like Paul Hammond's drumming on that a lot, though I don't know if he had that accident before or after the second record. The liner notes on the rear cover (I have the US Mercury copy) say, "This album is dedicated to Ostende and one of it's hospitals, the Zeikenhuis Henri Serruys, where John Cann passed a week, Paul Hammond stayed a month, and the Zodiac became both dear and late", the Zodiac being (I'm assuming) one of their team or something. But here he is, smiling for us. |
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thanks to Greg Pursall. |
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From Terry Simpson, an old friend of Hammy's, 19th September 2000.....It was while Paul was recovering after the accident he was involved with in Belgium. He could only walk short distances due to the pin in his leg giving him a lot of pain. I had a Ford Anglia at the time, large wheels and all the trimmings, yes, I know a real poser. Paul loved the car, he used to call the wheels real big ones, 'real biguns' in his way of talking. We were driving home one night and he asked what the chrome lever did on the dash board, I told him it was to open the bonnet and not to pull the lever as the bonnet would release. I stopped to get some petrol, came back to the car and off we went. All the way home something kept rattling and by now it was pouring with rain. I just had to stop and investigate, as you can imagine lots of things go through your mind. Looking all around the car, Paul in the dry, me getting soaked, and I noticed the bonnet was unlatched. Getting back in the car looked at Paul and he had this big grin on his face, I was not amused but that was Paul's humour. On another occasion we went to a hotel on the Thames just outside Maidenhead, yes, very Posh. We were both donned in Afghan coats and Platform shoes it was about the time of 'In Hearing Of"' and Paul used to say I'm on £60 a week what are you on, £20 was the reply. It was just his way of amusement and he bought most of the drinks at that time. We stood at the bar and asked for 2 glasses of Guinness only to be turned down as our mode of dress did not suit the venue. The barman asked what do you do for a living dressed like that, to Paul, Paul's reply I'm a ----ing drummer and I earn a lot more than you. I cringed and we both left rather quickly as the large doorman was beginning to stare at us. On the way home we stopped at our local, the Plough in Marlow, got served and enjoyed the rest of the evening. |
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| *Whatever Happened
to the Band?
*Vincent Crane *Carl Palmer *Nick Graham *John DuCann *Paul Hammond *Pete French *Chris Farlowe *Steve Bolton *Ric Parnell *John Goodsall *Preston Heyman *Bernie Torme |
