An evening with Nicko McBrain behind the drums is always special. But when you put him together with British comedian...
An evening with Nicko McBrain behind the drums is always special. But when you put him together with British comedian and pub-landlord Al Murray you are guaranteed a unique and incredibly fun evening. Here is one hour and fifteen minutes with drum solos, jokes, a little guest drummer and spectacular stories filled with McBrainiacs from the icon himself, Nicko McBrain.
The art is in the detail, Paiste must have thought, and created 'Nicko's Treasures,' a unique and limited edition set...
The art is in the detail, Paiste must have thought, and created 'Nicko's Treasures,' a unique and limited edition set inspired by the Mayan theme of the tour stage set. You can choose from four videos in which Nicko's Paiste Treasures are explained and demoed by either Nicko McBrain himself, or the recap of the cymbals on display at NAMM 2017. It is fun and interesting to watch the driven, inspiring and ever funny Nicko McBrain talk so passionately about his love for the Paiste company and even more about the love for his cymbals. Of this anomaly in cymbal production are only 83 crated sets worldwide made. The Treasures are indeed all unique, just like the drummer they are made for.
Nicko McBrain is back with Sonor. The Iron Maiden-drummer and Sonor announced the big news just before the NAMM Show...
Nicko McBrain is back with Sonor. The Iron Maiden-drummer and Sonor announced the big news just before the NAMM Show 2016 opened. Right after the big moment, Nicko McBrain talked to Drummerszone and revealed some of what his brand new Sonor drum kit will look like. Even better: he gives all the details you need to imagine what it will look like.
In the videos in this video album he talks about his return to Sonor, his new drums and what they will look like.
An evening with Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain (55)
An evening with Nicko McBrain behind the drums is always special. But when you put him together with British comedian and pub-landlord Al Murray you are guaranteed a unique and incredibly fun evening. Here is one hour and fifteen minutes with drum solos, jokes, a little guest drummer and spectacular stories filled with McBrainiacs from the icon himself, Nicko McBrain.
Organized by The UK Drum Show in association with Drum One, Nicko's drum store in Manchester, this evening was one of a kind. Of course it was impossible to cover all of Nicko's career but, as expected, the evening was filled with humor, plenty of great stories from the Iron Maiden drummer about his influences, his first jobs, his first drumkits and how Pat Travers got him to play two bass drums, only because Cozy Powell played them and it looked cool. open album
Bonzo Bash NAMM Jamm 2013 (22)
Artists Bonzo Bash NAMM Jamm 2013:
Brian Tichy, Steven Adler, Seven Antonopoulos, Charlie Benante, Will Calhoun, Jimmy D'Anda, Virgil Donati, Chris Frazier, Gene Hoglan, Brandon Kachel, James Kottak, Dave Lombardo, Ray Luzier, Khurt Maier, JoJo Mayer, Nicko McBrain, Jonathan Mover, Xavier Muriel, Rikki Rockett, Stephen Perkins, Simon Phillips, Mike Portnoy, Glen Sobel, Tommy Stewart, Simon Wright, Yael
Location:
The Observatory, Santa Ana, California, USA. open album
Adams Drummers Festival 2012 (56)
Nicko McBrain performing at the Adams Drummers festival 2012
Complete line-up of the festival
- Phil Baheux
- Gavin Harrison
- Todd Sucherman
- Chris Coleman
- Nicko McBrain
- Appice Brothers: Carmine Appice & Vinnie Appice open album
Drummer Live! 2007 - Day II (57)
Host of the festival, Nicko McBrain performing with his band at 2007 edition of Drummer Magazine's Drummer Live! at the London Docklands' ExCeL Centre.
Other artists performing on October 21, 2007:
Derek Roddy, Steve White & Trio, Wolfgang Haffner, Cindy Blackman. open album
Nicko McBrain is long time drummer in heavy metal legends Iron Maiden. He also formed a side project band called 7x70 with Dan Spitz of Anthrax and Vanilla Ice. More recently he founded another side project called McBrain Damage.
In the 1970s, Nicko McBrain appeared on some Pat Travers albums, and also played for Streetwalkers from 1975 to 1976; he also appeared in the band McKitty in the early 1980s. It was during a McKitty gig in Belgium that he first met Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris. Nicko joined Iron Maiden in 1983 for the Piece of Mind album, replacing Clive Burr, after his previous band Trust had supported Iron Maiden on the road during 1982. He has been with Iron Maiden ever since.
Nicko was born as Michael Henry McBrain in Hackney East London on the 5th of June 1952. The nickname "Nicko" is from Michael's childhood, where his favourite stuffed animal was named 'Nicholas the bear' - which he apparently carried everywhere. Due to this, his parents called him 'Nicky'. "Nicko" was spawned when Michael was meeting a manager from CBS Records, with the keyboard player Billy Day. Billy introduced him as 'My Italian drummer - His name's "Neeko"'. Michael liked the moniker, so he decided to use it as a stage name, having first adapted the spelling slightly.
As far as inspiration goes, Nicko insists "It was all Joe Morello's fault" he started drumming in the first place: "I first saw Joe playing in 1961, when Dave Brubeck's 'Take Five' was number six in the charts. My father had an old black and white TV. I can remember it was bath night. We had to heat the water in a copper kettle, and it took forever. On the TV comes this great BBC show with Brubeck live. Joe Morello did this solo, and I could not believe what I was hearing. I shouted, 'Thats what I want to dol' I was ten years old."
Nicko McBrain spent months driving his mother mad playing pots and pans. He then went on a pilgrimage to his local music store to ogle the glittery drum kits. He also built a vast collection of catalogues. When he was eleven and a half, his parents finally gave in and bought him his first kit for Christmas. It was a John Grey 'Broadway' outfit, with a 20" bass drum, a 10" single head tom, a snare drum and a splash cymbal, with no hi-hat or floor tom. He played this kit "for ages" and gradually built it up, adding Super Zyn cymbals. Now he was all set for his first gig.
Strangely, unlike most heavy metal drummers, McBrain has refused to use a double bass drum pedal, since he considers it to be "too complicated", and "un-drummerish". Instead, he has developed an incredibly fast technique on the single bass drum pedal, following Steve Harris' gallops with no problem whatsoever. The first (and last) song Nicko McBrain recorded using a double bass drum was "Face in the Sand," on the Dance of Death album, 2003. He subsequently announced that it had been one of the hardest things he had ever had to play and that, for that reason, the number would not be included in the set list of the Dance of Death World Tour.
He has been cited as a major influence of many modern drummers over a wide range of styles, and often holds drum clinics for fans and would-be drummers alike.
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Marco Minnemann
