topper headon

The most important member of any rock ‘n’ roll band is the drummer. Seriously, you can have Jimi Hendrix on lead guitar in your band. But if Mitch Mitchell isn’t in the back, holding it all together on drums? You just have noise.  Rhythm is king in rock ‘n’ roll. Naturally, rhythm also rules in […]

As long as there’s been a punk scene, its denizens have argued as to which city invented it — New York or London? Truth be told, it was neither because history’s first proper punk band was the Stooges from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Which would make Detroit punk’s proper birthplace. But if much of the sound […]

“You’re only as good as your drummer,” Clash singer/rhythm guitarist Joe Strummer lamented in their documentary Westway To The World, as he recounted Nicky “Topper” Headon’s firing ahead of 1982 breakthrough LP Combat Rock’s tour. “Drumming…like nailing a nail into the floor,” he continued. “It’s so precise—the beat has to be there!” Mind you, the […]

Welcome to the second installment of our exclusive two-part conversation with Leeds, U.K. post-punk icons Gang Of Four, represented by singer Jon King and drummer Hugo Burnham. We learned last time what the Marxist funkateers picked up from organizing political demonstrations and seeing early punk bands in the student refectory as Leeds University students. We […]