Rick Allen (drummer)

Rick Allen

Richard John Cyril Allen (born November 1, 1963, Dronfield, Derbyshire, England) is the drummer for the British rock band Def Leppard. He is famous for being a prominent professional drummer who continued his musical career despite the amputation of his left arm.

Biography

Childhood and early career

Rick Allen started out drumming with his mother's kitchen utensils when he was five, using a tambourine as additional percussion. At about the age of ten he successfully persuaded his parents to get him a drumkit, by agreeing to take lessons, and pay half the cost of the kit. He got a blue sparkle Del-Ray drum kit and after six months of lessons, he began playing with his first band, Smokey Blue. Later on he played with bands called Rampant and the Johnny Kalendar Band.

Def Leppard

When he was 15 years old, his father replied to an ad (he didn't want to reply, as he was ready to give up the drums), of a band looking for a drummer, "Leppard loses skin", and on November 28, 1978, he was given the job of drummer for the rock group Def Leppard, replacing Frank Noon. In 1979, he dropped out of school, at the same time as other band members quit their jobs, to concentrate on a career in music. In September of that year, they opened for Sammy Hagar at London's Hammersmith Odeon and, in October and November, played support for AC/DC, with Rick celebrating his 16th birthday by playing at the Hammersmith Odeon. On March 14, 1980, the band released their first album, On Through the Night, which was followed by three other albums.

Accident and recovery

On December 31, 1984, while driving under the influence near Sheffield, UK, he endured an off-road accident. He was thrown from the Corvette, which had flown off the road and over a stone fence into a field. His left arm was severed due to his seatbelt not being completely engaged. Despite attempts by doctors to reattach it, infection set in, and the arm had to be reamputated. Through perseverance, the support of his band mates, and a custom drum kit, he remained with the band to enjoy continued success. Much to the dismay of Rick, the Ludwig drumkit he used on High & Dry and Pyromania has since been given away by Def Leppard's former management.

Former Status Quo drummer Jeff Rich was an invaluable source of help and encouragement during Rick's convalescence, and after many hours of discussion they decided to try and develop Rick's famous multi-pad electronic kit. After many attempts and with much determination they came up with what was to become a revolution in drum technology. A unique pedal trigger system was successfully utilised and Rick was now able to play more or less as he could before, even delivering a successful and well received set at the "Monsters of Rock" festival at Castle Donington in 1986. In August 1987, the band released their fourth album, Hysteria, which was highly successful, selling over 15,000,000 copies. He has released so far six more albums with the band, the latest being Yeah!, a 2006 collection of covers reinterpreted by the band.

Post-accident drum sets

After Allen's accident, some unique thinking came into play in order to keep him behind the drum set. Simmons, a company noted for making electronic drum sets, designed a custom kit for Allen. Since electronic drums are little more than "triggers" which sense a hit from a drumstick or the motion of a pedal, Allen's kit was primarily pads in front of him and to his right (to play with his remaining arm), and primarily pedals on his left, which triggered the sound of snare drums and tom-toms. Allen would learn how to play patterns with his right hand and left foot that complete drummers would ordinarily play with their right and left hands. Allen has also experimented with what he calls "technology stunts" using hardware from companies such as ddrum and Acupad.

In more recent years, as the "80s sound" has all but disappeared, Allen's sound would change to a more "acoustic," natural sound, still through the use of samplers. In this case, the samplers were loaded with actual recordings of Allen's acoustic kit, so that in the final mix, it is difficult to tell between the drum sounds in the samplers and the drums actually struck during the performance.

Allen's current setup is custom-manufactured by Whirlwind and Hart Dynamics.

Side projects

• Even though he was not credited, Allen co-wrote the soundtrack to a 1998 Disney TV-movie called "Brink!"
• In May and June of 2000 he played two shows with the Mark Mason Project, featuring guitarist Mark Englert previously of Dramarama.
• Allen has also written some music with his wife Lauren.

Personal life

Rick was married on October 11, 2003, to Lauren Monroe, co-founder of Raven Drum Foundation a charity set up by Rick located in Malibu, California, to encourage disabled children to overcome their challenges. Rick has a daughter, Lauren Shane Allen (born May 20, 1997), by a previous marriage.

Trivia

• Allen auditioned to Def Leppard with Thin Lizzy's song "Emerald." According to bandmate/founder Rick Savage, they sounded much better than they had in the past.
• Allen was given the Humanitarian Award on August 29, 2001.

See also

• Def Leppard

External Links

• The Raven Drum Foundation
• Rick Allen Official MySpace Site
• Inside Weddings