(Bart Mendoza of Manual Scan and the Shambles counts off drummers he’s worked with.)
No doubt about it: Kevin Donaker-Ring and I have worked with a lot of drummers over the decades, keeping in mind that we first began our team-up in 1976.
Here are a few of the incredible musicians who have spent time behind a drum kit with Manual Scan or the Shambles over the past 30-plus years. Not pictured: Paul Brewin, Morgan Young, Terry Moore, Rob Wilson, Trace Smith, Brad Kiser. … There’s a future post there.
1) “I was a Shambles drummer” pin. People have sat in with the band for one song to obtain one of these.
2) Joel Kmak / Manual Scan at The Backdoor. The banner was made for us by students at a dance at Bonita Vista High School a few days prior. The American flag was the Untouchables’ backdrop.
3) David Anderson / Manual Scan in Sacramento. We had already played in San Francisco opening for General Public earlier that evening. David had previously played with the Gravedigger V and went on to a ton of other bands. …
4) Brad Wilkins / Manual Scan at the 100 Club / England. Drum kit (and everything else) borrowed from the Jetset.
5) Bobby Allend / Manual Scan at The (old) Casbah. Bobby can be heard on the “Days & Maybes” EP.
6) David Klowden / The Shambles at The Marquee / England.
7) Ray Brandes / The Shambles at Off The Record / Hillcrest. This was a one-off. Normally Ray sang/played guitar with the band, but he filled in on drums for this one in-store.
8 ) Ron Silva / The Shambles at Toe’s Tavern, Pasadena. The list of bands Ron has spent time with is incredible — the Crawdaddys, the Nashville Ramblers, the Saturn V and more — a truly amazing musician.
9) John Chilson / The Shambles at Megalopolis. Some of us and our closest friends practically lived and slept at this bar — the band Loam with eventual drummer Trace Smith (also with Dizzy for a time) lived above it, a very cool musicians’ hangout all around.
10) Joel Valder / Los Shambles. Kevin, with help from Mike Rice, I believe, converted his garage into a rehearsal room. Joel was a wonderfully inventive drummer and was great fun to write songs in mind for.
11) Brad Barker / The Shambles. That’s Brad drumming on our version of “Warm This Winter.” He was later a member of dance band Y3K and Pink Floyd tribute band, Pink Froyd — they are SDMA winners.
12) Victor Penalosa / The Shambles. This picture cheats a bit as it’s from a session with another band we were both in, The Very Idea. Victor has spent time in the Fuzztones, the Quarter After, the Melanies and the Riot Act, alongside Peter Miesner, Hector Penalosa, Ray Brandes and myself.
13) Mike Kamoo / The Shambles at Earthling Studios. Mike is an incredible producer and multi-instrumentalist- his band, the Stereotypes, music has been in numerous TV shows and he has worked his studio magic with a zillion top bands including Lady Dottie & The Diamonds and the Rich Kids. He can also currently be heard with Lights On and the Loons, alongside Mike Stax.
14) Todd Woolsey / The Shambles at Strate Sound. Here we’re recording “More Than This” with producer Alan Sanderson at the original Poway location. Todd was formerly with Static Halo and played live with Tommy Tutone.
— Bart Mendoza
“Not pictured: Paul Brewin, Morgan Young, Terry Moore, Rob Wilson, Trace Smith, Brad Kiser. …”
Paul Kaufman . . . Jeff Bloom . . . Hell, didn’t you play drums at one Scan gig, Bart?
And Matt — guitarists of all sorts are a dime a dozen. Though that has never really prompted me to take up bass as anything but a passing interest.
>>And Matt — guitarists of all sorts are a dime a dozen.
Kevin: You’re definitely out of the dime-store league! As are a surprising number of our members … As someone whose technique is probably still best suited to a campfire singalong* after more than 30 years, I don’t undervalue real guitarists. 🙂
*OK, maybe a really fancy campfire singalong, with mixed drinks.
You guys are amazing.
Historically speaking I can’t recall a time when drummers didn’t take heat, being the butt of all jokes in bands in general, pretty much.
Ancient joke:
“What do you call a drummer who breaks up with his girlfriend?”
“Homeless.”
As a one time bass player (otherwise I’m one of the dime a dozen guitarists and always have been from small kid times) I realize that when the drummer is out sick the bass player stands in, taking the heat as the butt of all jokes. 😉
To answer Kevin, I did play drums at one gig and I recently turned up some pics of a Starjammer party with me on drums as well, but I dont recall much about any of it. This stuff really is starting to blend together for me…
Bernard! Great to see you here!
(And Bart — between your documentation of most everything and my wife’s incredible memory, I long ago gave up remembering stuff. Things stopped blending together a long time ago. The past is no longer even a blur to me. It’s just this thick haze with a few strong standout bits here and there. Even stuff two weeks ago is vague. I pretty much just live in the now.)
i didnt play drums with the shambles.I feel cheated.
I’m proud to have been a dime-a-dozen drummer (Manual Scan), who saw the light and became a dime-a-dozen rhythm guitarist with Lemons Are Yellow! I’m looking forward to seeing Bart, Kevin and the whole crew next Friday at the Casbah!
🙂 nice
>> i didnt play drums with the shambles.I feel cheated.
We’re still gigging. There’ll be an opportunity, I’m sure.
what was the name of that Glam Rock guy who drummed for the scan in the late 80’s? He worked at Off th Record enc. Nice guy.
Not sure if he worked at OTR, but Morgan Young sure fills the glam rock bill and was with us in the latter half of the 80’s. He’s our current drummer. He rocks in a major way.
Yeah Morgan. Saw him play at the scottish rites temple with Scan, great drummer, he worked at OTR ENC with Josh E.
He’s only gotten better with time. Amazing power and feel. I’m always honored to share the stage with him. Friday night--woo hoo!