Thomas played drums on Magical Mystery Girl, Diamond Princess, Angels In Drag, Cheapskate Rainbow and Higher Deeper
Thomas Lang is an outrageous player. And I do mean outrageous. World class – and I do mean that. You can hardly open a copy of any drum magazine anywhere in the world without seeing him somewhere in it. He’s a very well respected, much recorded drummer and producer, having worked on more records than you could possibly believe. His CV is frightening, his technique peerless (including such gems as being able to play two independent rhythms with ONE FOOT using his heel and toe, while going bananas on the rest of the kit – scary) and his spirit superb to work with. His contribution to Angel in Drag was massive, to say the least.
I had a great video of him doing some of his kit magic in the studio, which has terrified drummers the world over, but I seem to have lost it – how, I don’t know! I’ll find it and put it up for the sheer spectacle of watching his limbs move faster than the shutter speed on the video camera. The photo is the cover to one of his tuition videos – it was just so, well, German, that I had to put it up. And it shows his arms (bigger than most people’s legs) off. Do you think he works out?
I met Thomas in China White in London, an ‘up-its-own-arse’ kind of club in the West End. I was there with Paul Turner, already a good friend of Thomas’s. He was supremely friendly – we talked for a good while about trying to do something involving more than music, maybe with dancers or some visual theatre. I also dropped into the conversation that I was making a record, and he offered to have a listen to the demos and maybe play on a couple of tracks. So later that month I sent up a few tracks on CD that I had him in mind for – two, I think – Magical Mystery Girl and Diamond Princess. I hoped he’d agree to play on them and not charge me too much. These big session players can be a bit pricey!!
The reality was something a little grander, and a ludicrous display of Thomas’s generosity of spirit. He called me almost straight away. The conversation went something like this…
“Hi Steve, its Tom. I love the stuff. I’d love to play on it, so I’ve booked a week down at StarTracks Studio, you know, in Wapping?”
“Hold on Tom, I can’t really afford a week on two drum tracks…”
“No, No – I do lots of sessions for the owner and he owes me about thirty days studio time so we can use that!”
“But that’s your time…”
“Well, I’ve got to use it somehow…”
He wouldn’t hear of anything else. He had booked his OWN studio time to record my stuff. And whatsmore, refused to take any money for the sessions.
When the time came to track the drums, we went to the studio, StarTracks in Wapping, East London. Tom’s gear was all set up and he was having a quick run around the kit… the owner of the studio, Michael Wolff came to feature quite a lot later in the tale, but basically was another complete gentleman of huge generosity. I ended up playing guitars on some stuff for him and Thomas as a pitiful attempt to repay my debts…
Thomas played on not two, not three, but FIVE tracks in the end. I couldn’t stop him. I’d think – there’s no way I can ask him to do any more, then he’d overhear another demo and go – ‘Yeah, I want to play on that one’ and he’d be off again. Each time he would listen to the track, listen again, listen again making a few notes, then go in and nail it in one take. It was terrifying to behold, actually, but a sublime experience, and a great privilege to have him doing his stuff on the record. I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to repay him. I did a load of stuff on some of his own insane jazz fusion tracks as relief from mixing when I was in Ireland last year, but he hasn’t even heard that yet, so I guess the debt still stands until we meet again.
He’s recently moved back to London from a brief foray to L.A. – he was sorely missed in the Big Smoke, so we’re glad to have him back. I’m not there of course, but I’m sure the tale remains unfinished…