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Ian
Wallace Bury might be famous for Sir Robert Peel and black puddings, but it's not the first place most people associate with rock n' roll. But for one of the town's former sons, Ian Wallace, Bury was the starting point for a glittering career as one of the world's most in-demand drummers. How many can boast they have played with Bob Dylan, King Crimson and Don Henley? Or Stevie Nicks, Crosby Stills and Nash? Steve Marriott and Jackson Browne? Did anyone mention Chuck Berry, Eric Clapton, Sting and Billy Joel? Sadly, Ian died a fortnight ago of cancer at his California home aged just 60: but his musical legacy lives on, not least in the minds of the people who still remember his early days in Bury with affection. Life long friend Bob Bentley, who still lives in Bury, first met Ian when he lived directly behind his house in Manchester Road. "We had a line of communication' up between our bedrooms with two cocoa tins and a piece of string!" he recalled. "We went to St Chad's junior school, then he went to Bury Grammar. "When we were very young, about 11, three of us used to play rock n' roll in his back room, Ian playing with knitting needles on biscuit tins and an old electric fire. We played in the back streets too, with David Fowler on a tea chest bass and me on a banjo that my brother bought for ten shillings in a church sale. We used to make a terrible noise on those things! "Another time, Ian went on a school trip to Europe, but spent all his holiday money on a Hohner harmonica, which he could play no problem by the time he got back. He was a naturally gifted musician, and determined to make a career out of it." Clive Roberts, an old friend now living in Vancouver, Canada, remembers: "Ian and I played together as young kids and did go to the same elementary school for a while. My parents moved us to the London area when I was 12, but as my grandparents were still living in Bury (David Street in Elton) we made regular trips back and I often called on my old pals. We would haunt the market or climb Holcombe Hill, rain or shine. "I didn't see a lot of Ian during our teen years as I was only in Bury during the summers. I well remember a bunch of us, aged about 16, hitch-hiking to Liverpool to visit the Cavern Club. We didn't catch the Beatles but we were thrilled to hear the Mojos and the Dennisons. Eventually Ian also moved to London, to further his music career." Further it he did, even while at Bury Grammar School, which he left with five O-levels. He formed a band called the Jaguars with rhythm guitarist John Hemingway (the other members were Steve Costello on lead guitar, and Derek Holt on bass). "I knew Ian because we were both at the grammar school", said John. "Our band was quite successful locally, and played venues like the Bury Palais. Ian was obviously very talented. He went to join a band from Accrington called The Warriors, which included Jon Anderson (later of Yes), although we knew him as Johnnie Anderson then." The Warriors, a six-piece band reckoned to be one of the best in the north of England, asked Ian to join and go full-time. John remembers the day in 1964 when Ian quit his NHS job. "It was an office job he hated," he said. "But it was a huge step for him to take, to become a professional musician at 17." It was important enough for the Bury Times to report the story in its Teen Topics section, headlined "Local drummer joins professional group". The band had secured a recording contract with Decca and were soon off to London to cut their first record and make a film. "Our band obviously split up," said John, who went on to join the BBC and now has his own PR company in Notts. "Years later I was looking at a King Crimson album, and there he was as the drummer. He moved to the US and became very successful as a session drummer, and I never saw him again." The Warriors toured the country and played the gruelling club circuit in Germany. Ian's wife, Marjorie Pomeroy, recalls: "It set him on the path to what became his life's work, 42 years as a professional musician. Even in lean times, in Germany, doing 45-minute sets from 7pm to 2am, it was an apprenticeship and taught him a work ethic." Marjorie remembers Ian telling her how he became a drummer. "His mum had bought him a guitar for Christmas. One Saturday he went to watch the movies and was in the queue for ice cream, and he saw a spotlight on stage where the bands played, on a drum kit. He looked at it and had a revelation, and he knew that's what he was supposed to do. So he took his guitar and his beloved record player to the pawn shop and traded them for drums. "He practised every day for most of his life. I knew that music came first and I came second. He was completely dedicated." Back in the UK in 1968, Ian lived in London and backed various artists, including members of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. He was then asked to join King Crimson, playing big dates in the UK (including Hyde Park) and the USA. Ian stayed in Los Angeles after a tour with former Small Faces leader Steve Marriott and then got his big break - he successfully auditioned for Bob Dylan and, after playing on his Street Legal album, went on tour in 1978, and can be heard on Dylan's live album At The Budokan. Meanwhile, Clive had moved to Canada in 1974 and lost touch with his English friends. "I really wish I had known that Ian had relocated to North America," he said. "He was not at all your stereotypical rock drummer. He was very much a musician's musician, exhibiting enormous influence, and power, even at a relatively early age. I noticed when watching him rehearse during the London years that it was very apparent the other group members always seemed to regard Ian as the leader. "He was a larger than life character. I wish I had known him better, and longer." Ian backed Dylan again in the 1990s and all the artists mentioned earlier, playing on more than 100 albums. He was also one of several drummers at the 1994 World Cup finals in America. Marjorie, Ian's fourth wife, met Ian in 1998 in Nashville. "It was like I'd met someone I'd known for years," she said. "We became best friends from the first moment, and got together a year later." Ian released his first solo album in 2003, Happiness with Minimal Side Effects, and joined fellow Crimson members in the 21st Century Schizoid Band. Most recently he formed a trio to play Crimson classics in a jazz style, called the Crimson Jazz Trio. It was after a European tour by this trio last August that Ian came to Bury to see his old friend Bob Bentley and stay at his house. "He was totally unaffected, and it seemed as if he had never left here," said Bob, who took him for a pint in the Rose and Crown pub on Manchester Old Road, a stone's throw from Ian's old home. "It looked like he was starting a second career with his jazz trio, but then it was cut short." Within weeks, Ian had been diagnosed with oesophageal cancer, and battled with it for six months before dying in February at the couple's Los Angeles home. Marjorie said that Ian, a keen Liverpool supporter, had been cremated wearing his Steven Gerrard shirt. She plans to travel to Bury this month for a tour around Ian's old haunts and then visit his mother Elsie, who lives near Carnforth. I used to say to him, there must be someone on this planet that cannot stand you!" she said. But I never found that, he was just the nicest person you could meet. He was a unique and special man, and his music will live on."
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