The valley of the shadow of de'Ath
Everyone thought he'd been dead for decades until he showed up at his former boss's memorial service, with only one eye but otherwise more or less in one piece.
Rod de'Ath was Rory Gallagher's drummer during his Seventies heyday. As a musician he was no great shakes - or, as Roger Glover, who produced him on Calling Card, diplomatically put it, he "wasn't the best drummer in the world" - and if he's remembered at all it's probably for only two things: his rather silly (but in fact real) name and the notorious foot-powder scene in Tony Palmer's documentary Irish Tour '74.
Nevertheless, he was an experienced, enthusiastic basheur des skins and certainly didn't deserve to slip into total obscurity when Rory suddenly gave him and his mate Lou Martin, the band's Muppet-like keyboard player, the boot in 1978.
Like much that happened in the immediate wake of music's Year Zero, the end of Rod de'Ath's career as a first-division drummer was as unjust as it was abrupt. (Yes, Rat Scabies had a silly name too, but he had the leverage of not looking like Joni Mitchell in the rain.)
After trying in vain to get back into the rock mainstream for a few years, including a spell with Lou Martin in a going-nowhere-fast band called Ramrod (right), de'Ath emigrated to America, got married and had a baby. At some point in the Eighties he got a call from a British band called Road Erect (yes, that Road Erect), inviting him to produce them, so he came back to London to do it, moving from sofa to sofa.
And then his "accident" happened.
The details are murky (I've been unable to confirm whether any gardening was involved at all, although substances of various kinds no doubt were), but the upshot was that he lost an eye, spent a long time in a coma and suffered severe brain damage with total memory loss. His wife and child flew over from the States to be with him, but he was in hospital for so long that his apartment back in New York was assumed by the local hyenas to be unoccupied and everything in it was looted.
He emerged from his coma to discover that he wasn't just an out-of-work has-been drummer - no changes there - but he was also homeless, penniless, one-eyed and unable to remember a thing. Quite how he managed to get by, like most of the rest of this peculiar story, is a complete mystery.
Fast forward another decade of lost weekends to 1995, when Rory Gallagher died. Although back living in the UK by then, de'Ath stayed away from the funeral - probably wisely, given the very real risk that he'd spook most of the mourners - preferring to shuffle into Brompton Oratory unannounced and pay his respects at the memorial service a couple of months later. And that's where Rod de'Ath came back from the "dead" and where we came in.
In 1996 he was still in London (although doing exactly what I have no idea) with 95% of his memory back, but since then - 12 years ago now - he's been AWOL again. Is he still hanging in there somewhere or, after one false alarm already, has Rod de'Ath finally lived up to his name? Does anyone know?
For old time's sake, here he is at his (and Rory's) peak, playing "Cradle Rock" at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1975.
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I once worked...
I once worked with somebody called Gaye De'ath. Her name used to come up on the office phones when she called and it always struck me as a bad name for her parents to give her.
Chalky
Terrible Love Songs Blog
Rod de'Ath
I have no connections to music folks, I'm just a music appreciator.
But I do think this article is unfair to Rod de'Ath (who, I think, was originally Morris). Having watched and listened to everything there is out there of Rory's, my take is that Rod was an excellent, journeyman drummer.
My impression is that his take on the seven year job with Rory was just that: it was a job, and he did it to the best of his ability. If you examine the CDs and DVDs of Rory's work when Rod was his drummer, what you get is very fine, toe to the line, percussion.
Some of us would like to believe that anyone who played with Rory was somehow gifted with ethereal, angelic, telepathic phantasias of music. It just ain't so.
Rod was a talented and reliable drummer. And, hey, there aren't many folks who can do that job very well, especially behind a legend. And Rory was already a legend when Rod began the gig.
(And these remarks are coming from someone who adores Rory, and thinks he never made a wrong turn.)
An answer to your question
Iam very pleased to be able to tell you Archie, (god only knows why, because you obviously hate him with a passion!) that Rod is infact alive & well (as he can be with his horrific injuries)& still living in London.
Being his cousin & wanting to find out if he was dead or alive I took it on myself to try & trace him, this was about 3 years ago. Luckily he saw a message from me on a Gallagher web site & he got back in touch, & he has made the surviving members of his family back in Saundersfoot where he originated from very happy.
My mum especially, who is well into her 80's & was Rod's mums sister, who thought Rod had been dead for years. He has since been home to Saundersfoot & spent quite a bit of time with her.
And for you Keefek, true about the Morris bit in a way. That was infact his mum's (& my mum's) maiden name. But thanks for your comments in defence of a fantastic drummer, & a nice bloke all round. Me & the rest of his family are very proud to be related to who we think is the best drummer in the world!
That's great news, but
I'm a bit puzzled as to why you think I "obviously hate him with a passion". All I said was that he wasn't the greatest drummer in the world (oops, no, actually it was the producer of the last mainstream recording he made - 32 years ago now - who said that). And I did go on to say this:
If that's hatred, well, sheesh.
Thanks for the info, anyway. I'll update the relevant entry on my blog site (which this post was originally based on) accordingly.
Rod De'ath
I was fortunate enough to meet Rod in 1982. I had a rehearsal studio in Salisbury, Wilts and ran a set of auditions there for a drumming vacancy in a local RnB band, Matt Vinyl and the Emulsions (often referred to as Fat Rhino and the Repulsions). Rod was intrigued by the advert in the Melody Maker which mentioned a forthcoming tour of South Africa. While the other try out was thrashing away in the studio, Rod and I got to sit and chat for an hour or so over drinks in my kitchen. I was struck by what a thoroughly nice bloke he was. He talked about about touring with Rory and his earlier bands. He also spoke at length about playing with Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Chuck Berry. I find no mention of this part of his playing career in the searching I've made so far on the web. Anyone care to elaborate? He mentioned being witness to Chuck punching Keith Richards one night and also of Chuck decking a photog in Spain one time.
I was fortunate to be Rod's drum roadie at the Stonehenge Festival in 1982 the night he played with MV&tR. Believe me he was absolutely spectacular that night and far beyond being an ordinary drummer as suggested above. He played the fastest roll I ever heard in my life that night and I shall always have vivid memories of the interplay between him and the other band members Tim and Sproggy. A truly nice guy who probably wouldn't remember me from Adam but I have great memories of him and wish him all the best.
A confirmed Mud-Chucker
Yes, together with Lou Martin, he was a member of the pick-up band that toured Europe with Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters, shortly after Ramrod failed to set the world on fire. I've been unable to confirm whether John Lee Hooker was on the same bill, but it's quite plausible - none of the Rod de'Ath story outlined above is made up.
And yes, maybe I was a bit harsh in my appraisal of him as "a bit crap, really", although I always thought he was a pathological cymbal abuser - and the main reason why most of Rory Gallagher's records sound so dated today. As for Roger Glover's appraisal, I was forgetting that his basic point of reference for the words "a drummer" is Ian Paice, who's a human metronome and definitely up there with Bonzo among the best of the best.