B J Wilson

Praised by Mick Grabham

From June 1997's Shine On: Richard Amey (who contributed the BJ tribute in the recent Shine On announcement about Redhill) wrote:

'Not all musicians likely to play on July 19th took the same stage as drummer B.J. Wilson, who will be the deepest-lamented of absent friends at the reunion. Mick was one. I had to ask him ...'

Mick Grabham: "He was a good friend. I saw a lot of Barrie. Of course, because there wasn't a lot else happening on stage he was the main visual part of the band. The stage set-up we had, drums at the front at the side, organ at the back in the middle, was just like The Band. It worked at the time. Though nowadays I want to hear the bass and drums other than just in the monitor speakers. It was less physical than having the kit there behind you. Part of Barrie's playing style was avoiding the obvious. He described ordinary playing like building a house with bricks. How does he rate, for me? Up at the top. You couldn't fault his drumming, really. It was such an original sort of thing. You listen to the tracks and there's a lot of drumming going on in there. If somebody else was trying to play what he was doing, you'd just have to tell them to shut up. They couldn't do it. He always had such a big sound, unlike the sharper, higher sound drummers had in those days. And the snare drum always sounded like a real snare drum – that was probably because of his Boys' Brigade days."

BJ's page at BtP