The drummer Stewart Copeland and Nick Mason called the best of all time
Everyone has their favourite drummer. It could be decided on virtuosity, stage presence, fashion sense or, of course, a winning personality. However, when it comes to a drummer’s favourite drummer, we can expect technical skill and unique style to lean more weight on the equation. What better pair to decide on the best drummer of all time than Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason and Stewart Copeland of The Police?
In 2018, Mason and Copeland were welcomed as guests on Amazon’s motoring show The Grand Tour. With a drumming ambassador from each side of the Atlantic and two disparate rock genres in front of him, Jeremy Clarkson knew he was in for a brief deviation from car chat.
“One thing I see that you have in common is your favourite drummer is the same person,” Clarkson probed during the interview. “Yeah, we sorted this out last night,” Copeland said. “We sorted out the hierarchy last night.”
“That’s exactly right, and I knew we were really on it because the table next door were beginning to eavesdrop. And after five minutes, they’d both actually gone to sleep,” Mason laughed in agreement.
“So you both agree that Mitch Mitchell was your favourite drummer of all time?” Clarkson asked.
“Yeah, our favourite drummer,” Mason replied. “This was Jimi Hendrix’s drummer, I think we should explain to those of you who are not as old as we are,” Clarkson clarified.
“Well, that’s the travesty right there,” Copeland interjected enthusiastically. “This great towering… this monument of drums, was Jimi Hendrix’s drummer!”
“Well, how would you describe him?” a perplexed Clarkson countered. “Well, Jimi was Mitch’s guitarist,” Copeland asserted before exchanging a look of triumph with Mason.
The two drummers have long asserted their respective admiration for Mitch Mitchell, and although they neglected to divulge their “hierarchy,” it would appear Ginger Baker took a snug second place.
“In terms of style and rock drummers I like, it was Mitch Mitchell,” Mason told Music Radar in 2010. “Whether it’s behind the beat or not, it’s so lazy, but it worked perfectly under Jimi and that slightly jazzy thing. There’s no one else like him.”
Elsewhere in the same conversation, Mason also threw flattering light on Mitchell’s Cream counterpart. “Most of my icons are the people that were my heroes when I was kicking off,” he added. “I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for Ginger Baker. When the curtain opened at the Regent Street Polytechnic in 1966, and there was Ginger, Eric and Jack, I thought, that’s what I’d like to be, and that was it.”
The same names cropped up in Copeland’s 2022 interview with Far Out. When asked about Led Zeppelin’s late great drummer John Bonham, the Police beat keeper replied: “I’m more inspired by him now than I was growing up. It was all Ginger Baker and Mitch Mitchell then and Bonham came later. I liked the fact that Ginger used his tomtoms a lot. He was playing more of his drums than the others, as was Mitch Mitchell who was probably the most inspiring out of all of them.”
“It was between him and Buddy Rich,” Copeland added. “Mitch Mitchell just had that electric spark that was just perfect for Jimi Hendrix on guitar. As a frustrated guitarist myself, that was a problem; ‘Who am I?’ ‘Am I the guitarist, drummer or both?’”
