Circus Drummer

Musician's anecdotes seem to come across as being contrived but I assure you this event actually happened. This story is about a musician / drummer in Toronto by the name of Bruce Philp. I happen to know him personally and I hope he doesn't mind my divulging his name as he has become world famous as a result of this memorable happening.  

Bruce is a fine individual and a gifted professional drummer, highly proficient in an array of musical styles from dance work, theatre  and miscellaneous shows etc. As they say he does it all. He's played in Toronto for many years.

This particular day he was engaged to do the Shrine Circus and Bruce always looked forward to these frequent opportunities. He considered the job a drummer's treat and further more he was good at it. He was one of the best "circus" drummers around.

It takes considerable "chops" to do the drum work required for a circus gig. It takes great dexterity and a "theatrical" imagination. Not only does the drummer (who sits front and center stage to view the acts) play the music with the rest of the band but must on cue or instinct embellish e.g. the high-wire act as the performer is swinging back and forth. His contribution is the "icing" on the cake.You can't write what he has to play.

These musical solos (snare rolls interspersed with occasional loud cymbal crashes) high-light the act's endeavours and add a sense of drama to the performance.The drummer is the mainstay of circus work and the better the drummer the better the show. It's difficult to imagine a Circus performance without the skills of a superb drummer who can ad lib with a sense of flair.

On this special show, Bruce was engaged in reinforcing the performance of a high-wire act. He was following the aerialist as he was swinging back and forth doing his breath-taking routine. Bruce was in the middle of the routine and climaxed the presentation with the traditional cymbal / bass crash to conclude the segment.

However, Bruce didn't notice that the performer had missed the handle bars and had tragically crashed to the ground. (severly injuring himself ) Bruce was so engrossed in the presentation that he hadn't noticed this tragic happening. However, true to his professionalism Bruce had played the poor guy right to the ground not realizing what he had just done.

Well, needless to say, that such a story had spread all over the world.Drummers loved knowing that one of their members was so musically engrossed that he had been an unwitting party to such a serious outcome.

A few months later, Bruce was playing at the Royal York Hotel in the Imperial room with the house band.The Imperial room frequently had international acts that carried their own musicians. (read drummer). Well one day during the week Bruce and the other drummer decided to have coffee and talk about the music business or whatever.

The guest drummer was from New York and started to tell Bruce about a guy (drummer) that once played a circus and played the high-wire act right to the ground without realizing what he had done...cymbal / bass crash and all. Bruce said, "Yes, I heard that story.. that drummer was me."

Web space donated by Encore...The Concert Band www.encoretheconcertband.ca