Ted McKenna

Ted McKenna
McKenna performing on 29 November 2009
Background information
Birth name	Edward McKenna
Born	(1950-03-10) 10 March 1950 Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland
Genres	Hard rock, blues-rock, progressive rock, glam rock, heavy metal, rock and roll
Occupations	Musician, educator
Instruments	Drums, percussion, bass, piano
Years active	1966s - present
Associated acts	Rare Breed (1969), Dream Police (1970), Tear Gas (1971), The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - (1972-77), Rory Gallagher (1978-81), Greg Lake& Gary Moore (1981-82), The Michael Schenker Group (1982-84),Womack & Womack(1988), McKenna's Gold(1988),Ian Gillan(1990),The Sensational Party Boys (1992-93),Gwyn Ashton (2004), The Paul Rose Band (2006-11),The Rhumboogie Orchestra (2009), Band of Friends (2011 - Present)

Edward 'Ted' McKenna (born 10 March 1950, Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland), is a Scottish drummer, who has played with bands Tear Gas, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band (1972-77),Rory Gallagher, The Sensational Party Boys,^[1] and The Michael Schenker Group. He also toured with Ian Gillan for a short period in 1975 alongside fellow former SAHB bassist, Chris Glen. He worked as a music performance tutor at North Glasgow College from 1998-2009. McKenna was educated at St Patrick's High School, Coatbridge. His studies included Double bass lessons at school, several piano lessons, and a year under Glasgow big band veteran, Lester Penman. He has worked as a bandmember for several artists, including Rory Gallagher from 1978-1981. He additionally worked as a session musician with Greg Lake & Gary Moore in The Greg Lake Band 1980-81; the Michael Schenker Group in 1981-84; Bugatti & Musker, 1982; Ian Gillan; and a solo album for Nazareth singer Dan McCafferty, in 1975.

Ted also had his own band after his time in MSG called McKenna's Gold in 1988. No recordings or other information can be found on this. What we do know is that Julian Saxby played guitar with him, who was the guitarist to come in after Zal's departure from SAHB in 2007.

In 1992, Ted & Zal Cleminson decided to get together again and they put together an outfit called The Party Boys an idea Ted had in Australia whilst working with Womack and Womack. They had keyboardist Ronnie Leahy from Stone The Crows come in, and invited well known and respected rock singers to come up and do their thing. Singers such as Stevie Doherty, Fish, and Dan McCafferty to name a few. It wasn't before long that the band decided to get reunited with SAHB keyboardist Hugh McKenna and reform as SAHB. This line up included Stevie Doherty from Zero Zero & Peter Goes To Partick on vocal duties, and they released a live album titled 'LIVE IN GLASGOW 93' which is still regarded as one of the best live albums the band did as it shows both their technical abilities, and their 'rockier' spin on the SAHB classics. The band later disbanded in 1995 after a gig with Maggie Bell at The Pavilliaon Theatre in Glasgow.

In 2004, Ted again reformed SAHB with remaining members Zal Cleminson, Hugh McKenna, and Chris Glen, but this time introduced vocalist Max Maxwell, formally of The Shamen, which originally was to be a farewell tour, but with the success they received, the band decided to keep it together and do various other tours and festivals from 2004-2009. Some of the festivals the band performed were:

The Wickerman Festival & The Sweden Rock Festival in 2006

The Tours were:

2004 - Brick By Brick, 2005 - Zalvation, 2006 - Dogs Of War, 2007 - Hail Vibrania

In this time they also released a live album Zalvation (2004/05), which was the band's first official release since Rock Drill in 1977 with Alex. They also performed various tours across the UK, Europe, and Australia, as well as 2 successful sellout christmas shows in 2006 & 2007 at the ABC in their hometown of Glasgow. In 2008, Guitarist Zal Cleminson left the band and retired from performing altogether, and the band continued for a short spell with guitarist Julian Hutson Saxby before disbanding in 2009.

Although primarily known as a rock musician, Ted has also worked with jazz maestro John Etheridge, Juno Award-winning American/Canadian blues guitarist Amos Garrett and American soul duo Womack & Womack as well as Paul Rose, Gwyn Ashton, The Rhumboogie Orchestra, Frank O Hagan, and FISH. Ted is Currently touring with Rory Gallagher bassist Gerry McAvoy and Dutch guitar virtuoso Marcel Scherpenzeel in Band of Friends. A celebration of the music of Rory Gallagher. The band won 'Best Blues Band of 2013' at the European Blues Awards, and will shortly release a CD/DVD titled 'Too Much Is Not Enough'

Instruments

1972 set-up

• Hayman drum kit with 24 inch bass drum

• 35 year old 6 1/2 x 14 inch Premier Dominian snare drum.
• 13 x 9, 14 x 10, 16 x 16 and 18 x 18 inch Hayman tom toms.
• Avedis Zildjian 20 inch crash and 18 inch ride cymbals.
• Hi hats are 15 inch with Avedis Zildjian on top and Paiste on bottom.
• Sticks are C-Specials made by Bradleys of Glasgow.

2013 set-up

• Pearl DLX
• 22"x18" bass drum
• 10"x8" tom
• 12"x9" tom
• 15"x10" tom
• 16"x16" floor tom
• 14"x6.5" Sensitone Elite snare drum

• 4 x long boom cymbal stands.
• Snare Stand - S-2000
• Pearl Hi-Hat Stand - Eliminator - H-2000
• Pearl Drum Pedal - Eliminator - P-2002C

• Sabian Cymbals
• 14” HHX X-Celerator Hats
• 21” AAX Raw Bell Dry Ride 21"
• 20" HHX X-Plosion Crash
• 19” HHX X-Plosion Crash
• 18” HHX X-Treme Crash
• 16” AAX X-Plosion Fast Crash

Drum throne - Rock ’n’ Soc or Gibraltar

References

External links