Pete York

Born in Redcar, Pete York attended the Nottingham High School and learnt to play the trumpet and snare drum in a school band, he also attended Trent College. Upon leaving school he embarked on a commercial apprenticeship. He was one of the original members of the Spencer Davis Group, along with Spencer Davis and the brothers, Steve and Muff Winwood. York stayed with the band until 1969. He left the Spencer Davis Group to form Hardin and York with Eddie Hardin. Eric Clapton's Powerhouse was a short lived blues band in 1967. It starred Eric Clapton (guitar), and featured Paul Jones (harmonica) and Jack Bruce (bass), Steve Winwood (vocals) with York (drums), and Ben Palmer (piano). In mid 1974 Pete invited Ian Paice (drums) and Lord (organ) to the latest set of Percussion Band rehearsals, and such a good time was had by all that two live performances were organised, with Paice and Lord skipping Deep Purple's Stormbringer writing sessions to take part. The brass and vocals were provided by the group Yipee, with the rest of the band consisting of ex-Spencer Davis Group musicians Charlie McCracken, Ray Fenwick and Pete York. A London show was recorded, and has now been released by Purple Records. In the 80s he fronted an all-star band called Olympic Rock & Blues Circus featuring a rotating line-up of the likes of Jon Lord, Miller Anderson, Tony Ashton, Brian Auger, Zoot Money, Colin Hodgkinson, Chris Farlowe and many others. Olympic Rock & Blues Circus was touring primarily in Germany in 1981/82 and 1989. In February 1987, York started his first series of "Superdrumming" featuring Ian Paice, Louie Bellson, Cozy Powell, Gerry Brown and Simon Phillips. The next year, 1988, the second series of "Superdrumming" featured Billy Cobham, Bill Bruford, Dave Mattacks, Zak Starkey, Nicko McBrain, Jon Lord and Eddie Hardin. The third series of "Superdrumming" featured Jon Hiseman, Steve Ferrone, Mark Brzezicki, Trilok Gurtu and the return of Ian Paice. The band on this series featured Miller Anderson, Colin Hodgkinson, Brian Auger, Jon Lord and Barbara Thompson. In 1989, Brian Auger was musical director for the thirteen-part film retrospective series Villa Fantastica, made for German TV. A live recording of the series, Super Jam (1990), featured Brian Auger on piano, York on drums, Dick Morrissey on tenor saxophone, Roy Williams on trombone, Harvey Weston on bass guitar, plus the singers Zoot Money and Maria Muldaur. In 1990, the fourth series of "Superdrumming" was held in Freiburg, Germany with drummers Ian Paice, Jon Hiseman, Cozy Powell and York. Since 2004, York has teamed up with German multi-talent entertainer Helge Schneider on a regular basis, playing the drums on several of Schneider's recordings as well as accompanying him on tour. York also had a substantial acting part in Schneider's film Jazzclub (IMDB's entry for the film). York participated in the 'Drum Legends' project with Herman Rarebell, where they released a live CD and DVD with the contribution of jazz drummer, Charly Antolini.