THE PROG INTERVIEW IAN MOSLEY
When Ian Mosley was a teenager with lofty dreams of becoming a professional drummer, he got the chance to meet Buddy Rich. The legendary irascible sticksman was appearing at the BBC Television Theatre in Shepherd’s Bush. Mosley’s mother worked for the Beeb, and managed to wangle her son into rehearsals.
“After they’d finished rehearsing, I went backstage and knocked on his dressing room door,” says Mosley today. “This voice went [curtly], ‘Yep?’ I thought, ‘I’m really in trouble now’, ’cos he had a reputation of being quite a mean guy. But I said, ‘Mr Rich, my name’s Ian, I just wanted to say hello and ask you some questions.’ And he said, ‘Come in.’ So I sat there and asked him about drumming while he was having a shave. And he was really, really nice. If he’d have said, ‘I think you should give up’, I probably would have.”
Luckily that wasn’t the case, and Rich’s papal blessing stuck with the young Mosley. His subsequent journey took him through such disparate gigs as drummer for infamous late 60s musical Hair to touring drummer for Steve Hackett, before he eventually landed on Planet Marillion in 1984.
“When I joined, I was the oldest member of the band, and supposedly one of the wisest,” he recalls. “None of that was true. Back in the 80s, problems seemed to arise when there wasn’t a problem. And because of the way I was, I was like, ‘Boys, there really isn’t a problem here.’ I think that’s carried on really. But generally we’re all a lot more laid-back these days. If any of us have got a problem, we can chat about it. I mean, I’m working with my mates, and it’s the best job in the world.”
“I’d never heard of Marillion, but because you never know what’s around the corner, I’d always say, ‘Yeah, they’re fantastic.’”
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