To many progressive rock fans,Yes, Genesis, andKing Crimsonrepresent the holy trinity of the genre.
Im famous for leaving bands.
More recently, Bruford became famous for leaving music altogether.
Bill Bruford onstage in 1979. After quitting music and selling his drums, Bruford returns with a new jazz combo.Watal Asanuma/Shinko Music/Getty Images
Theres other things I want to do now: write books and be with my grandkids and so forth.
Here, Bruford opens up about what drove his decision to un-retire at age 75.
And we managed to do that.
And then once you tell the public youre in the Top 20, then everythings fine.
What was that like?Really scary.
I think I had a tiny little drum kit in comparison to [Ginger] Baker.
He was this kind of behemoth, and Id always liked him.
I grew up with him as a kid.
I was going to London Jazz clubs when I was 15 or 16.
There was no age limit in these places.
So I thought he was an old man.
I was hugely influenced by him.
And so I suppose it was a bit intimidating playing in the Albert Hall.
That said, we took a lot of the stuff in our stride to tell you the truth.
I dont think Ive dropped a stick since.
What did recording the first Yes album teach you about creating music in a studio?Pretty much everything.
It was kind of frightening.
But I didnt know that until the end of the first record.
So it was pretty horrible kind of experience.
But I was up for learning.
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I was focused on drums and drumming.
Steve brought different instruments with him like the sitar and all these Portuguese things.
It became this revolving door.
Weve met this guy Steve, surely we dont need Pete.
And so Pete was asked to move along.
We replaced Tony because Tony was really strictly an organist.
And we were turning into a little symphony orchestra.
Songs like Starship Trooper and Yours Is No Disgrace onThe Yes Albumwere pretty big steps forward for the band.
Im sure you felt that at the time.Im not sure I remember what I felt at the time.
Every day was going so fast.
Every day I was just thrilled that the band was still there.
And maybe my problem was next, maybe theyre going to get rid of me, I dont know.
But I left before I was pushed probably.
Roundabout became a pretty big radio hit in the States.
That must have taken you guys by surprise.Yeah, it did.
That whole prog thing was kind of weird.
It was really eye-opening for me.
Youve got to find space to breathe.
Atlantic Records in New York had no idea what we were, really.
I think they thought we were a British folk group.
But we had plenty of time in those days to develop.
And luckily, we survived just long enough to get to the States supporting Jethro Tull.
That was pretty good we thought.
And we thought, If we just expand that somehow…
There are all these little instrumental interludes onFragile.
Theres none of that onClose to the Edge.
Its just three songs.
Thats a real statement.The interludes with the little songs [onFragile] were not really voluntary.
It was out of desperation.
We didnt have enough material.
And this has been misconstrued several times.
I said, Look, this is great orchestra here.
Lets each one of us use the musicians to play whatever you want, whatever style.
Were all at your service.
If we do that, well have five tracks.
Unfortunately, I think I was the only guy that did that.
Jon had a track, We Have Heaven, where I think perhaps he used everybody.
Chris Squire had a large bass solo thing.
So it didnt quite work out that way, but it did fill up an album.
We were a bit short of material.
There was no feeling of this make or break or anything like that at all.
And I followed that and was totally keen on that.
But as they say, Im afraid youre talking, really, to a drummer.
From what I read, the band logged some really long days in the studio recordingClose to the Edge.
Do you recall it as a particularly stressful time?Yes.
Remember, we were young and energetic.
I didnt know what was good or what was bad.
Id never been in another band.
Maybe this was really easy work.
Maybe it was really hard work, but I didnt complain.
Looking back now, I see it was all pretty swimmingly great.
There was a two-inch tape going around and around, and we kept adding in edits.
Sometimes we got lucky, sometimes it was really shit.
Its amazing there are that many edits since it sounds so cohesive.Nobody was really guiding it.
Somebody said, Well, this might go well here.
What did you make of Jons lyrics?
Were you ever like, What the hell is a Siberian Khatru?
And both those things are really important to me.Close to the Edgeis a nice phrase.
Close to the Edge/Down by a river, very nice.
I made no suggestions at all.
I never said, What is this about?
I dont have to have the thing be aboutanything.
I dont need that at all.
I like the sound of the word.
So a Siberian Khatru, I dont know what it is, but it sounds okay to me.
Ive read that you guys accidentally threw out some master tapes while making the record.
What happened there?We had to leave the studio around dawn every day.
And I think its on the album too.
Its a great story.
The cleaning lady affected everything.
And I sort of let him know I wanted to be in King Crimson.
Why?Because I couldnt do any more in the band.
Id given as much as I possibly could.
I would simply merely repeat myself, and it wouldnt be as good the next time around.
And I dont have the patience for that kind of thing.
I also dont think its what you pay me to do.
Id rather have fresh guys, fresh material, fresh problems.
So I had just this overwhelming feeling that I really should get out of the way.
He maybe came to the playback of the thing.
So I was happy with that, and I think he was happy with it too.
We spoke to Steve a few months ago,and he said he was devastated when you left.
Do you recall that?Bless him.
Jon felt that way too.
I did as well.
It was difficult to leave such a creative place, but also very frantic, very verbal-ish.
There was a huge amount of arguing and waiting and arguing and then more arguing, more conversation.
And remember, Id only played in one group.
Id seen these people my whole musical career, which was about four or five years.
It turns out that, of course, there was always a tour.
Now that the bands getting famous, theyd gone ahead and booked a whole tour.
I didnt know about that and nobody asked me.
So I said, Well, Im leaving now.
And they said, But weve got a tour coming up in a weeks time.
But I didnt feel any need to apologize.
Was King Crimson a more fulfilling experience for you?It was another fulfilling experience.
Because I dont wait until its horrible.
I know what Ive done.
I know when Ive done my best.
I know when Ive run out of ideas.
He hated every second of it.
Is any part of you happy that you werent on it?No.
No part of me is happy in that sense.
I havent even heard that record.
Im not a follower of bands when Ive left them.
I dont really listen back at all.
It was a double album, I think.
Just four songs though.Wow.
Thats too much for me, probably.
But yeah, Im happy with my choices.
Ive been very fortunate as a musician.
Ive played with lots of guys now.
But in 1972, Id played with about four.
Ive now played with lots of guys and learned a lot of course, cause thats how you learn.
You dont really learn by playing Close to the Edge nightly in stadiums.
How did you feel about the punk movement when it broke out in the late Seventies?
I know it was very polarizing for people of your generation.Well, it came and went pretty much.
We were in the States so much.
We sort of read about it a bit and kind of heard three chords played by the Sex Pistols.
I thought that sounded all right, I didnt mind that at all.
And it certainly didnt seem to affect our sales or financial position in any sense at all.
He stopped doing that in 1974, which was intelligent, I think.
It got so overblown and we looked like turkeys onstage, he said.
Do you see truth in that?Absolutely.
I thought that was brave and exceptionally good.
It was a whole new repertoire of music that could not really be called prog.
What was your experience like in Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe?
It was funny because when we started, I thought I was doing a Jon Anderson solo record actually.
But there at the airport was Rick, Steve, and their manager, Brian Lane.
The making of the record was very easy because the tracks had been already sorted out by Jon.
We didnt have to sit in a rehearsal room and argue about the bass part.
Making the record was easy, and some of it was very fresh.
I had an electronic [drum] set by then sounding quite different.
And there was a little window that opened around the song Birthright where I felt very creative.
However, it was not to be because it was taken over by the suits.
On the tour, you finally had the chance to play Close to the Edge onstage.And it was lovely.
How was the wholeUnionexperience?No good.
Why?Too many people.
Its a kind of Hollywood idea.
It was a mad idea, I think, seven or eight odd people [playing at once].
It was a kind of fantasy that a record executive would dream up.
So it wasnt a great place to be.
So that worked well.
How did you and Alan divide up the drum parts on that tour?Pretty badly, I think.
Mostly, I was on electronic drums and playing percussion to his heavy rock drums.
Occasionally, I think I played maybe Heart of the Sunrise alone, something like that.
One critic I thought put it really well.
It was about right.
Rick told me he calls theUnionalbum Onion because it makes him cry.Thats a good one, yeah.
Did you feel the same way?I havent listened to it.
But youre on the record.Im on the record somewhere in there, but it got computerized to death.
But me, Im an old-fashioned kind of guy.
It was fun, and you could locate everybody, and it was human and it was warm.
There were probably mistakes in there.
First of all, Im not an audiophile.
Im not a collector.
Im not a listener.
Many fans feelClose to the Edgeis the high-water mark off the entire prog era.
It gives me a lot of warm feelings.
I love the record, I think its terrific.
Because theres always something like that going on.
I dont want to play drums on this thing.
But I was happy to attend and lend whatever enthusiasm I could to the event.
But I think that Jon and Steve were getting on very badly.
And to this day, its a very odd relationship between Jon and Steve.
I dont know what happened, but something happened.
But as I say, Im an outsider now.
You didnt give a speech that night.
He gets the ball rolling and about 20 minutes later, people are saying, Wind it up.
I felt actually really bad for Scotland Squire, who had her little daughter.
So I felt bad as Rick went on, but hey, thats rock and roll for you.
You stopped playing drums in 2009.
What happened?Exhaustion and a kind of burnout.
But you wouldnt have noticed it in me particularly.
Its just a depth of tiredness.
Its not to do with yawning or anything like that.
Its just that you could barely pick up the drumsticks and think of what to play.
And you certainly cant think of anything fresh to play.
What causes that is overwork, and what causes that is jazz.
You want to play jazz, its going to hurt.
Theres no money, youre going to do it yourself.
Whatever it is, you lift it, you mail it, you do it yourself.
You rent vans, you book tickets for people who may or may not turn up.
And I am okay for that.
But after 20 years of that with Earthworks, I was tired.
All I knew in that tiredness was that I really wanted to do something else.
And then I was an academic author for about another seven years.
We played with him and after a while, we started to get good.
And pretty soon, one thing leads to another, and youre back doing gigs.
But I should say these are entirely different to playing with Yes.
This is not the same thing.
I have no intention of doing big stadium stuff.
It doesnt really work that way.
I had all sorts of questions for myself.
Can you play that?
Is there anything you could contribute?
My whole gig is, What can you bring to this?
Can you bring anything nice?
Bill, can you bring anything fresh?
I dont want to hang up younger guys if they feel that Im not cutting the mustard.
Did the impulse to sit down at the drum kit again surprise you?Absolutely.
For 12 of the preceding 13 years, I had no idea I was going to do that.
Id sold my drums.
I had to scramble around to find a drum kit.
Obviously, no cymbals, nothing worth talking about here in my house at all.
Its a small house anyway, so I had no idea I was going to do that.
So it was like a bolt of lightning, and an undeniable one too.
Once it goes into your head, youre going to do this, Im quite determined.
So I felt, Yeah, Ill give this a shot again.
This is a more electric thing.
Id rather stay with what I have right now, but well see what happens.
Maybe in a years time, I turn it into something else, I dont know.
I announced them onstage at a big theater in London on their 50th anniversary tour.
But I dont feel emotionally connected to it any longer.
I was emotionally connected at one point, but a lot of water goes under the bridge.
Now, Im just watching some band play this stuff.
And Ill tell you what was quite interesting watching it, musically.
Its kind of a religion youve got to play in time.
But the daylight between the young guys and old guys got lighter as the evening went on.
Are you amazed that a band you started in 1968 is still going?Yeah.
Theres something amazing about that.
Maybe it shouldnt keep going.
Im not a great fan of geriatric rock.
Im not good at that.
I dont see myself as a rock guy.
Ive just reverted to bang out, which was basically a jazz guy.
And the answer remains, No, thanks.
Im not going to do that.
Funnily enough, Jon and I have something in common.
I think weve both returned in a way.
Hes putting new miles under his belt, which I think is great.
And I feel kind of the same way.
Shoot me if Im not.
Ill leave if Im not contributing something to the music.
But Id like to keep doing that and getting better at it and staying as musical as possible.
You get old when you give up drumming.
