What Ever Happened To Pick Withers? (1 Viewer)

[Brian Bunn]

You know...Pick Withers...drummer for Dire Straits on their first two albums..."Dire Straits" and "Communique"? I have always enjoyed those two albums very much and still listen to them regularly today. And I always find myself tuned into the drumming of Pick Withers (as well as Knopfler's smooth guitar playing of course). Then after "Communique" was released in 1979 Pick dropped out of the band. And I can't remember ever hearing from him again. Too bad...he is/was an outstanding drummer. Kind of had a style of drumming all his own.

I remember riding in the back of my parents car on the way to the beach one day...must have been the summer of '79. The radio was on but was turned waaaaaay down because my dad couldn't stand rock music. But he had the radio on just barely loud enough to be heard in the back. A song was playing and I said to my brother "hey, listen...that's Dire Straits." My brother responded "no it's not...how can you tell...I can barely hear anything!" "The drumming", I said, "listen to the drums...that's Pick Withers." My brother still couldn't make it out, so I asked my dad if he could turn the radio up a bit just for a minute. My dad reluctantly agreed saying "alright, but just for a minute". He turned the volume up a bit and sure enough..."Lady Writer" from "Communique" was playing, with Pick Wither's distinctive drumming easily recognizable now. My brother said "hmmmmm...you are right...how did you hear that before...I couldn't hardly hear it at all?" I said "Pick Withers' drumming...I could make out Pick's drumming." "Hmmmmmm", my brother again exclaimed. And ever since then Pick Withers has been one of my all time favorite drummers. But where is he? What happened to him?

Anybody? Does anyone know what ever happened to Pick Withers?

NP: Dire Straits - "Dire Straits"

 

[Brian Bunn]

My mistake...Pick Withers also played on Dire Straits third album "Making Movies", and THEN dropped out of the band, never to be heard from again.

What ever happened to Pick Withers?

NP: Dire Straits - Communique

 

[PaulHeroy]

I love those early Dire Straits albums so I had to look into this a bit. Allmusic Guide doesn't help much, listing mainly his Dire Straits work (which does go through the 4th album, Love Over Gold). Google turned up some interesting hits including a search listing at Barnes & Nobles' website, and a little nicer consolidate listing at the UBL site:
Link Removed
Also very interesting tidbit on Link Removed

Q: Why did Pick Withers leave DS?
A: Pick Withers left Dire Straits in 1982, after the Love Over Gold sessions. He had a desire to play jazz. And it was difficult for him when Mark added more and more keyboards to Dire Straits’ music, making the drums less important then in the beginning. Pick was replaced by Terry Williams, first heard on the Extended Dance Play EP.

Also, I'm a pretty big jazz fan (and having done a jazz radio show for the last 6+ years have gotten to see/hear a lot of recent work) but have never heard of Withers in a jazz context, nor do any of the listings show anything that I recognize as being jazz related.

 

[Brian Bunn]

Paul--Thanks for clearing up just when Pick Withers did leave the band. I didn't realize (or had just forgotten) he also played on the Love Over Gold album. I had all these albums on LP back in the early '80's but only got around to getting the first two on CD...until now. I just replaced the first two Dire Straits albums with the CD remasters and have Making Movies and Love Over Gold coming in soon as well. The sound on the Dire Straits and Communique remastered CD's is excellent, Pick Withers drumming sounding even better.

I guess Pick Withers had his little time in the "limelight" and then decided to leave it forever. A little blip on the musical map...but one of my favorite little blips.