I'm quite loving TC's efforts on the single version of "This Is Pop?", "Science Friction" and "Radios In Motion"... considering the breakneck tempo of the latter two, he nails it perfectly!

Also, "Travels In Nihilon" just gets me EVERY time!

He's just a pleasure to listen to!

sticks, I get the feeling you sorta like the drumming qualities of Mr Chambers Me too

There is only Terry. The rest? Good drummers, of course: technically probably more able than TC, but never members of the band, never the driving force the way that he was. There is, I say again, only Terry. Diamond.

I'm in total agreement with you Bimble. His musical persona on all the albums he played on just shone through, and because of it, they became almost drum-led albums, without it being too "in your face", thanks mostly to the production talents of Messers Lillywhite & Padgham, two of the best producers of what I call "the perfect recorded drum sound".

I, personally, find Chambers' drumming amongst the most innovative and imaginative I've ever heard. His playing on the following tracks almost baffle me:

"Ball And Chain" (mind-blowingly complex and makes it seem otherwise)
"Life Is Good In The Greenhouse" (his playing is beautiful here)
"Knuckle Down" (I like the shuffle hi-hat alternating with the hard snare)
"Cross Wires/X Wires" (Amphetamine Jazz)
"Travels In Nihilion" (goosebumps - the drums alone conjure up primitive man imagery)
"Melt The Guns" (off the charts)
"Homo Safari" (his playing has tripped me out on this song)
"Blame The Weather" (just straight-ahead great drumming)
"Generals & Majors"/"Helicopter" (the guy is the virtual disco-rock-punk god - these songs are virtually lifted by his playing)
"Jason & The Argonauts" (if the song exists in a cauldron - he's stirring it)

I personally don't buy into the notion that the later material would've been to much for him. His style changed from being just a Helium Kid to Go 2 to English Settlement and what he did play on Mummer. I'm sure he would have been at ease playing on The Big Express, Nonsuch and O&L as well as The Dukes and Skylarking (yes, I truly do).

Songs that would've sounded amazing with Terry:

King For A Day, The Mayor Of Simpleton, Human Alchemy, That's Really Super Supergirl, Garden Of Earthly Delights, Season Cycle, Dear God, Great Fire, In Loving Mmeory...,All You Pretty Girls, Train Runing Low, You're The Wish, Shake You Donkey Up, That Wave, Peter Pumpkinhead, and The Disappointed to name a few I'd love to have heard him on.

XTC have been blessed with some great post-Terry drummers (my fave being Dave Mattacks - by a lot) others had to compete/play with needless and pointless drum programming which detracted from their input (Phipps, Mastellotto, Prince) through no fault of their own, mind you. But the drum sounds on Big Express, Skylarking and O&L are not very good ones (IMHO). Possibly because of Andy's misguided/short-sighted insistence on employing that weeks' drum program. If only there was a way to remove all that from my copies of these albums...

P.S. I'm a huge fan of Terry Chambers. I'm not sure I've heard anyone creatively top him yet.

I've been listening to the 2 live CDs from Transistor Blast... and it only cements my view about Terry... the earlier stuff was rock solid, firey and thunderous. The 1980 set is just stunning! Shame the BBC mix tends to make the drums a lot less lively than they were when heard at the gig.

Oh boy - he was something very special!