Mick Underwood

Michael John Underwood (born 5 September 1945) is an English drummer.

He first played drums at the age of 14 and was a professional musician by the time he left school.

Underwood has collaborated with a number of notable musicians and groups, including Jet Harris, The Outlaws (with Ritchie Blackmore), The Herd (with Peter Frampton), Episode Six (with Ian Gillan and Roger Glover), Quatermass (with John Gustafson) and Gillan (again with Gillan).

He is currently the drummer for Mick Underwood's Glory Road.

Underwood was born in Middlesex.

At the age of 14 he was given his first drum, a second-hand snare drum, and added a third-hand bass drum shortly after.

He received drum tuition from Jim Marshall, who went on to become the inventor and manufacturer of the Marshall amplifier.

During this period, Underwood met Ritchie Blackmore (then known as Ricky Blackmore) and the two played together in a band called The Dominators, although Underwood was eventually asked to leave the band for "...playing too loud!"

His next band was The Satellites, until he was invited to join The Crescents, who were playing residencies at large ballrooms.

Underwood left school at 16 to work with Jet Harris, and joined a tour of Britain with Sam Cooke and Little Richard.

It was at the end of this tour that Screaming Lord Sutch (in whose band, The Savages, Blackmore now played) suggested he approach the independent record producer Joe Meek for further session work.

Meek's studio, RGM Sound, was based in North London, where he used a band called The Outlaws as his permanent studio musicians, also allowing them to record material under their own name.

When Underwood arrived to audition for Meek, the Outlaws were also recruiting for a lead guitarist and it was Underwood who suggested Ritchie Blackmore should fill the role, an invitation he duly accepted.

Despite numerous BBC sessions and two singles, commercial success never came for the band and there was a feeling that they were failing to move with the times as the music scene rapidly changed at the close of the 1960s.

Along with Gillan, Underwood was drawn to the heavier sound of the emergent new bands, in particular Deep Purple (Ritchie Blackmore's new band) and Led Zeppelin.

When Blackmore contacted Underwood for a recommendation for a singer, he immediately gave them Gillan's name.

Along with Jon Lord, Blackmore attended an Episode Six gig to listen to Gillan, and shortly afterwards recruited both him and Roger Glover into Deep Purple.

Following this shake-up, bassist/singer John Gustafson and keyboard player Pete Robinson were called in to shore up the band, but shortly afterwards the two newcomers left, along with Underwood, to form their own band Quatermass.

After several showcase gigs, Quatermass were signed by George Martin's Air London company and began to put together their first album, using their own material plus several songs written by Steve Hammond.

Between January 1963 and June 1965, The Outlaws released six singles, as well as playing on hundreds of Meek's recording sessions with various artists.

They also headlined at the Star-Club in Hamburg with both Jerry Lee Lewis and Gene Vincent.

In 1964, they appeared in the movie Live It Up!, performing their single "Law & Order", mislabelled "Law and Disorder" on the end screen credits.

A reviewer of Underwood's work at this time described his drumming style as "...coupling Charlie Watts type steadiness with little Jim McCarty style flourishes."

Blackmore eventually moved to another of Meeks' bands, joining Heinz Burt's backing band The Wild Boys, but he and Underwood still collaborated in recording sessions with Meek's engineer Derek Lawrence.

One of the Derek Lawrence sessions produced Blackmore's first official release, the now highly sought-after single "Get Away" / "Little Brown Jug", released in July 1965.

They also recorded "Earthshaker" and "Satan's Holiday, " which were released on the Titan label, credited to The Lancasters.

Despite their busy schedule and the release of three singles, Underwood grew increasingly frustrated at the band's lack of success, and in 1966 he resigned from the band and the music business.

However, a year later he accepted an invitation from singer James Royal as a session drummer for a two-week residency at Hatchets in London's West End.

At the end of the residency, Underwood decided to stay with the band, the James Royal Set to tour with Johnny Cash.

At the end of this tour, Underwood spoke with Peter Grant, whom he knew from the time that Grant had been tour manager for Gene Vincent when The Outlaws had been his backing band.

Grant explained that he was currently working with guitarist Jimmy Page, and was recruiting musicians to form a new band around him.

Underwood considered the offer, but instead accepted one to join established act Episode Six.

Grant had asked one of his other acts, singer Terry Reid, to join the project, who had also turned down the offer.

Undeterred, Grant went on to recruit two previously unknown musicians, the singer Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham, and the band became Led Zeppelin.

Underwood joined ex-The Authentics frontman Henry Turtle in psychedelic rock outfit The Doves from 1967 to 1968 alongside former The Herd guitarist Terry Clark plus Brian Curtis, Ian McGlynn, and Harvey Hinsley (formerly of The Outlaws and later a member of Hot Chocolate. Underwood departed in July 1968 after EMI declined to release intended single She's Not There, with Decca having done the same with the band's planned debut single, Smokeytime, Springtime, the previous Autumn.

Roger Glover, bass player for Episode Six, said of their new drummer: "Mick represented a step up for us because he had been around in other bands. The Herd had one fairly big hit so it was as if we had been connected with success."

Also in the band was singer Ian Gillan.

"Satan's Holiday" was a fast, rock adaptation of Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King", a tune that stayed in Blackmore's stage repertory right into the 1990s.

Shortly afterwards, Underwood also left The Outlaws to take up an offer to join The Herd.

With The Herd, Underwood began playing at all the major venues on the circuit, such as the Marquee Club and Eel Pie Island.